Cream Cheese and Chive Biscuits and Easter!

Wow! Easter came and was over in a flash! What a great weekend it was though...filled with great food, friends, kids and wine. Any time I have an excuse to invite people I love being with over and serve great food I'm all over it. This year I made my entire dinner from scratch...not a single box or can allowed in my kitchen. Sunday afternoon as I was surrounded by my beloved family we feasted on turkey, stuffing, au gratin potatoes, baked beans, cream cheese chive biscuits, artichoke dip with sourdough bread and for dessert lemon bars and almond bars. Oh, I don't think I could move after about 3pm I was so stuffed. When it was bed time, the kids were sitting on my lap as I read them stories and I thought I was going to explode, but it was all worth it to enjoy the company around me and watch them enjoy the food I spent two full days preparing.




I made everything I could Saturday so that come Sunday I wouldn't be too stressed out...and as I was elbow deep in biscuit dough I looked at Peanut and said "oh, sweetie, are you ready for a nappy?" And her tired little eyes looked at me and she said "yeah, night night mommy" and she laid her little head down on the counter and went to sleep! This is the first time I can remember that she went to sleep herself without rocking her. I think all the goings on in the kitchen must have worn her out!

I'm going to post the cream cheese and chive biscuit recipe because they turned out stellar! But, the recipe as it was written on another blog didn't work for me exactly...I ended up adding about 1 1/2 cups additional flour than what was called for, and since I spent $4 on chives at the grocery store because I don't have a garden yet I was not about to scrap the project. I don't know if it was just me or not but I had one very sticky mess on my hands for a while. After adding so much additional flour that required a lot of additional stirring (recipe had said to only mix until combined) I was worried I'd end up with rocks for biscuits...but to my delight they were soft and tender!

Cream Cheese and Chive Biscuits (Martha Stewart)

• 3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour (original recipe called for 2 1/2)
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
• 4 ounces cream cheese, cold, cut into small pieces
• 1 1/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar and chives. Cut butter and cream cheese into pats and blend with a pastry blender or fork until mix resembles coarse crumbs but still with a few bigger clumps remaining.

Pour in buttermilk and combine with a fork until just incorporated. Dough should be slightly sticky. Do not overmix.

Put dough on a lightly floured work surface. Gently knead a few times until all crumbs are incorporated and roll with a rolling pin into roughly a 8x11 inch rectangle and 1" thick. Fold dough into thirds like you would a letter and roll dough out again and fold into thirds. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Put dough back onto floured work surface and repeat the rolling and folding process two more times. (By the way, this helps create a layers in the biscuits...kind of like the Pillsbury biscuits from the can!) Finally, roll dough out about 1" thick and using a sharp knife or your pizza cutter, divide into 12 equal squares or rectangles (if you really like circle biscuits...go for it!) Place each biscuit onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart. At this point you can either flash freeze biscuits or bake!

Put biscuits in preheated oven for 15 to 18 minutes, rotating halfway through baking time. Biscuits should be golden brown. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!!