Sourdough Biscuits

 
I'm still using my sourdough starter, feeding it and discarding the excess on a daily basis.  I have managed to dry some of the discard starter as shards which I have stored in the dark recesses of my kitchen cupboard ready to reconstitute and I have made sourdough crumbs as well, again waiting in a jar in my cupboard ready to be reconstituted at a future date.  We will see how that goes!
 
At this time when there is such a shortage of flour and new flour is hard to come by I cannot bring myself to actually discard any of the starter, not into the bin, or the compost pile, or down the drain.   It seems like such a waste, so I have been religiously researching ways that I can use it besides pancakes and brownies.
 
I was looking on Pinterest for Biscuits that I could make.  Many of them looking spurious at best, like they had stolen someone else's photos and were representing them as their own, or they were misleading and used sour cream not sourdough discard. (I keep my sour dough discard in the refrigerator in a jar, and stir it every day.)
 
The most promising recipe I found that looked like it would work fine was this one for Easy Sourdough Biscuits on a site called Pinch My Salt.
 
I am very careful in picking any baking recipes at this time, relying mainly on tried and trues.  I really don't want to be experimenting with a precious commodity such as flour. It would kill me to waste it even more than it would to waste the starter!
  
As you can see these turned out wonderfully!  I was really pleased with them.  We enjoyed a couple right out of the oven with some butter and jam because we couldn't resist!
 
They rose beautifully and I can see where with a few additions you would be able to make savoury biscuits, such as adding some grated cheese and chopped chives.  (I hope my chives I planted grow!)
 
The others we enjoyed with some roast beef hash and baked beans. Nothing is being wasted in this house nowadays.  I have learned my lesson. I have never been truly wasteful anyways, but I understand even more now why my mother made every scrap count.
 
It was a bit of luxury skirting some cold butter over the tops of these when they came out of the oven . . . I know  . . .
 
But it was a beautiful touch and we both enjoyed the extra butteriness of this small indulgence. 
  
We need small indulgences now more than ever n'est ce pas???
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Sourdough Biscuits

Yield: Makes 8
Author: Marie RaynerSomething delicious to do with the discard from your sour dough starter.

Ingredients:

• 140g plain flour (1 cup)
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 6 TBS cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 250g cold from the fridge, sour dough starter
• a knob of cold butter to glaze the hot biscuits

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Have ready a baking tray large enough to hold your biscuits.
2. Whisk the flour together with the soda, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Drop in the butter. Cut it into the flour mixture, using a pastry blender or two round bladed knives until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs with a few bits the size of baby peas. Add the sourdough starter and mix it in wih a fork until most of the flour has been incorporated. Knead gently in the bowl a few times until it all comes together.
3. Lightly flour your clean countertop. Tip the dough onto the counter and then lightly pat out to a circle about 3/4 inch thick.
4. Using a sharp 2 1/2 inch round cutter, stamp out rounds, using a straight up and down motion. (If you twist your biscuits will lean.) Gather together any scraps, repat and cut until you have run out of dough. (Try to get as many cuts from the first cutting as possible as your repats will no be as pretty or straight sided when baked.) Place them onto the baking sheet. Leave plenty of space around them for crisp sided biscuits or place them close together for soft biscuits.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes until well risen and golden brown.  Note that if they are placed close together they will take longer to bake.
6. Run the cold butter over top of the hot biscuits to finish and serve immediately.  Delicious!

Notes:

Any leftover biscuits can be stored in an airtight container and reheated briefly in a hot oven. You can also freeze these for later if you wish, thawing completely and then reheating briefly in a hot oven.

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These were delicious even a few days later.  True confession.  With there only being two of us we could not eat 8 biscuits on the day, so we had four on that day, two with jam and two with our dinner, and then the other four got eaten in the following two days, reheated as above.  Truly yummy yummy! 

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