These milk biscuits are a delicious, easy and quick treat for a lazy Sunday morning brunch. With standard ingredients from your pantry, it takes less than 1 hour to mix, shape and bake them! Enjoy!

Yield

16 small square-shaped biscuits (1 1/2″ x 1 1/2 “)

Ingredients

• 2 cups of unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp of baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp of Kosher salt
• 4 tbsp (1/2 sitck) of unsalted sweet butter, cut in small cubes and chilled
• 3/4 cups of milk, chilled (I used 2%, but you could use whole as well) plus more

Directions

• Pre-heat oven to 375oF.
• Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to the food processor bowl with the plastic blade attachment (specia for doughs)
• Pulse it a few quick times to combine all the dry ingredients.
• Add the chilled butter cubes and pulse a few times until small pea-size clumps form.
• Turn the processor on and slowly add the cold milk until the dough forms a ball inside the processor. If needed, add a little more milk, a tbsp at a time, until the dough forms. This dough is slightly wet, but not sticky.
• Transfer to a lightly floured surface, shape it evenly in a slab format with your hands, cover with plastic wrap and roll it to about 3/4″ thickness.
• Cut it in small squares (1 1/2″ x 1 1/2″), transfer them to a sheet pan line with parchment and brush them lightly with milk.
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.
• Enjoy them warm with butter and jam! 

Note: You can easily double this recipe (actually the original cream one, was doubled) and cut the biscuits larger.;-)

As I am not a morning person either (in case you do not know me well yet ), my breakfast tends to be either a slow affair, where I can enjoy the beggining of the day, or no breakfast at all, if I need to hurry out the door (coffee on the go!!!!).

But today, I had all the time in the world to be slow and lazy and I decided to make some fresh biscuits, because I had been craving the fresh bread, butter and jam memory…

Well, but what does that all have to do with being or not being perfect?

Because as I often have these last minute impulses (that’s it, I should change my name to the “Last Minute Chef”!), I do not always have all ingredients needed in my pantry. Which usually means I will not make it, because a trip to the supermarket is too much work. I tried searching for a basic biscuit recipe, but they were all fancy, with diferent types of creams and flours. I did not have those, but I had AP flour, butter, baking powder and milk; so that would simply have to do!!!

I settled for a cream biscuit recipe, quite simple actually, then replaced it with the 2% milk I had in the fridge, and the die were cast. I don’t know if it is because I was craving it so much, but the biscuits turned out pretty good. I just cut them haphazardly with my pizza cutter and brushed some of the milk on top and they came out fluffly and golden brwon.

And when I took the first bite, of the warm bread spread with melting better and a sip of fresh coffee, I closed my eyes and wished my Mom was here to share it with me. So Mom, breakfast today was for you!

So even though they were less than perfect, according to the original recipe, they were perfect to me!

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone and check out the Milk Biscuit recipe in the recipe section.

Alexandra

If you are gluten intolerant, you know how difficult it is to eat out. But at this time of the year, we always end up going to parties, and you might feel that your selections are limited. Well, no more! Go to that potluck party with your head held high and a delicious Meatloaf with Homemade Ketchup Sauce, or a luscious Chocolate Polenta Cake, all gluten free !!! Nobody will even know   To learn these delicious recipes and more, all you have to do is come to the “A Gluten Free Twist on Winter Classics” class, at Whole Foods in Napa, on 12/08/11, from 6:00 tp 8:30 pm. To register, just click on my Cooking Classes/Class Menus page and you can see the menu highlights and the registration link. You can also go directly to https://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaID=224763.

Hor’s D’Oeuvres are also a great way of entertaining and serving delicious food. Step out of your “appetizer box” and come learn practical do-ahead creative appetizers that will make your life easy and let everyone guessing when you went to Paris to learn how to cook like that ! So join me at Whole Foods in Naoa, on 12/17/11, from 3:00 tp 5:00 pm and let’s have a cocktail party of our own. Details about hte class, menus highlights and registration link are available on my Cooking Class/Class Menus page or register directly at https://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaID=224762.

Class Menus link: http://sampasfood.com/class-menus

I am looking forward to seeing you there!

Alexandra Fochi

There are so many cool features and so much information, but all very streamlined and efficiently organized, so that you do not have to dig 5 pages down to find information. I was very adamant (right Shelley?) that it would be simple to navigate and easy for you to find what you are looking for. But I also wanted it to be interactive and easy to update (I guess I wanted to have my cake and eat it too! ), and we made it! So rest assured,  you do not have to click 20 times to get to the point!

As I completed my 3rd Farmers Market Season, it just seemed beffiting that my website would grow to the next level. And when I met these two wonderful people, Shelley and Scott Rounds, at a Tweetup in Napa, little did I know the impact they would have in making it happen.

It was an amazing experience to be able to participate in every step of the process, from the conception of its idea, to its deployment. Many hours, lots of laughter and cups of coffee!  

Without further ado, I am going to make it short and sweet (pun intended). This blog post, is one of the many new features the site has. It allows me to share tips, thoughts and news with you, as well as recipes. And, I do not have to worry about all different types of social media sites, because it will update them for me. So I can finally focus on the contents and not the delivery! Ahhhh (that was a sigh of relief!).

So please accept my invitation to browse through my new site www.sampasfood.com (save it in your favorites!) and explore the options:

• All my products are listed under the “Specialty Foods” tab in detail and you can see where to find them or order them online. As the product familiy grows (which I intend to), more options will be added.

• My cooking classes are now listed, with menus and highlights, and you can register online too! You can follow my calendar by clicking on the “Cooking Classes” tab at the top menu, or by clicking at the cool Calendar gadget on the top right corner of the screen (I love it!).

• Under “Private Chef Services”  tab you can find out all other things we can do together through our mutual love of food. There is a lot more I do than what you might know, and I would love for you to get to know me better.

Didn’t find what you are looking for? No worries, click on the “About Us” tab and talk to us! We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Special thanks to Shelley and Scott ( http://napavalleytechservices.com/ ), who made my dream site come true. You two are true Professionals and it was a pleasure to have you design and build my website.

I hope you enjoy your tour and please do not hesitate to share your thoughts with me at alex@sampasfood.com . And look out for upcoming News, Recipes and Classes.

Truly Yours,

Alexandra