Sour Cream and Chive Biscuits

Sour Cream Chive Biscuits. Savory biscuits that are light and fluffy with the mild tang of sour cream that pairs so perfectly with fresh chives.

Servings 9 -12 biscuits depending on what size you cut them

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt see note
2 Tablespoons salted or unsalted butter (cold and cut into cubes)
2 Tablespoons shortening I use non-hydrogenated
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 1/4 cups sour cream I used light
2 Tablespoons milk
extra sour cream/milk for brushing the tops

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Using a pastry blender or your finger tips, quickly cut shortening into flour mixture until combined.
After you've cut in the shortening, cut cold butter into the flour mixture until you have various sizes no larger than peas. (See picture and videos within original Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuit post to see how this should look and for extra tips on the process.) This should also take less than a minute. You want your butter to stay cold so work quickly.
Add the chopped chives and toss in the flour mixture until coated.
Whisk together sour cream and milk. Make a small well in the center of the flour mixture and add the sour cream mixture.
Working from the outside in, bring the flour into the center with a large spoon, scooping and turning the bowl until the sour cream and milk are incorporated into the flour. Use a light hand here. We're not vigorously stirring, but simply gently tossing the flour together with the sour cream and milk until it's combined.
Turn the wet sticky dough out onto a well floured surface. Keep a small pile of extra flour on hand to add to your surface or your hands as needed. You'll see in the videos that I'm pretty liberal about using the flour in this step.
Flour your hands and bring dough together, then lightly fold it in half in a gentle kneading motion.
Do this about 10-11 times until your dough comes together and is beginning to feel smooth. This step helps to further combine your mixture while the folding created layers of buttery goodness that will help your biscuits rise nice and tall.
On a floured surface, pat dough down until it's just under an inch thick. Using a floured cutter, cut your biscuits into desired shape, making sure to push straight down with the cutter. Do not twist to release it as you may seal the edges of the dough, making it more difficult for them to rise. Re-roll the scraps and cut again. (see notes for my one cut square biscuits)
Flip cut biscuits upside down and place on an ungreased baking sheet. You can place them close together but not touching for softer edges (they'll bake together as they rise) or place them further apart to bake completely separate for a more golden, firmer edge.
Brush tops with sour cream thinned with a bit of milk and bake until they have risen nice and tall and are golden brown on top, about 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Recipe Notes

*Biscuits can be stored overnight at room temperature, wrapped lightly in foil. Even though they are best the first day, they reheat nicely in a toaster oven.

*I use coarse kosher salt which ends up adding less salt for the same measurement because it is coarse. If you use table salt as well as salted butter, you may want to reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon.

*If you like your biscuits crusty on all sides, place them far enough apart on the baking sheet so that they don't touch another biscuit when they bake. They may also bake in less time, so keep an eye on them.

*While I decided to use a round cutter for this post, cutting and rerolling scraps is not my preferred method. I prefer patting them into a square about 1" thick and cutting them into 9 big pieces (cutting lines like a tic tac toe board.) With that method there is no re-rolling of scraps and every biscuit has the benefit of the loft and rise of the first roll.

*Save yourself some dishes. I keep the bowl I mixed the sour cream and milk in off to the side until it's time to brush the tops. Sometimes there's enough sour cream bits in the bowl for me to just add a touch of milk and sop all of it up with my brush. If not, I just add a bit more to the bowl.