feta and za'atar biscuits
Okay, I confess. I (almost) never bake savory things. I historically have a sweet tooth and I’m not ashamed. But sometimes I buy too much feta at the store and have no idea what to do with it. I get inexplicably spend-happy when I get groceries, perhaps because I show up hungry. Well, I can’t deny the fact that I do love a biscuit now and then. I recently spotted a feta and za’atar scone on the Internet, and it sounded like a lovely marriage of harmonious flavors. My recipe will make about 6 large biscuits, but feel free to double if you’re baking for a crowd. I would highly recommend eating them the day of, so make only what you can eat. If you like smaller biscuits, you can use a smaller cutter, just be sure to adjust the baking time accordingly.
feta and za’atar biscuits
yield: 6-7 large biscuits
3 cups (375 g) AP flour
1 Tb. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tb. za’atar
2 sticks (1 cup/8oz./226 g) unsalted butter, cold
1 ¼ cup (285 ml) buttermilk
1 cup (115 g) feta cheese, crumbled
1 egg, beaten for egg wash
Za’atar or flaky salt for sprinkling ( I tried both and ended up liking how the salt looked more, but its nice to top your pastry with one of your main flavors, so play around)
Combine all of your dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse to combine. Cube your butter into uniform squares, no bigger than ½” across. Add the butter into the flour and toss well, making sure all of the butter is coated in flour. If your butter feels at all warm, or if your kitchen is hot, you can stick your bowl into the fridge for 10 minutes. The butter must be cold before you process it, or else it will clump. Pulse for 4 seconds at a time then stop. Repeat this 2-3 more times. You want the butter to be the size of peas. Don’t be afraid to check it after the second or third pulse.
Transfer the mix flour-butter mix to a large bowl, create a crater in the middle, and add the buttermilk and feta into the hole. Using your hands (or a spatula if you’re afraid), scoop the dough from under, overtop into the middle, working from the outside of the bowl inward, turning your bowl as you mix. Use a light hand here. Do this until the dough has almost come together and is pretty shaggy. Resist overmixing here- we’re about to fold the dough a few times. On a floured surface, dump your dough and pat into the size of a standard letter. The mixture may be sticky so be sure to flour your hands if you need. Fold half of the dough over onto itself, pressing together from overtop. Turn the dough 90 degrees. Press it out to roughly the same letter size as before. Repeat the folding five more times, ending with the dough at least 1” thick. The purpose of all of this folding is to laminate the biscuit dough, creating lots of layers. Biscuit magic!
Preheat oven to 400. Grab a sheet pan.
Using a 3” round cutter, cut out as many biscuits as you can (I got 4), and DO NOT twist the biscuit cutter as you go. Just up and down, friends. Transfer the rounds onto a baking sheet. Take all of your dough scraps and form another mass of dough, working it as little as possible to bring it back together. Cut another 2 or 3 more biscuits out of the dough. Place these onto your baking sheet with the others. Space the biscuit babies out evenly. Again, if your kitchen is warm, toss your pan into the fridge for at least 10 minutes while the oven heats up. It needs to chill so that when the biscuits hit the heat of the oven, the butter will release its steam and the biscuits will be mega fluffy!
After 10 minutes or so and when the oven is up to temp, with a pastry brush, add some egg wash to the tops of your biscuits. Sprinkle a generous amount of za’atar or flaky salt over each biscuit. Put your biscuits into the oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes, until they start to look golden on top and beautiful. Remove from the oven. Allow the biscuits to sit for 5-10 minutes before eating. Biscuits are best the day they are made.
