Best Tip Ever: Butter + Cheese Grater

One of the primary focuses of my 101 class is to teach me the basic techniques used in baking.  Most people think that you can learn to cook by simply following recipes.  While you'll probably produce a good product, you may never stray from the recipe card.  Having techniques in your back pocket equips you with endless possibilities.    It's like the old adage, give a man a fish and he eats for one day; teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime.  I don't know about you, but I love to eat so I've been starving to learn techniques.

Last week I learned the creaming method.  Most of us have done it when making cookies and never realized it had a name.  When using this method, you always want your fat (i.e. butter or shortening) room temperature.   On Tuesday, Chef introduced the biscuit method.   The name kind of gives it away, but it is also the same technique used to make pie doughs and scones.   When using the biscuit method, you always want your fat to be cold.  This is what creates flaky biscuits and pie doughs.  I won't get into the science of why it's important; just know that if your butter is warm it won't mix properly and will adversely affect your baked product.   

Now, here's where I felt this week I got my tuition's worth in just this one tip.  Most often when using a biscuit method, food shows or cookbooks say to use a food processor, pastry cutter, knives/fork, or your hands to "cut" the butter into the flour until it is the size of peas or hazelnuts.  During demo, the Chef pulled out a cheese grater and began grating her butter like it was a block of white cheddar cheese.  It took her all of 30 seconds to have her butter in uniform pieces.  She dumped it into her dry ingredients and began to toss the butter into  until they were coated and pea sized.  She then added her wet ingredients and WHA-LAH,  she whipped together the biscuits in less than 5 minutes.   She didn't have to worry about crazy-sized butter chunks, cramping hands, or having to lug out the food processor.  

I was amazed at her spin on this technique and couldn't hold this little golden nugget to myself.  Next time you find yourself with a recipe card that calls for cutting your butter into flour, try this variation of the biscuit method.   If you do, let me know what you think.  I'm curious to know if there is anyone else that has ever seen this before or is a new fan!   


Need a recipe to try out the new technique?  Check out the Jalapenos Cheddar Biscuit I learned to make in class!  

Jalapeno Cheddar Biscuits

Makes approximately 9 biscuits

20 oz      All purpose flour (or 10 oz Bread Flour + 10 oz Pastry Flour)

1 tsp       Salt

1 tsp       Baking Powder

1/2 tsp   Baking Soda

1 oz         Sugar

7 oz         Butter

6 oz         Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese

1 oz         Chopped & seeded fresh jalapenos

13 oz       Buttermilk  (*if you don't have buttermilk, use reg milk, but add 1 tsp lemon juice)

Mixing:  Biscuit Method**

Scaling:  Use 2" biscuit cutters

Baking:  400 degrees for 15-20 (or until centers are done)

**  Whisk together first 6 ingredients in a bowl.  (You can try and use all-purpose flour in place of pastry flour or both.)  Shred butter using cheese grater.  Add butter to dry ingredients and using your hands, toss until butter is coated with flour and butter resembles size of peas.  Mix in cheese and jalapeno.  Make a well in the center of bowl and slowly add in buttermilk.  Mix together using hands until a soft dough is formed.   Do not over mix.  

Place dough onto plastic wrap and chill at least 30 minutes.  Once chilled, unwrap and press out dough to about 1" thick and begin folding it in half.  Rotate 90 degrees and fold in half again.  Do this 5-6 times.  This step will create layers once the biscuit is baked.  

Use 2" biscuit cutters, making sure not to twist the biscuit cutter.   Twisting squishes the layers and flattens the biscuit.  Take scraps and press dough together and cut additional biscuits.