Welp, I've jinxed my Mondays. I admit to having a crappy Monday once, and now, all of a sudden, they suck for no apparent reason.
Blehhhhhhhhh.
No happiness, zero energy, and motivation drops off the face of the earth.
With that mood in mind, would one really want to go about and knead things? Make a big, flour-y, butter-y mess on one's kitchen table just to have a few biscuits? Is it too much work to line baking sheets with parchment?
Well, today...yeah, yeah it is.
This is where these miraculous things called drop biscuits come in. No cutting, no shaping, no kneading. Just a spoon and a hot skillet in the oven.
And, to make things seem all fancified, I'm calling them Greek. Because feta+kalamata olives+olive oil+oregano=Greek. Duh.
I was a little apprehensive when I stuck these in the oven. Joy's original recipe was all goat cheese, honey, and whole wheat. And seeing as I'm just not a fan of those things (albeit the honey), major adaptations were in order.
Goat cheese got me thinking feta, and feta got me thinking about Greek salad. Which is amazing and should be consumed by everyone every day. Somehow this stemmed into incorporating some of the main components of said salad into biscuits. Cut down the salt, bring out the all-purpose flour, chop some olives, throw in a little oregano...
Yes, I was nervous with all these changes, but you know what? It worked! Booyah.
Now, if I'd had an actual mound of cucumbers and tomatoes lying around, I'd definitely be whipping up a Greek salad and piling it onto biscuits halves. That sounds really weird, but I'm pretty sure it'd be amazing.
But, in lieu of that, hummus is always a good idea.
Really though, these guys don't even need all that fuss. They're good just as they are. Soft, fluffy, a hint of chew on their olive oil-browned bottom, perfectly subtle aroma of oregano, and studded with chunks of salty olives and feta.
30-Minute Greek Drop Biscuits. What now, Monday?
Greek Drop Biscuits
Yield: 4-6 biscuits
Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
- 2 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese
- 1/2 cup cold buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, for greasing the pan
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place a cast-iron skillet (Preferably a 10-inch, but at least a 6-inch one will do. If all else fails, use a cake pan.) in the oven as it preheats.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, and oregano. With a fork, gently toss in the kalamata olives. Add the cold butter and feta cheese and quickly incorporate into the flour mixture with your fingers, do this until the butter and cheese chunks are roughly the size of small pebbles and oat flakes. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Pour the buttermilk into the well and use the fork to stir together. Stir until all the flour is moistened and no dry bits remain. Set aside.
Remove the hot skillet from the oven and add the olive oil, swirling the pan about so the bottom is coated. Spoon the batter into the pan by the 1/4 cupful, leaving about an inch of room between biscuits. They will bake up touching one another, that's fine. If you can't fit all your batter in at once, place it in the fridge while the biscuits bake.
Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until the tops are very lightly golden, appear dry, and are slightly firm. Remove from the oven and let rest in the pan for 5 minutes. Repeat with remaining batter as needed.
Best served immediately, but will keep for up to 3 days, well-wrapped, at room temperature.
Sources: inspired by Joy the Baker's Cookbook
