All About Flour: A New Series on the Blog + Old Bay Cheddar Biscuits!

     I am super excited to tell you I've been working on recipes for a new 6 week series on my blog all about flour!  Why flour you ask?  Because there are so many different flours out there and many of them are only commonly used for 1 or 2 recipes.  Back in April I opened my pantry and realized I 6 open bags of flour and no idea what to do with them.  Do you ever buy a special type of flour to use in a recipe only to have that same bag in your cupboard 6 months later without knowing what to do with it?

    In this series I will be talking about 9 different kinds of flour.  For each flour I will be sharing a sweet recipe and a savory recipe.  About half of the recipes are things you would traditionally make with the type of flour used but the other recipes are creative uses for these specialty flours.  The lovely people at King Arthur Flour also thought this would be a wonderful series and graciously donated all the flour I needed to make these fabulous recipes.  In addition to providing me with the flour for the recipes, I'll be hosting a giveaway, sponsored by King Arthur Flour, for several bags of there flour at the conclusion of this series.

     Did you know that King Arthur Flour has a Baking Hotline?  Seriously you can call any day with any baking question you might have and they have people standing by to help.  So if you begin making something and it isn't going to plan, give them a call, they've got some great suggestions to get you back on track. 

     The first flour we're looking at is pastry flour.  King Arthur's perfect pastry blend is a combination of extra-soft pastry flour and all purpose flour.  It makes for a more delicate dough.  While this blend is traditionally used for pastry crusts, I'm going to start out with my savory recipe first.

     Pastry flour yields tender baked goods so I immediately thought of a savory biscuit.  This naturally led me to a cheddar biscuit and since this is the kick-off of the series I wanted to make it a biscuit that was personal to me.  While I'm from Pittsburgh, I've been living in Maryland for 11 years now and I only thought it fitting to make an Old Bay Cheddar biscuit.

     These are drop biscuits so they are super easy to make!  The dough was soft and delicate as I was mixing it together and the smell from the Old Bay was making my mouth water.  The biscuits puffed up nicely in the oven and were crispy on the outer edges but soft and fluffy inside, even with the cheddar cheese which traditionally weighs down biscuits.  I loved the difference the pastry blend made in these biscuits and I'll be using it for all my biscuits in the future!

Old Bay Cheddar Biscuits  (a Hezzi-D original)
2 c. King Arthur Perfect Pastry Blend  
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
2 t. Old Bay Seasoning
6 T. cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 c. milk
For brushing on top:
2 T. butter, melted
1 t. Old Bay Seasoning
1 t. parsley

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray it with cooking spray.

2.  In a large bowl combine the Perfect Pastry Blend, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.   Add the cold butter and work it into the dough using your fingers until pea sized crumbs form. 

3.  Add the cheese and garlic cloves and toss with the flour mixture.  Add in the milk and stir until just combined.

4.  Drop by 2 tablespoons onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet, leaving 1-2 inches in between each biscuit.

5.  Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.  Remove from oven.

6.  Add the Old Bay and parsley to the melted butter and mix.  Brush the butter mixture over the hot biscuits and serve warm.

I was given all the bags of flour in this series by King Arthur Flour but the recipes and any opinions are my own.