Brown Butter, Brown Sugar, Chocolate Chip Shortcakes.

Slow down. Like... just slow down. 

I don't need to see Halloween candy just yet. I know I've already started my Christmas list, but this is different. 

And maybe I'm already thinking about candy corn dinners (just let it happen), cut-out sugar cookies, and gingerbread cakes, but why are you all seriously baking with pumpkin already? P.S. It's August and I'm still eating kettlecorn for dinner, looking for pools to jump into, and baking with fresh summer fruit. 

Or, you know. Sandwiching it between chocolate chip shortcakes. Which is totally the same thing and you know it. 

This is the kind of girlfriend I am. Can I tell you? 

Strawberry shortcakes are kind of our thing. Kind of like cheesecake is our thing... except yeah, we'll definitely bring strawberries and whipped cream and those round, sponge-y yellow shortcakes to the drive-in and on picnics and on long-distance road trips. We'll do that. No problem. We know how to shortcake it up. 

So I made these homemade shortcakes because it's still August and I refuse to bake with pumpkin, full of brown butter, chocolate chips, and loads of brown sugar. 

They looked like pancakes. 

Then they turned into crumbly, soft, for real shortcakes. 

Which are basically just giant biscuits for berries. 

... and maybe I baked them a minute too long because I was busy swirling Oreo cheesecake tuffles into cookie dough at the same time. Totally a normal day.

Then I piled on whipped cream and big slices of strawberries to make up for it and ended up with this fancy shortcake situation. 

Which he devoured in two bites and declared "hella breakfast-y" before wandering off in search of Oreo truffle chocolate chip cookies. 

And that's our relationship. 

So in case you weren't aware: strawberry shortcakes are officially a breakfast thing. Put that in your summer and seriously, on our friendship, put down the pumpkin.

Brown Butter, Brown Sugar, Chocolate Chip Shortcakes

Printable Recipe 

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, browned

1/4 cup brown sugar + 1 tablespoon for sprinkling

2/3 cup milk

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Sliced strawberries & whipped cream 

Brown butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. (Click here for a post on browning butter.) Pour into a separate bowl and allow to cool slightly. 

Preheat oven to 425°F. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Whisk brown sugar into slightly cooled browned butter. Add mixture to the bowl with flour and whisk until just combined. Add the milk, a little at a time, and continue whisking until a smooth dough begins to form. Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop by the spoonful onto a baking sheet lined with parchment, form into a round shape, and sprinkle with a little brown sugar. Bake for 12 minutes. 

Allow to cool completely, then slice and layer with sliced strawberries and whipped cream. 

Makes 6 shortcakes.

Source: Baking Serendipity.

Buttons & Bowknots (Baked Sugar & Spice Doughnuts).

Last Christmas I posted this super easy recipe for Christmas morning deliciousness. Like... just the recipe. But now I've actually made it! And even though it's only August, this needs to be a part of your life.  

I made these sugary biscuits for dinner last Saturday night. That's real life... and that's why the photos are kind of washed out and dungeon-y, because in between shoving piping hot sugar doughnuts in my face, I was running around trying to figure out where all the sunlight is after 7 PM.

The other side of the world, that's where.

But it's okay. Bisquick. Cinnamon. Nutmeg. We're doing this.

Buttons and bows is fancy-talk for soft, baked cinnamon spice doughnuts, twisted into classy-looking figure-eights, baked until golden brown, then immediately rolled in melted butter and sugar and served warm.

They're soft, cakey, melt-in-your-mouth, and dangerously addictive. Like... I would choose one of these over a doughnut shop doughnut anyday addictive. No questions. Even over buttermilk bars and apple fritters and fat cake doughtnuts with pink frosting and sprinkles.

Christmas mornings, birthday mornings, eighth-grade sleepovers, graduations... these sugar doughnuts have always been my family's go-to recipe for awesome and have done their part in making these mornings just a little bit more special for us. They're simple to make (who doesn't have Bisquick and cinnamon always lying around, waiting to be made delicious?), look super fancy, and come together in about ten minutes. Mix, roll, cut, bake, roll in sugar, DEVOUR, repeat. 

P.S. The best part? Doughnut holes. Bite-size sugarbombs for your face.  

Make them, okay? 

After all, there's no way starting off the day licking melted butter and hot sugar off your fingertips can be a bad thing.

Buttons & Bowknots (Baked Sugar & Spice Doughnuts) 

Printable Recipe

2 cups buttermilk baking mix (Bisquick)

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup granulated sugar, for rolling doughnuts in

Preheat oven to 400°F. 

In a medium bowl, mix together Bisquick, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, milk, and egg until soft dough forms. 

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Roll dough into a ball and knead five times. Roll 1/2-inch thick and cut with floured doughnut cutter.

To make bows, hold opposite sides of each ring with fingers and twist to form figure-eights.

Place doughnut holes (buttons) and bows on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until done and just starting to turn golden brown. 

Immediately after baking, dip each button and bow into melted butter, then roll in sugar (be careful not to burn your fingers!). Serve warm. 

Makes about 12 buttons & bows.  

Source: Betty Crocker's Cookbook, 1974. 

Fat, Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits.

I have very important news.

I made biscuits. 

I know, where's the chocolate? Do you dip them in cheesecake? Is there secretly a s'more baked inside?

Yes.

... no! Did you really think I'd do that? Goodness. 

So... yeah. These are just biscuits. Nothing to see here. Just plain, boring, fat, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth, super fluffy buttermilk biscuits. 

You know... the kind of biscuits that you can peel apart layer by soft, thin, buttery layer.

The kind of biscuits worth sneaking out of bed at 2 AM for.

Which I did not do/I totally did this.

We're talking the kind of biscuits that don't even need a pat of melted butter, a drizzle of honey, or a heaping spoonful of raspberry jam.

But obviously... do this.

Unless you're slicing them in half and piling them up with scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and melted cheddar cheese. Or rolling them in cinnamon and sugar and baking them on top of a delicious fruit cobbler. All of these are ideas that I can get behind.

Whatever you do with them... make them happen. And they're super easy to throw together... which, you know, will give you plenty of time to throw flour all over the place and make words and doodly hearts in it. Because that's totally what adults do. 

=

Fat, Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

Printable Recipe

4 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1 1/2 cups cold buttermilk

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons butter, melted, for brushing over biscuits 

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Scatter the cubes of cold butter over the top of the flour mixture; cut in and mix using a pastry cutter or fork until the mixture resembles coarse meal. 

Add the buttermilk and continue to mix using fork or pastry cutter until mixture just begins to come together.

Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured counter and pat the dough into a 10 by 12-inch rectangle about 3/4-inch thick. Use a 3-inch round biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits and place them on a lightly greased baking sheet about 2 inches apart. 

Brush the tops of the biscuits with heavy cream. 

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush tops with melted butter. Serve warm and enjoy!

Makes 12-15 biscuits. 

Source: Barely adapted from Bobby Flay. 

Cinnamon Pinwheels with Maple-Coffee Icing.

Fun fact: I don't really like cinnamon rolls. Don't even get me started on sticky buns. Nuts in my pastries? That's almost as bad as nuts in my cookies.

But if I could only eat one thing for breakfast for the rest of my life, it would be these.

Unless eating peanut butter straight out of the jar counts as breakfast. And I totally think it should.

Either way, cinnamon pinwheels are one of my most favorite things to make for special occasions.

Like Easter. Or Tuesdays. Or (once) for dinner.

They're quick to put together, there's no yeast or waiting around for dough to rise, and in about fifteen minutes, you can have a piping hot pan of buttery, tender, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits bursting with rich swirls of brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter, with a crunchy layer of cinnamon and brown sugar baked right onto the bottom.

But they need something else, don't you think?

That's what I thought.

I've eaten entire batches made these at least twenty-seven times and I've never once thought of putting an icing on top. Adding more sugar to something so good just seemed kind of wrong. 

Pfft. It was the best decision I've ever made. 

And this isn't just any icing... it's an over-the-top, change-your-life sort of icing. Maple-coffee icing, the same one used on Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls (which I still need to make), and it tastes exactly like the glaze on a maple bar doughnut.

Please make them. And if nothing else... make this icing. Pour it on your eggs. Drizzle it on your pancakes. Stir it into your coffee. Make a smoothie or lick it off a spoon. You won't regret it.

Cinnamon Pinwheels with Maple-Coffee Icing

Printable Recipe

Pinwheels
2 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Maple-Coffee Icing
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
A pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
1 tablespoon strongly brewed coffee

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a muffin sheet with non-stick cooking spray or line with paper liners and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

Mix Bisquick and milk together with a wooden spoon until dough comes together, then turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 3-4 minutes.

Roll dough into a large rectangle, 1/4-inch thick, and brush with melted butter. Sprinkle about 3/4 cup of the brown sugar mixture over the dough; sprinkle the remaining brown sugar mixture in the bottom of each muffin cup well.

Roll dough, jelly roll fashion, tucking in the ends so that the brown sugar stays inside; slice into 12 biscuits. Place cut-side down in muffin cups on top of the brown sugar. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Turn out of the pan onto waxed paper immediately.

For the icing, mix together all the ingredients with a whisk until icing comes together. It should be thick, but too thick to pour. Depending on the consistency you want, you may want to add a tablespoon more or less of powdered sugar. Drizzle over the cinnamon rolls and serve warm.

Makes 12 pinwheels.

Source: Cinnamon Pinwheels from The Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Cooking. Maple-Coffee Icing from The Pioneer Woman.

Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits.

Two words: Make these.

If you've ever been to Red Lobster, you know exactly what I'm talking about: their endless supply of baskets full of piping hot, bursting-with-cheddar-cheese biscuits. They're soft, they melt in your mouth, they're brushed with melted butter and garlic... and they're addicting. 

Cheddar bay biscuits. They're world famous. They even have their own Facebook page.

In what world does a biscuit have a Facebook page? 

Our family's been using this recipe for years and they taste almost the same as the ones from the restaurant. They couldn't be any easier to make. Enjoy!

Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits

Printable Recipe

Biscuits
2 1/2 cups Bisquick baking mix
3/4 cup cold whole milk
4 tablespoons cold butter
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 heaping cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

For brushing on top...
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
A pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or fork. You don't want to mix it too thoroughly... just until there are small chunks of butter about the size of peas.

Add cheddar cheese, milk, and 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder. Mix by hand until combined, without over-mixing.

Drop dough in approximately 1/4 cup mounds onto an ungreased baking sheet. An ice cream scoop works best. They don't have to be perfect!

Bake for 15-17 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.

When you take the biscuits out of the oven, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter and stir in the 1/4 teaspoon of parsley flakes, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, and pinch of salt. Brush over the tops of the warm biscuits, using up all of the butter. 

See? Imperfection. Makes about a dozen biscuits.

Source: Unknown.