A Healthier Biscuit — Whole Wheat & Cornmeal Biscuits

I love biscuits — homemade biscuits; biscuits from McDonald’s or Popeye’s Fried Chicken, frozen convenience biscuits — it doesn’t matter; I’m not picky. Several years ago, I featured my technique for making the “Perfect Biscuit.” Wouldn’t it be great to have a healthier version? Saved in my recipe file box for years is a recipe for “Whole Wheat & Cornmeal Biscuits”; and I finally decided to try it out. The recipe substitutes half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour and also adds corn meal. Whole grains add fiber and have many cardiovascular benefits. Although baking with whole wheat flour can be tricky; it is worth the try. Plus, this recipe includes buttermilk (which is fat free) and reduces the amount of shortening. How did my experiment turn out? Very well, I’d say.

Ingredients

Here are some of the ingredients for my biscuits. Resist the temptation to use only whole wheat flour in this recipe. This type of flour absorbs alot of moisture. Plus, the bran in the whole wheat flour intefers with gluten formation — necessary for baked bread-type products. If you use only whole wheat flour, the dough will be dense and sticky; the biscuits will feel like a “rock.” Substituting half of the all-purpose (or bread flour) with whole wheat flour is plenty. This recipe also includes corn meal which adds an interesting flavor as well as texture.

Buttermilk is an important ingredient in the recipe. It gives a tender, flaky biscuit and provides “lift” to the dough. This recipe uses butter as the shortening. My “Perfect Biscuits” use Crisco shortening; that’s an optional substitution. Neither shortening is as healthy as a liquid oil such as canola oil or olive oil; but oils just don’t work in biscuits.

Here are the remainder of the ingredients. There is alot (1 Tbsp) baking soda in the recipe. It interacts with the acidic buttermilk to give “lift.” I wouldn’t omit the sugar. It adds flavor. The egg (egg white only) and sesame seeds are used as a topping for the biscuits and not in the biscuit dough.

Making the recipe

Mix up these biscuits like traditional biscuits. This is a very large recipe; I mixed them up by hand — as it was too large for my food processor to accomodate.

For these biscuits, I sifted together the all-purpose flour together with the baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar. Then, I added in the whole wheat flour and cornmeal to a very large bowl.

I cut the butter into small chunks and cut it into the flour mixture.

My resource recipe (from a vintage Cooking Light magazine, March 2008) used only 5 Tbsp butter (about 1/3 stick) in the mixture. Hence, this is really a fairly low-fat biscuit.

Everyone has their own method for cutting the shortening into the flour mixture. My mother-in-law used two knives or forks. I like a pastry cutter — but that kitchen gadget seemed to be missing from my kitchen drawer. So, I put my hand in a plastic glove and blended the butter chunks into the flour.

The goal is to get the shortening cut into small pieces — about the size of very small peas or course meal. This makes “flaky” layers in the biscuit. (In other words, don’t melt the butter.)

If some of the flour spills onto the pastry board — just let it stay there. You will need extra flour to roll out the biscuits.

Stir in the buttermilk.

This dough is very, very sticky. Do the best you can. Turn onto a floured pastry board. Add flour on top of the dough. However, try not to add more flour than needed. Knead the dough for about 5 or 6 turns — very important. Then let it set for 10 minutes to “rest” before cutting out the biscuits — also very important.

Roll and cut out the biscuits with a rolling pin or pat out with your hands. Place onto ungreased baking sheet. Freeze for 10 minutes. Why freeze the biscuits? Hum, I learned this “hack” from one of those television competition cooking shows. It works, and I have done this step ever since watching that show.

Sesame Seed Topping

These biscuits have a unique feature. They are topped with sesame seeds prior to baking. Brush the tops with an egg white wash and then sprinkle on the sesame seeds.

Bake the biscuits in a very hot — 450 degree — oven for 10 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Yes, use a very hot oven.

The biscuits turned out perfectly! What more could I ask for. The flavor is different from traditional biscuits. The whole wheat flour and cornmeal give a totally different taste. However, the result is tasty — especially when jelly, honey or cinnamon sugar is added on top. Or when made into a breakfast sandwich with an egg and ham.

Enjoy this healthier and tasty “Whole Wheat & Cornmeal Biscuit” for breakfast or a snack. Adding whole wheat grains to our meals and diets is so important. Let’s learn to enjoy this “new and improved” biscuit.

This recipe makes a large batch — 18 standard-sized biscuits. I ate some and froze the rest.