Christmas
Butternut Squash and Berkshire Blue Cheese Biscuits
- Makes 8 biscuits
Author Notes
This is part of a series of recipes that I have developed and tested for the Massachusetts Cheese Guild, an association of artisan cheesemakers. It's adapted from Ana Sortun's recipe for Squash and Stilton Biscuits that appeared in Food & Wine in 2010; I've used a bit less sugar, added some heavy cream, and strongly recommend that you use Berkshire Blue if you can find it. It's is a true artisan cheese made with unpasteurized milk from a dedicated herd of Jersey cows; the flavors are mellower and more nuanced than Stilton, with a bit of grassiness at times that can provide a lovely accent to winter squash. If Berkshire Blue isn't available, see if you can track down some Stichelton, which is a Stilton-style blue made with raw milk. I'm a firm believer that milk and cheese retain the flavors they're meant to have when not subjected to the indignities of pasteurization.
Winter squash and blue cheese are a match made in heaven. When winter drags on, and you've grown tired of the seemingly endless parade of butternut, this recipe may give you the strength you need to forge on through February. —BethFalk
Ingredients
-
1 1/4 cups
all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting work surface
-
4 teaspoons
baking powder
-
2 teaspoons
sugar
-
1/2 teaspoon
kosher salt
-
3/4 cup
roasted & mashed butternut squash
-
1/3 cup
heavy cream
-
1/3 cup
milk, plus more for brushing biscuits
-
7 tablespoons
butter, 4 melted, 3 softened
-
2 ounces
Berkshire Blue cheese
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 450 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
- In a medium bowl, combine the squash, cream, milk and melted butter. Stir slowly to avoid a milk bath. Stir the squash mixture into the dry ingredients until a soft, wet dough forms. Sticky is OK here; you'll manage with the help of a little flour.
- Turn the dough out onto a generously floured work surface and very gently pat it into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out 16 rounds. (The edges of your rounds may not be very neat, but no one who tastes these biscuits will notice.) Transfer 8 rounds to the baking sheet.
- In a small bowl, blend the 3 tablespoons of melted butter with the Berkshire Blue. Spread the blue cheese butter on top of the rounds on the baking sheet - use all of it, even though you'll be tempted to hold back a little taste for yourself - and top with the remaining 8 rounds. Brush the tops of the biscuits with milk.
- Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden. Serve warm with a dollop of fig spread or a glass of port. Or both.
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