Crunchy, tasty, rustic, casual.

These biscuits are rustic treats, not white glove fare.  The oats give them a great crunch while still being light and delightful.  They are great served with good quality butter, strawberry jam, and/or whipped cream.  I’m a bit of a purist and don’t need any of those extra calories so I just eat mine plain.  It takes a little effort to deal with the dried strawberries because they need to be soaked before you use them.  If you don’t want the extra 46 seconds of work, swap them out and use dried cranberries instead.  This recipe can easily be doubled if you want a dozen biscuits instead of 6 (and who wouldn’t?).

Vanilla Strawberry Buttermilk Biscuits (6 servings)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (plus a bit extra for your work surface)
• 3/4 cup oats (not instant oatmeal – yuck)
• 1 ½ tablespoons sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ stick (1/4 cup) butter
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ dried strawberries or dried cranberries

Coarsely chop the dried strawberries and place in a small bowl.  Pour one cup of boiling water over the strawberries and allow to sit for 30 minutes to soften.  Once soft, drain off the excess water and set the strawberries aside.  If you’re using dried cranberries don’t soak them, they’ll be fine just as is.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  It is best if the rack is in the middle of the oven.

Place the oats into a food processor and process until it looks like flour.  Measure ½ cup of the oat flour.  There will be a little oat flour left over.  Put it in a really, really tiny container and save it for the next time you make these biscuits.  Sift together the all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add oat flour and whisk until blended.  Using a pastry blender cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.  Add buttermilk and vanilla and blend with a fork until it forms wet dough.  Add the strawberries and gently combine with a spoon (don’t use the fork).  If you keep using a fork you’ll destroy the strawberries.  They are fragile little things.  Treat them kindly.  What did they ever do to you?

This is what the little darlings should look like before they head into the oven.

Spread a ¼ cup of flour on a work surface such as a large cutting board and turn the dough out of the bowl onto the surface.  Using a large metal spoon cut the dough into six equal-sized portions and drop by a rounded spoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet, two inches apart (see photo).  They won’t be terribly pretty at this point, but don’t fret, they’ll look great once they are baked.  You can gently adjust the dough so that each biscuit is slightly rounded.  Bake until lightly golden, 12-15 minutes.  Serve immediately or cool on a rack until room temperature and store.

One more view of these delights.

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