Tips On The Kitchen: Whole Wheat Blueberry Tea Biscuits with Dried Cherries

Just got back from a whirlwind vacation that I have not yet recovered from. Truly, I need a break from vacationing! Posting will continue on a more regular basis shortly as I am craving nourishment from my own kitchen! Visited some great restaurants but there is nothing quite the same as home cooked meals. I will be catching up with my favorite blogs shortly.

I tend to avoid refined sugars, preferring instead naturally sweet foods, like fruit. For some reason, I don't eat as much fresh fruit as I should, though I snack on dried fruit daily. I suppose I prefer the condensed flavour of dried fruits. Fresh berries are another matter altogether. It is hard to resist the juicy and plump delights just as is, or with a bit of yogurt perhaps.

This year, the berries harvest is especially flavourful and abundant, and most of the week we have some sort of fresh berry on hand. The berry that is most irresistible to me is the mighty blueberry. Looking into the fridge, I caught sight of a big bowl of them peering up at me. Not that I needed to transform them at all, but the idea of blueberry biscuits never left my mind and I resolved to make blueberry biscuits that were as impressive and successful as the best blueberry muffins I have made to date.

The result ended up being dinner.

I used very little sugar in this biscuit recipe, as I prefer savory treats, but bursting with blueberries as they were, they were plenty sweet with a slight tartness imparted by the dried cherries.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Tea Biscuits with Dried Cherries

2 cups of unbleached white flour
1 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour
1/8 cup of packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
1/3 cup of cold butter, cut into chunks
1 3/4 cups of yogurt (or buttermilk)
1 1/2 cups of fresh blueberries
1/3 cup of dried cherries

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Using a pastry cutter or a fork and knife, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it is reduced to coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center of the ingredients and pour in the yogurt. Stir until just combined. Gently fold in the blueberries and dried cherries.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board or waxed paper and gently knead a few times. Shape the dough into equal rounds and transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 30 minutes or until the biscuits are nicely browned on top. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and serve warm.

Yields roughly 12 - 16 biscuits depending on how big you want them to be.