Black Pepper Biscuits with Bourbon Molasses Butter

I've never been much of a salter. I don't put extra salt on my food unless it's tragically under-salted, which I find to be a rare occasion! The same goes for ketchup — I almost never put ketchup on food. Up until a few years ago, that included fries! I'm much more of a mustard person. Mustard on EVERYTHING! The same goes for pepper — it's clearly the winner of the salt/pepper combo, in my book! When I ran across this recipe in Food & Wine this spring I knew I had to make it. I'd just recently made black pepper snickerdoodles — which were the first time I'd really used pepper as a main character in a baked good — and since those were INCREDIBLE I jumped right on this recipe!

First off, this is a great biscuit base recipe. They turned out perfectly. They were fluffy, layered, moist, and perfectly steamy when eaten warm out of the oven! Second, the pepper takes them up a BIG notch! How can such a simple, common spice make something so different? I'm all about it. No need for ten thousand magical ingredients to make something delicious: keep it simple! Third, umm have you seen the butter? Bourbon molasses? and BUTTER? I don't even need to explain how awesome that is. Bourbon and molasses are probably long lost lovers — their flavors go so well together, I'm surprised that flavor combo isn't plastered all over the internet. Maybe it is and I'm just living under a rock... this is entirely possible, despite the ridiculous amount of time I spend on Pinterest. Whoopsies!

Flavored butter is, again, one of those simple things that feels really special. When I was a kid we would always have orange butter with some sort of bread {I don't remember if it was just plain rolls, or something more eccentric? Mom?} at Christmas. I can still taste that orange butter — it's so simple, and SO DARN DELICIOUS! Now I'm going off on an orange-butter train in my head/taste buds... Isn't it great how you can extend your imagination to your taste buds? I'm a big daydreamer, and my taste buds definitely come into play often. BACK ON TRACK: BISCUITS! And bourbon molasses butter! Distracted much? Yes.

I probably don't need to tell you this, but just in case you live under a biscuit-less rock: you need to eat these warm, straight out of the oven. It's the only way to eat a biscuit, IMHO! Take that hot pan out of the oven, grab a hot coal-of-a biscuit, and pull that sucker open! If you've folded the dough (as you WILL, right?), you'll have some seriously buttery layers of biscuity goodness. This is the moment you take your molasses butter and slather it on — the more the better! It'll melt right in immediately and give you one heck of a taste experience upon first bite! Enough visualization for you? NEVER. I'm re-living this eating experience, so you're just gonna have to put up with me. I guess that's why you're here reading, though, right? You LOVE putting up with me! HA.

The only real difference between the recipe I've listed below, and the original recipe from F&W, is that I upped the amount of pepper and molasses. I figure if you're going to go after it, why not go all the way? You can't just half-ass it! I wanted to TASTE the pepper (which is still subtle, even with the amount I put in), AND the molasses! If you're more on the "I love bland food" train, feel free to cut down on the amounts. {If you're on that train, are you really reading my blog?} Most of all, ENJOY! These are little warm nuggets of heaven!

Black Pepper Biscuits with Bourbon Molasses Butter

• Author: adapted from Food & Wine May 2014
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 12 1x

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

---

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• Bourbon-Molasses Butter
• 4 Tbsp unsulfured molasses
• 1 Tbsp bourbon
• small pinch of cinnamon
• 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• Biscuits
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 Tbsp coarsely ground black pepper, plus more for topping
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 stick plus 6 tablespoon unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
• 2 cups cold buttermilk, plus more for brushing

---

Instructions

1. To make the butter, combine the molasses, bourbon, and cinnamon in a small saucepan over low heat. Bring to a simmer, whisking, and cook for two minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool completely.
2. When cool, combine the molasses mixture with the butter in a food processor. Blend until smooth, and add salt to your taste. Transfer to a bowl, and let refrigerate.
3. For the biscuits, preheat the oven to 450F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, and baking soda. Cut in the butter with your fingers or a pastry cutter until the largest chunks are no bigger than peas.
5. Add the buttermilk, and gently fold together until a shaggy dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and gently knead together, folding over on itself to make a layered dough. Pat the dough down to 1" thick, and cut out out your biscuits. Combine the scraps to again make a 1" thick piece of dough, and cut more biscuits.
6. Arrange the biscuits on the baking sheet, brush lightly with more buttermilk and sprinkle with extra black pepper. Bake for 15 minutes, or until puffed and golden on top. Serve warm with the molasses butter.

---

Notes

I used a mini-biscuit cutter, and ended up with near 30 biscuits — and reduced my baking time. If you are making normal-sized biscuits, I'm guessing you'll end up with around 12 biscuits and should stick to the baking time listed here.