Buttermilk Biscuits

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I’ve made many a biscuit in pursuit of the perfect version. Some recipes use self-rising flour, some use yeast, some are treated like a laminated dough to give lots of layers. The yeast versions, while good, take more time and sometimes you just want a biscuit like, now. The greatest thing about a classic biscuit is they can be pulled together and in the oven in a matter of minutes and you know what that means? You’ll be eating them, slathered with butter and maybe some jam in no time at all. Welcome the weekend with the smell of biscuits baking, then eat 2 or 3 ... or maybe 4, who’s counting.

Preheat oven to 500° 

Makes about 9 to 12 biscuits, depending on the size biscuit cutter you use. I used a 2 ¾ cutter and got 9, when I've used 2 ½ I get about 12.

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, use a good one like Kerry Gold or Plugra

1 cup cold buttermilk

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Slice the cold butter and with a pastry cutter, cut butter into the flour mixture. You’re good when you have pieces of butter the size of peas throughout the flour. Add the cold buttermilk and toss together with a fork, just until it comes together into a shaggy clump. Dump the clump of dough out onto a lightly floured board and gently knead. Gently! You just want to it to come together. Pat it out into something like a roundish square and very lightly, like almost no pressure, roll to about a 1 inch thickness. Cut the biscuits out using a well floured cutter. Cut straight down, no twisting. You want these biscuits to rise to their full potential in the oven and if you twist that cutter, it’ll pinch off the dough and keep them from reaching lofty heights. Bake them for about 12 to 14 minutes at 500°. Brush the tops with a little melted butter when they come out of the oven. Then of course more butter, naturally.

Meyer Lemon & Rosemary Shortbread

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Meyer Lemons are possibly the most perfect lemon variety, at least that's my opinion. I use them in everything and am always sad when the last one on my little dwarf tree is gone. Fortunately I have a friend who has a large tree and always too many lemons to use, lucky for me. So what's a person to do with too many (impossible, I say) Meyer Lemons, a handful of fresh picked rosemary and lots of butter? Shortbread. It's maybe one of my favorite cookie varieties, not too sweet, very buttery. The lemony flavor will intensify over time, so don't plan on eating them the day you bake them or you'll miss out on that. These cookies keep really well in an airtight container so ration them out.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 ¼ teaspoons kosher salt

¾ cup confectioners sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tablespoon Meyer lemon zest

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves

Combine flour and salt in a bowl and set aside. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. Once creamed, add the lemon zest and mix until evenly blended, do the same with the rosemary. Add the flour and salt a little at a time. When it's all combined, dump the dough into a buttered 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, pressing it into the pan. Putting some plastic wrap over the dough makes it easier to smooth out. Chill for at least 30 minutes. With the back of a knife, you can lightly score wedges into the chilled dough for easier cutting later, which I totally forgot to do. Bake at 300° for 1 hour.

Mocha Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I had a craving for something REALLY chocolatey, and really why wouldn't I, why wouldn't you? So then I got an idea and started poking around in the kitchen to see what I had on hand. Who wants to make a grocery store run when they want chocolate now, the answer to that is nobody. Lucky me, I like to keep fairly well stocked on the necessities of baking. The result are these, Mocha Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies, they're crisp around the edges, soft and chewy in the center and very chocolatey with a  nice mocha kick, just the way you want it. Let's get to it.

Makes about 3 dozen

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder (You could use regular cocoa powder but then the cookies won't be nearly as dark or as special.)

1 tablespoon instant espresso

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine flour, cocoa powder, instant espresso powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside. Cream butter and both sugars together. Once creamed, add the eggs, beating until well combined then add the vanilla, beat to combine. Add in the flour mixture a little at a time until fully incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is getting well mixed. Mix in the chocolate chips with a rubber spatula, or I suppose you could use your mixer for this too, I just always mix chocolate chips in by hand. For the best results, scoop up cookies (get yourself a nice ice cream/cookie dough scoop, you'll never be sorry you did), and freeze them on a baking sheet before baking. This also works great because you can toss the frozen cookie dough balls in a freezer zip bag and just pop them in your freezer, freshly baked cookies whenever there's a need—lets face it, there's always a need for cookies.

Bake in a pre-heated oven. If you have a convection oven bake them at 325° for 12 minutes. For a regular oven, 350° for about 10 or 11 minutes. You don't want to over bake these. They'll look puffed and a bit under done but take them out and let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack, they'll deflate, leaving nice crisp edges and chewy centers, and who could be upset by that?