best biscuits

Home alone and cooking for one. First up- a variation on my favorite biscuit recipe. This is a winner because it's super simple and delicious on its own, but gets even better when you use your imagination. Today I added some finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes and aged cheddar. Next time? Maybe jalapeños and cojita, or a sweet version with orange zest and honey. Anything goes!

1.25 cups self-raising flour (or add about a teaspoon of baking soda to plain flour)

.5 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

.75 cups greek yogurt

dash of salt and pepper

-Preheat the oven to 230 C/450 F. Put a rack in the middle of the oven and let your baking sheet get nice and hot

-Mix the flour, salt, and pepper in a good sized bowl

-Cut in the butter using a pastry blender, fork, or two knives scissor style. The aim is for small "pebbles" of dough

-Stir in the yogurt and whatever additions you're using

-Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, knead for a few minutes until it all comes together. Pat the dough into a rough rectangle, then cut in half and stack one square on top of the other. Repeat this a few times, pat, cut, stack, until you can see nice layers. Cut into six biscuits, and place on the preheated baking sheet, bake for about 15 minutes. 

The only "tricky" thing here is not to cut and stack the dough too many times. Admittedly, I think it's great fun to do this, but one layer too many and those beautiful biscuits will get too ambitious and puffy and topple over. And nobody wants that! We want light, feathery layers that pull apart and welcome a slathering of butter, olive oil, or honey. Enjoy!