Maple Cornmeal Biscuits
Tender biscuits that are reminiscent of your favorite slightly sweet cornbread.
Just in time for the weekend, I give you these maple cornmeal biscuits. Is it cornbread? Is it a biscuit? It’s both! You’ve got the crumbly texture and hint of sweetness you expect with cornbread, all packaged up in a little biscuit.
To put it simply, they’re delightful. And as wonderful on their own as they are slathered with butter and served alongside eggs over easy and a few pieces of bacon. I know from experience.
I seem to have fallen in love with cornmeal recently (see my post just last week on Orange Almond Biscotti) and I knew I must make these immediately when I stumbled upon the recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s baking cookbook. They didn’t disappoint, and in fact I enjoyed them so much think I might need to bake another batch tomorrow morning.
baking tip:The purpose of cutting butter into dry ingredients
The goal of blending the butter into the dry ingredients is to coat some of the flour with fat so that it can’t react with the wet ingredients and form gluten. No gluten means a light crumbly texture. If you cut too much of the butter into the flour, you’re going to get a biscuit that’s so crumbly it falls apart when you try to eat it. If you don’t cut the butter enough, you’ll be stuck with a tough biscuit. The trick is to get it just right, or to stop cutting when the butter is the size of small peas.
Maple Cornmeal Biscuits
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (125 grams)
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal (160 grams)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter , cold and cut into cubes (85 grams)
- ½ cup cold whole milk (115 ml)
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup (57 ml)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a non-stick baking mat.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add the cubed butter use a fork or a pastry blender to blend it into the flour mixture until butter is the size of small peas.
- Stir the milk and maple syrup together and add to the dry ingredients. Use a fork to stir the mixture until it is just incorporated.
- Scoop into rounds and place on the prepared sheet pan. Bake until golden brown, 15-18 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.
- Biscuits are best the day they are made, but will keep for a few days in an airtight container at room temperature.
Yes please .. I will have some of that deliciousness.
What a great combination of flavors for biscuits!
I can never say no to a fresh biscuit (or scone, for that matter). Cornmeal sounds like a great way to add an interesting texture and flavour, and you can never go wrong with the pairing of maple syrup and cornmeal… adding these to my make-soon file!
These sound incredible. I have that cookbook, but I have only made one or two things out of it. I need to work on that and make these biscuits.
I made these biscuits on this cold winter’s night, to go with a big pot of bean/veg soup. They are absolutely delicious and will become a regular item in my kitchen! Thank you.
Gorgeous! I can only imagine them slathered with butter, honey and some crispy bacon…..mmmmm!!!
Biscuits, cormeal, maple … my life is complete 🙂
You are so right about cutting the butter … I have to stop myself!
These are delicious! I will definitely be making them again.
Oh, I’m totally swooning over these biscuits!! It must be fate that I *just* bought a fresh, big bag of cornmeal.
These look great! On their own AND I’m totally thinking about making some chili and topping it with these biscuits (and some cheese, of course) a la a pot pie. Because they’re biscuits, but also cornbread??
Sounds incredible! Enjoy!