Just here to cook

Spelt is a staple in my kitchen, it produces a tender crumb with a slight nuttiness. I like my flour to taste of something… to taste of wheat… and Spelt has a pronounced, yet, gentle wheat flavor, made all the more delicious from having been stone-milled as a whole grain. It’s also a beautiful wheat variety to combine with walnuts- the comforting earthiness of the two singing the song of autumn! And of course, walnuts love a good aged cheddar- if I’d had Stilton, that would have been my first choice- but just a regular old white aged cheddar did the trick just fine. And then of course Thyme- pinched from the garden: sweet, savory, and.. well.. thyme-y!

Spelt Cheddar Biskies with Walnuts & Thyme

Yield: 6 biscuits
Oven: Preheat to 400F and bake for 15-17 minutes
Time Investment: 20-ish minutes including bake time, plus minimum 15 minutes freezing time before baking

In a large bowl, add:

• 1 1/2 c Spelt
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 Tbs unsalted butter, cold, sliced into squares

Using a pastry cutter, blend the butter into the flour until the butter is the size of little peas, then switch to your hands and rub the dough between your palms form one end to the other, forming sheets of flour combined with butter that drop and break into shards in the bowl (this creates a flaky layering in the biskies). Once all the butter is incorporated into the flour, and the texture resembles damp sand, add the following:

• 1/2 c freshly grated aged cheddar
• 3-4 springs of thyme, leaves pulled off (about 1-2 tsp)
• 1/2 c walnuts, finely chopped

Using your hands, mix all the ingredients together. Then,

In a measuring cup, mix together with a whisk and pour into the dough:

• 1/2 c plain yogurt (greek or regular)
• 1/2 c heavy cream

Using a spoon or rubber spatula, mix the ingredients until it seems like your hands will be the more effective tools. Gently knead and roll the dough around until it picks up all the dry bits in the bowl and forms a ball.

Dust your work surface, pour the dough onto it, and with the palm of your hand, methodically flatten the ball into a disk that’s as thick as your pointer finger’s first knuckle from the tip.

Brush the surface with heavy cream

Sprinkle with Maldon Salt

Cut into 6 equal triangular pieces (1/2 down the center, then 3 and 3)

Place the triangles onto a lined sheet pan or plate and place in the freezer for at least 10-15 minutes or up to an hour to fully freeze.
* If you fully freeze these babies, you can remove them from the sheet pan, place them in a ziplock, and bake them directly from frozen at a later date. This is how they are best! But a slight freezing is still good to create the layered flakiness we all adore so in a biscuit!

Place the biskies on a lined sheet pan and bake in a 400F oven for 15-17 minutes. You’ll know they’re done when the top is golden brown and the kitchen is awash in the perfume of baked flour and butter.

Let them cool for at least 10 minutes on the counter before breaking into one- if you can wait that long!

These keep well in an air tight container overnight, but they’re really the best still slightly warm 15-ish minutes out of the oven. Spelt creates a more tender crumb, so they can be a bit crumbly if you try to cut them in half and butter them while they’re still warm. Honestly, they don’t even need it! We enjoyed these with a french omelette and cup of tea.