There aren’t many things that everyone in my family will happily eat. Arugula salad with apples, almonds, and sherry vinaigrette is one. Cornbread, as long as it’s served butter and honey for some of us, is another. Fruit*. And then there’s these biscuits. Everyone will almost always eat these biscuits.**

NB: These are not high-rise flaky southern biscuits. I hear I need self-rising flour for those. Or maybe cake flour mixed with AP. Or maybe something else. Someday I’ll try out the options.*** These are also not fancy, mix-in, serve at a dinner party biscuits. These are “I have half an hour before dinner and 2 qts of frozen soup” biscuits. They’re for when you just want something hot out of the oven to go with dinner.

An aside about flour: I often use sprouted spelt flour instead of standard whole wheat. This is mostly because I have sprouted spelt flour. I have it mostly because I have a habit of trying things and know someone who likes spelt, so one day I tried it and decided I like it. Pretty much anything I do with sprouted spelt can be made with regular (or sprouted) whole wheat pastry flour. Since the point of these biscuits is to make something quick and easy that the family will eat, I highly recommend using whatever you’ve got on hand.****

• 12 oz (2 1/2 cup) sprouted spelt flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 oz unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces
• 6 oz (3/4 cup) yogurt*****
• 2 oz (1/4 cup) milk*****
• 1 T butter, melted
• coarse sea salt or fleur de sel

Preheat oven to 375º. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter, using your hands, a pastry cutter, or a food processor, until it is in pea-sized pieces or smaller. Add the yogurt and milk and stir using a spatula, folding the mixture against the sides of the bowl, just until it comes together in a ragged dough. (If it refuses to come together, add a smidge more milk.) Scrape onto a counter or other good rolling surface and fold and press, repeatedly, until you have a cohesive square. Roll to about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into rectangles with a bench scraper (or use a biscuit cutter to cut rounds if you prefer). If you have time, let the biscuits rest in the refrigerator for a bit (15 minutes up to a day). Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake ~20 minutes, until beginning to brown. Eat with soup (or honey or apple butter or …).

*Yep, pretty much any good fresh fruit.

**Of course, yesterday, when I made them (and typed most of this post), the youngest decided he didn’t want any, he wanted bread and butter instead. sigh.

***My sis just sent me a link to this post comparing self-rising flours, which got me thinking, but not testing yet.

****Unless whatever you have on hand is old, sad, dusty, whole grain flour; please don’t use that. These biscuits are basically just flour and butter and yogurt, so you can really taste the flour and if it’s old and sad, your biscuits will taste old and sad.

*****if you happen to have buttermilk, use 8oz buttermilk in place of the yogurt and milk.