simple life = simple ingredients

Chives are one of my favorite herbs to have in the garden. They are the first thing to come up in the spring and the last to go in the fall. They self-seed and spread easily on their own. Plant them once and you get quite literally flavor for a lifetime!

Ever since winter, I’ve been dreaming of chive biscuits. Biscuits to me are the epitome of simple, country living. I’ve always dreamed of having a signature biscuit recipe that I could whip up for soup or tea. Unfortunately, I can’t eat gluten that hasn’t been fermented, so these sourdough biscuits take more than just a “whipping up”. However, I have found that by taking the time to make traditionally fermented biscuits, they result in a flavor profile that is much richer than regular biscuits. Adding a seasonal flavor with the chives only makes them so much better. Traditionally fermented grains are easier to digest and absorb nutrients from, so it’s only a plus that these biscuits are also healthier for you.

Sourdough does require some planning ahead, so I’ve shared my “baker’s schedule” below that you can refer to. You can easily prep these the night before to make for lunch the next day, or prep them in the morning for a late dinner the same day. It’s up to you how long you want to ferment the gluten for. Either way, this is sure to be a recipe that you can enjoy from spring through fall, and even in the winter if you freeze your chives!

what you need:

the night before

2 1/2 cups of organic, unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup of organic unsalted butter, lard, or coconut oil, solidified
1/2 cup of bubbly, active sourdough starter
1/2 cup of organic milk of your choice + 1 tablespoon of organic vinegar (to make buttermilk)
1 cup of fresh chives, chopped

right before baking

1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons of non-GMO aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

baker’s schedule:

DAY 1:

EVENING: In the evening before bed, harvest your chives and chop them up. Mix together the biscuit dough, leaving out the salt, baking powder, and baking soda until right before baking. Cover with a lid and place in your fridge (if it’s hot out) or on your counter (if it’s cool enough for the coconut oil to stay solid) and leave until the next day.

DAY 2:

AFTERNOON: If you are making these biscuits for dinner and your dough is in the fridge, you will want to get the dough out of the fridge a few hours prior so you will be able to work it. If you skip this step, the dough will be too hard to work with because of the solidified coconut oil. If it’s cool enough to keep your dough on the counter without the coconut oil melting, you can do so and skip this step.
EVENING: When you are ready to make the biscuits, you will add in the salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Cut the biscuits and bake until golden. Serve warm with dinner!

to make:

Step 1:

Begin by making the buttermilk by combining 1/2 cup of milk of your choice with 1 tablespoon of organic vinegar. If you have real buttermilk on hand, even better! Stir and set aside for a few minutes.

step 2:

In a large bowl, cut the fat into the flour using a pastry blender or fork until it is well combined and the dough looks like pebbles.

step 3:

Add in the sourdough starter and buttermilk, stirring to combine. Please note that the amount of milk you will need is going to depend on how wet you keep your sourdough starter. Some prefer to keep a dryer starter, while others keep theirs as thin as pancake batter. Add in the milk slowly so you can use less or more if needed.

Step 4:

Mix in the chopped chives until evenly dispersed throughout the dough.

Step 5:

Form into a ball and place into a bowl with a lid. If it is cool enough for the coconut oil to stay solidified in your dough, you can leave this on your counter overnight. However, if it’s a hot summer day, you will want to place this in your fridge so the oil doesn’t melt. Solidified fat is what makes biscuits deliciously flaky. Say goodnight to your biscuit dough and let it have a long ferment.

Step 6:

Like I mentioned in the baker’s schedule above, it’s important to remember to take your dough out of the fridge a few hours before before baking so you’re not dealing with a rock solid ball 30 minutes before dinner is supposed to be done (been there!). If your dough is on the counter, don’t worry about this step. All you’ll need to do is come back to it once it’s time to bake the biscuits.

Step 7:

Right before baking, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Gently work in the salt, baking powder, and baking soda into the dough until evenly combined. You don’t want to work the dough too much, risking the loss of the flaky layers, but you also don’t want to work it too little that the baking powder and soda isn’t combined and ends up browning your biscuits unevenly (as you can see from my photos, that happened to me!)

Step 8:

Once all your ingredients are combined, turn out your dough onto a clean, floured surface and using your fingers, work into a 1-2 inch disk. (How thick you make it will depend on how tall you want your biscuits! It’s completely up to you.) When making biscuits, you never ever want to use a rolling pin to roll out your dough. That’s a major biscuit no-no! You want to gently use your hands in order to ensure a tall rise.

Step 9:

Cut your biscuits using a biscuit cutter or mason jar lid. Another major biscuit no-no is twisting your biscuit cutter. Doing so seals the edges and prevents the biscuits from puffing up in the oven. For a nice biscuit rise, push down and pull up with your cutter, no twisting!

Step 10:

Place your biscuits in a cast iron skillet and place in your preheated oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. If you don’t have a cast iron, you can also bake these on a cookie sheet, however they will take a few minutes less so just keep an eye on them. Once they are done, remove from the oven and serve right away! These are best served fresh out of the oven but can also be stored in a bread box or in the freezer.

A few notes:

These can be made dairy-free if desired by swapping out the butter for any dairy-free fat, as well as the milk for any dairy-free milk. If you have it, you can also use real buttermilk and omit the vinegar.
You can easily omit the chives for a plain biscuit that you would serve with jam and tea.
If you don’t need to eat fermented grains, you can easily skip the fermentation process and just use this as a sourdough starter discard recipe.

I like to eat these fresh out of the oven with a generous amount of butter, dipped in soup. Mmmmm! I can imagine these would make a pretty good egg breakfast sandwich too!

Let me know how these turn out for you if you make them! I love seeing pictures of your creations using our recipes. Tag me on instagram @girlincalico so I can see + share! Until next time!

With care,

Kaetlyn

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Eating Seasonally: Spring Chive Sourdough Biscuits