Flying Biscuits!

For anyone who has been to Georgia (or parts of Florida, I believe), there are a few restaurants that you have to go to.  Flying biscuit is one of them.  Now I have my favorites at the Flying Biscuit, which may not be the same as others' (black bean cakes!), but I think anyone will agree that at the flying biscuit, you must get a biscuit, and more importantly, you must eat it with the cranberry apple butter.

We found the recipe.  And it's cranberry/apple season.  So of course, we had to recreate the biscuits and apple butter.  This was my first time ever making biscuits.  It's not something that is worth it for one person, in my opinion, but when there are two and you are making apple butter, it makes a nice apple butter delivery mechanism.  Both these biscuits and apple butter are inspired from the flying biscuit, though we 1 1/2ed the apple butter.  Also, I forgot to brush them with half and half and sugar, which I thought was just fine because it's mostly for appearances, which I don't care about unless I'm serving them to guests, and besides, I slathered them in apple butter, it's not like I noticed.

In other news, I'm extraordinarily behind in posts (and I've remembered recently a bunch of things I made last winter that I didn't blog about), so I might have some random posts creeping up soon.

The Flying Biscuit’s Famous Flying Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all purpose flour (a soft winter wheat flour, like White Lily, is best)
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoon plus 1 ½ teaspoon sugar
• 6 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2/3 cup half and half plus more for brushing on top of biscuits
• 1 tablespoon sugar for sprinkling on top of biscuits

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Cut butter into ½ tablespoon-sized-bits and add to the flour. Using your fingertips or a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in all the heavy cream and the half and half.

Stir the dry ingredients into the cream and mix with a wooden spoon until dough just begins to come together into a ball. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 2 or 3 times to form a cohesive mass. Do not overwork the dough.

Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to a 1-inch thickness. The correct thickness is the key to obtaining a stately biscuit.

Dip a 2 ½ inch biscuit cutter in flour, then cut the dough. Repeat until all the dough has been cut. Scraps can be gathered together and re- rolled one more time.

Place the biscuits on the prepared sheet pan, leaving about ¼ inch between them.

Brush the tops of the biscuits with 1 tablespoon of half and half and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Bake for 20 minutes. Biscuits will be lightly browned on top and flaky in the center when done.

Makes 8 to 12 biscuits, depending on the size of the cutter.

The Flying Biscuit Cranberry Apple Butter

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of dark brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 cups cranberries
• 10 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

Place sugar, spices, and orange juice in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a simmer and add the cranberries. Cook over medium heat until cranberries begin to pop.

Add the apples and cook over low heat, stirring frequently. Cook until apples are tender and falling apart. Puree contents of saucepan in a food processor or mash with a potato masher until smooth and thick. Cool and serve with hot biscuits.

Cranberry Apple Butter will keep for 2 to 3 weeks in the refrigerator.