I have a thing about buying ingredients I don't regularly use. When I'm reading through a new recipe, if it calls for an ingredient I don't normally have on hand, or regularly buy, I usually skip it. It has to sound really, really good for me to buy something I may not be able to use up. For some reason, one ingredient I've held off on buying for a long time was whole wheat pastry flour. A recipe that called for it was immediately glossed over. I bookmarked a few, just in case, but mostly I just moved on.
Recently I bought a cookbook called Whole-Grain Mornings, by Megan Gordon of A Sweet Spoonful. I've loved cooking out of it, despite the fact that I have actually had to try out a few new ingredients, such as amaranth and rye flakes. I also have finally purchased some whole wheat pastry flour, and I don't regret it one bit. :)
This recipe is actually not from Whole-Grain Mornings, but from another lovely cookbook, Super Natural Every Day, by Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks. Did I first see this recipe there? Probably. Did I pay attention? Not even a bit. I came across this recipe, again, on the lovely Amelia's site, Bonappétempt. Combined with recipe for masala chai, which I love, I finally noticed these gems. Hopefully, you won't hold out as long as I have before making these!
P.S. Possibly my favorite part about this recipe, besides the fact that the biscuits taste great, is that it pulls together in about 30 minutes, faster if you're faster at measuring and mixing than I am. Wonderful for those nights, like we had last night, where we wanted something else with dinner, and had just enough time while everything else was prepared. Lovely.
Yogurt Biscuites from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson, via Bonappétempt
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or spelt flour)
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
1 1/2 teaspons fine-grain sea salt
1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into tiny cubes
1 1/3 cups Greek-style yogurt
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450ºF. Place an ungreased baking sheet in the oven to preheat as well.
Combine the flours, salt, and baking powder in a food processor. Sprinkle the butter across the top of the dry ingredients and pulse, until the butter is incorporated and the mixture has no chunks larger than peas. Add the yogurt and pulse a few times, or until the yogurt is just incorporated. You may need to stop and move things around inside, if your dough forms a large clump before really fully mixing. (Mine did.) Avoid overmixing; it's fine if there are a few dry patches. Gather the dough into a ball and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for a minute and press into an inch-thick square. Cut in half and stack one on the other. Repeat two more times--flattening and stacking, then cutting. Add more all-purpose flour to prevent sticking when needed. Press or rollout the dough into a 3/4-inch thick rectangle, but no thicker; if the dough is too tall, the biscuits will tilt and tip over while baking. Cut the dough into twelve equal biscuits. (I cut into 16, as apparently I cannot count, but the biscuits turned out lovely regardless.)
Transfer the biscuits to the preheated baking sheet leaving 1/2 inch between each biscuit. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until deeply golden and the biscuits are cooked through. Enjoy!