There is nothing better than a flaky, buttery melt in your mouth biscuit. They are the perfect vehicles for breakfast sandwiches, a steadfast companion to stews, and bosom buddies to a simple swipe of jam or honey. These biscuits take the classic flavors of pumpkin and maple, and lean them towards a savory direction thanks to salt and chili flakes. I used the Silk Chili from Burlap and Barrel, which adds a balanced warmth, not quite as pungent as cayenne, and a subtle earthy flavor that compliments the pumpkin.
A few key notes about making biscuits. You’ll need to work fast to keep the butter from melting. Having the butter already cubed and waiting in the fridge helps. Some people see success with grating a frozen butter stick. I personally prefer the former, as grating the butter is tedious. The lamination process is what will get you those mile high layers anyhow.
Also keep your buttermilk and pumpkin puree cold. I whisk my puree into the buttermilk and have it waiting in the fridge to stay chilled while I work the butter into the dry ingredients.
This was my first recipe that I developed with the lamination method in mind and I can’t deny the results. It’s absolutely worth the little extra effort for biscuits that tall and airy.
The other tip is using baker’s emulsion instead of pure maple syrup. This ensures that the biscuits don’t have too much liquid. Since emulsion is not made with alcohol, like an extract, the maple flavor stands up to the high temperature of baking. You can absolutely use a tablespoon of pure maple syrup, but you’ll need to decrease the buttermilk by a tablespoon since the syrup behaves as a liquid.
The recipe makes 4 extra large biscuits, perfect for a single meal for four or a 1-2 person household. If you want to make the biscuits smaller, you can roll out the dough to an inch width instead of an inch and a half and that will be enough to make six smaller biscuits.
Pumpkin Maple Chili Biscuits
Equipment
- 1 Pastry Cutter
- 1 Bench Scraper
Ingredients
- 240 g all purpose flour
- 90 g pumpkin puree pure pumpkin, not pie filling
- 110 g buttermilk, cold use whole fat buttermilk
- 150 g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp silk chili flakes can use cayenne, but decrease to 1/4 tsp or less to taste
- 1 tsp maple baker's emulsion
Instructions
- Whisk together pumpkin puree and buttermilk and place in fridge to chill until needed
- Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and chili flakes
- Add in your cold, cubed butter, and using a pasty cutter or your fingers, cut or press the butter into the flour mixture until it's well incorporated. Butter will be tiny pearls and mixture will look sandy. Work quickly so butter does not melt
- Add in cold buttermilk/pumpkin mixture and maple emulsion and mix together until there are no dry unmixed patches of flour. It's best to use a fork here or whisk so the butter bits stay intact.
- Turn out dough onto surface and shape to a 1 inch thick rectangle
- cut dough in half vertically with a bench scraper and stack on top. Press down dough until it's 1.5-2 inches thick
- Working quickly to prevent dough from getting too sticky, repeat this process 4 more times.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in freezer for 15-20 minutes depending on your freezer temp
- Remove dough and place on lightly floured surface. Sprinkle the top with more flour, and roll out your dough to a square about 1.5 inches thick for 4 extra large biscuits, or 1 inch rectangle if making 6 smaller biscuits
- Using the bench scraper, cut the desired amount of biscuits and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper
- Cover in plastic and place baking sheet in freezer for another 15-20 minutes
- While biscuits are chilling, preheat oven to 425 F
- Take biscuits directly from freezer, brush with maple syrup, remove plastic, and bake for 20 minutes until golden on top, turning halfway through
- Remove biscuits from oven and transfer to cooling rack. Brush with more maple syrup if desired, and top with extra chili flakes