Chocolate Biscuits?

[Tombo]

Hey all,

I absolutely adore buttermilk biscuits. I started making them this year while living in the Czech Republic. This is my usual recipe: How To Make Classic Buttermilk Biscuits — Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn | The Kitchn

I am going to be making some this weekend.

On Saturday I am going to make a sausage, cheese and biscuit recipe: Sausage, egg and biscuits casserole Recipe from kenzipooch | MyRecipes.com. I love this recipe.

I also like to make sweet biscuits and I usually make half of my batch sweet and half savoury.

One thing I was thinking of trying was chocolate biscuits (i.e. with cocoa powder added in the mix) How would these come out? Would they be tasty? I think they would go great with chocolate spread/peanut butter.

Has anyone tried this?

By the way, I am from the UK

 

[Aunt Bea]

Sounds good to me!

Take a look at this recipe and adapt it to your standard recipe for buttermilk biscuits.

Chocolate Scones Recipe & Video - Joyofbaking.com *Video Recipe*

 

[Tombo]

Sounds good to me!

Take a look at this recipe and adapt it to your standard recipe for buttermilk biscuits.

Chocolate Scones Recipe & Video - Joyofbaking.com *Video Recipe*

Thanks, I shall try that this weekend

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Cakes and biscuits are actually closely related. Chocolate biscuits would taste good. Just be sure to taste the batter first, to make sure there is a proper ballance of cocoa and sugar. Also, sue dutched chocolate, as it has had the acides removed from the cocoa. If the cocoa powder is not dutched, you will have to add a little more baking soda to the recipe to balance the acid and alkali componants to keep you biscuits light and fluffy.

Good luck.

Seeeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Tombo]

Cakes and biscuits are actually closely related. Chocolate biscuits would taste good. Just be sure to taste the batter first, to make sure there is a proper ballance of cocoa and sugar. Also, sue dutched chocolate, as it has had the acides removed from the cocoa. If the cocoa powder is not dutched, you will have to add a little more baking soda to the recipe to balance the acid and alkali componants to keep you biscuits light and fluffy.

Good luck.

Seeeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

Thanks, I would have had no idea about balancing the acid and alkali otherwise

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

I ran across this Chocolate Lover's Strawberry Shortcake recipe this very morning in Taste of Home magazine. It's a bit different, so check it out and see what you think.

 

[Tombo]

Thanks everyone, they came out tasting delicious.

One thing I noticed though is that the savoury biscuits I made raised more than the sweet ones and chocolate ones.

The batter was slightly wetter for the latter 2 so I think this could be why. All of them ended up needing more liquid than the recipe I had but I ran out of buttermilk so just added milk with lemon juice to the latter 2 and I think I may have overdone it slightly.

The taste of them was really good though.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Thanks everyone, they came out tasting delicious.

One thing I noticed though is that the savoury biscuits I made raised more than the sweet ones and chocolate ones.

The batter was slightly wetter for the latter 2 so I think this could be why. All of them ended up needing more liquid than the recipe I had but I ran out of buttermilk so just added milk with lemon juice to the latter 2 and I think I may have overdone it slightly.

The taste of them was really good though.

Congrats.. Now you tweak the recipe to get the loft in your biscuits just right. One way you could tweak them is to replace the buttermilk with plain milk, and use two tsp. double acting baking powder instead of baking soda. This will any sour component of flavor from the end product.

The other advantage of using the double acting baking powder is that the dough will begin to rise as soon as the liquid is added, just like with the buttermilk and baking soda. But then, there is another reaction that takes place when the dough (or batter) is heated, which results in greater leavening action.

Do you make drop biscuits, or rolled and cut biscuits? I believe that by rolling out the dough, you develop the gluten a little more, which will capture more of the CO2 created by the chemical reaction between the alkali baking soda, or the alkali component of baking powder), and the acid (buttermilk, or the acid component of baking powder). The result again, lighter biscuits.

You have to be careful to not overwork the dough, or the end result will become tough and chewy instead if tender and fluffy. Tough and chewy is for baguettes and breads like those you would dip in soups or au jus. I don't think dipping a chocolate biscuit in chicken soup would be very good.

So there are a couple more ideas to think about. One day you will achieve biscuit Nirvana. Good luck on your continuing experiments.

Seeeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North