Serving perfectly pointed scones with my lemon curd and rose petal jelly was on theme, but not entirely appropriate for an evening event.  Instead, I decided to make a deconstructed scone – drop biscuits.  With scones, you need a particular pan and pastry blending contraption, more ingredients, and more time.  Drop biscuits taste just as good, and as in all things stylish, a touch of the unexpected often trumps the literal.

Drop biscuits are easy to make, and taste fantastic right out of the oven, but are still delightful after a few hours at room temperature (which means you can make them ahead of time to avoid mayhem in the kitchen right before serving-time).  The biscuits are so simple that you can whip them up to pair with your favorite jam, nutella, soup, or boeuf bourguignon.  You might also consider adding blue cheese, or strawberries and a splash of almond extract.  No one will suspect that you only spent twenty minutes in the kitchen to make these versatile treats!  xx tt

Ingredients

·  2 cups flour

·  2 teaspoons baking powder

·  ½ teaspoon baking soda

·  1 teaspoon sugar

·  ¾ teaspoon kosher salt

·  1 cup COLD buttermilk (make sure you shake the buttermilk before pouring)

·  1 stick unsalted butter MELTED and COOLED for five minutes

·  2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing the biscuits post-oven

Instructions

·  Make sure the oven rack you plan to use is placed in the middle of the oven

·  Heat oven to 475 degrees

·  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

·  In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt together

·  In a different bowl, combine the shaken buttermilk with the melted and cooled butter

·  Stir the buttermilk-butter until the butter forms pretty yellow bubble-clumps

·  Add the buttermilk-butter mixture to the flour mixture

·  Stir all of these ingredients until the dough becomes shaggy and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl

·  Using a greased ¼ cup, scoop batter and drop onto the baking sheet

·  Repeat eleven times, until you have twelve uncooked biscuits

·  Bake until golden brown, about thirteen minutes

·  Brush the biscuits with a little of the two tablespoons of melted butter – I use this brush and this ramekin, but you can also use any small bowl or coffee mug, and a teaspoon to drizzle the butter on each biscuit

·  Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool five minutes before serving – or put aside till serving-time