Cooking with Mother Goose: Lavender Buttermilk Biscuits

One of the first books that Olivia loved was a tiny book of nursery rhymes.  Gabe and I read it to her many, many times.  She would clutch that book and carry it with her around the house.  She couldn't read, but she would recognize which pictures went with which poems and would recite them from memory.  She wore that book out.

I love children's rhymes for their musical quality, their poetry, and their vocabulary.  I recently have been captivated, too, by Natalie Merchant's new CD, Leave Your Sleep.  She gathered beautiful children's poems and set them to music.  The collection is magical, and I hope to be able to find additional works by the poets whose work she features.  The liner notes alone are worth the price of the CD.

Aside from all the high-mindedness of the poetry, there is something much more elemental about children's rhymes that also speaks to me.  It's the food thing.  Have you ever noticed how many nursery rhymes feature food?  Little Miss Muffett, Little Jack Horner, Four and Twenty Black Birds, the list goes on and on.  I wonder whether it is because food was more of a struggle to obtain when these rhymes came into being.  Or maybe it is the universal appeal of delicacies to children. 

On a long drive a few months ago, the children helped me brainstorm an extensive list of nursery rhymes and stories that spotlight food, and for a while now, I have had the idea of developing recipes with those foods.  This recipe, then, is the first in a series of occasional posts inspired by children's stories and rhymes.  It's just one more way for me to hook children into the kitchen.

I had promised you a recipe to use up the buttermilk that remains after you have turned a pint of cream into butter, and this is it. It is from one of Clara Beaton's nursery rhyme books, which Chloe loves almost as much as I do.  We have Playtime Rhymes for Little People and Mother Goose Remembers which feature well-loved Mother Goose rhymes as well as many lesser known poems.  The illustrations are fantastic renderings of hand sewn characters that bring the poems to life.  One of our favorites from Mother Goose Remembers is this one:

A Wasted Journey
Hie to the market, Jenny went trot
Spilled her buttermilk every drop
Every drop and every dram
Jenny came home with an empty can.

These lavender biscuits are quick to mix up and bake, and would be delicious with eggs, but my favorite way to eat them is with butter and a generous drizzle of honey.  The combination of the lavender and honey give the biscuits a delicate floral flavor that would be fantastic with Mother's Day brunch.  Or any other day's brunch.  Or breakfast.  Or dinner for that matter.

And if you happen to have some honey made by friends that keep their own bees, and they were kind enough to share some of that liquid gold with you, this is the time to use it.

Second Helping:  Candied Ginger Scones

Lavender Buttermilk Biscuits

You may want to double this recipe because although a dozen biscuits seems like it should be enough, when we just made one dozen, we were all craving more.  And if you have extras, you can always give them away or save them for another day.  Warm them before serving, though, so that the butter and honey will melt onto them.

Makes 1 dozen biscuits
20 minutes preparation time
10-12 minutes baking time

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt (when we used the buttermilk from making salted butter 1/4 teaspoon was enough)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon dried edible lavender
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
3/4 cup buttermilk
butter and honey for serving, optional

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.  Mix in the butter with your hands, squeezing it between your fingers so that it incorporates into the flour until it is the texture of coarse cornmeal.  The more hands that help, the quicker this will go.  Slowly stir in the buttermilk a bit at a time, using just enough to get the mixture to hold together.  You may need a splash more or less than the measured amount. 

Knead the dough for about a minute.  Pat it out on the counter until it is about 3/4 of an inch thick.  Using a cookie cutter or the top of a jar, cut the dough into approximately 2-inch rounds.  Bake for about 10 minutes, just until the biscuits turn a pale gold color.

Serve immediately.  Split open and smear with some of that homemade butter and a drizzle of honey.

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Comments

[Niki Koehler]

My happiest memories with my children are of us reading together every evening. We loved reading nursery rhymes. Your marriage of nursery rhymes and cooking is magical. Thank you for sharing. This recipe sounds delicious. I can't wait to try it.

Sincerely,
Niki