Looking to pair your baking with summer stone fruit season? Erika Council, the owner and chef behind Bomb Biscuit Company in Atlanta, Georgia, offers some heady inspiration in her new cookbook, which was released last month, “Still We Rise: A Love Letter to the Southern Biscuit with Over 70 Sweet and Savory Recipes.”
This recipe for Honey Roasted Peach Biscuits, she says, is inspired by her Aunt Rene, a larger-than-life relative whose shiny brooches, pet Chihuahua and Sunday gossip left a lasting impression. One of her aunt’s most delightful desserts was a hybrid confection that blended the textures and flavors of shortcake, biscuit and cake, filled with fruit and topped with whipped cream.
“Here, I’ve invoked the spirit of my Aunt Rene’s fruit-filled shortcake with a basic cream biscuit folded over roasted peaches flavored with honey and a little bit of cardamom,” Council writes. “This is one of the simplest ways to make biscuits from scratch; you can skip the peaches and use any fruit to transform it into an incredible variety of shortcake-style biscuits. Add a dollop of whipped cream, if you’re feeling fancy.”
Honey Roasted Peach Biscuits
Makes 12 to 14 biscuits
INGREDIENTS
8 peaches (about 2 pounds), peeled and chopped
1½ teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
3 cups self-rising flour, plus extra for folding and cutting
2¼ cups plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream, cold
“Still We Rise” is a cookbook that celebrates the southern biscuit by the chef and baker behind Atlanta’s Bomb Biscuit Co., Erika Council. (Courtesy Clarkson Potter.)
1 large egg
2 to 3 tablespoons turbinado sugar
DIRECTIONS
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Place the peaches in a large bowl and toss well with the lemon juice. Add the honey, brown sugar and cardamom and toss to combine. Transfer the peach mixture to a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast until the peaches are tender, 25 to 30 minutes, turning them over halfway through roasting. Let cool completely.
Increase the oven temperature to 450 degrees.
Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Add 2¼ cups of the heavy cream and stir gently with a spatula until the dough forms into a ball and no dry bits of flour are visible. The dough will be shaggy and sticky.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and lightly dust with flour. With floured hands, pat the dough into a 1/2-inch-thick 11- by 6-inch rectangle. Fold the ends of the rectangle toward the center, one end on top of the other, to create a trifold. Dust the top lightly with flour and pat out again to a 1/4-inch-thick, 20- to 22-inch-long rectangle.
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Using a slotted spoon, spoon the cooled peaches over half the length of the rectangle. Fold the other half of the dough over the top of the peaches. Pinch all around to seal the peaches in the dough. Using a knife or bench scraper, cut straight down to create 12 to 14 biscuits. Gently place the biscuits 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Whisk the egg and the remaining tablespoon of heavy cream in a small bowl. Gently brush the tops of each biscuit with the egg wash. Sprinkle the tops with the turbinado sugar.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until the tops are golden brown. Serve warm.
— From “Still We Rise: A Love Letter to the Southern Biscuit with Over 70 Sweet and Savory Recipes,” by Erika Council. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC, $26.
