Salted Honey Ricotta Biscuits

For all your summer BBQ and shortcake needs!

You can thank our pizza oven for these biscuits.

We’ve been a homemade pizza family for years now; but a few months ago, after one too many rounds of broiling and high heat, our regular indoor oven screeched to a halt, flashing a dreaded error message.¹ It was just the push we needed to take the plunge and buy an outdoor pizza oven.

To justify our purchase, we’ve committed hard to weekly pizza nights. And weekly pizza nights means an omnipresent Costco-sized tub of ricotta in the fridge. And if I see something enough I will inevitably try throwing it into a baking project, which is how this cake and now these salted honey ricotta biscuits were born.

I wish I could say I nailed it the first time; but in truth these biscuits required several rounds of testing, mostly centered around how to treat the ricotta. I first tried using ricotta as a hydrator, replacing my usual buttermilk. While flavorful, the biscuits baked up a bit dense and I found I had to work the dough too much to get all the flour moistened with ricotta alone. Next I swung the other way, adding ricotta in addition to my normal amount of buttermilk. Due to the extra liquid, these biscuits were pleasantly moist and a little cakey, but also spread more. (One of my kids really loved this iteration, so I may revisit it in the future as a drop biscuit.)

I wanted a flakier biscuit, though; so I pulled back on the buttermilk for this final version — not too dense, not too flat, just tall and crisp-edged with a creamy, tender crumb. Topped with a glossy honey butter glaze and a hit of crunchy salt, they are equally at home as the foundation for fruity shortcakes or alongside fried chicken or ribs.

Shortcake your biscuit by topping with macerated or roasted berries + their juices and softly whipped cream. Make it saucy!

I’d love to hear from you — what else should I make with ricotta?

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Use a thick, good quality, full-fat ricotta for these biscuits. Mine didn’t need straining, but if you see any liquid pooling in yours, drain it in the fridge, in a cheesecloth-lined strainer set over a bowl, for an hour. Khorasan (or kamut) flour is one of my favorite whole grains to add to biscuits and pie doughs. It’s an ancient form of durum that adds both buttery flavor and color. If you can’t find it, substitute another whole grain such as whole wheat, spelt, or emmer.

Salted Honey Ricotta Biscuits

Makes 8 mediumish biscuits

Ingredients:

For the ricotta biscuits:

• 200g all purpose flour

• 50g khorasan (kamut) flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 8g (2 tsp) sugar

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 113g unsalted butter, cold

• 100g buttermilk, cold

• 165g whole-milk ricotta, cold

For the salted honey glaze:

• 30g unsalted butter

• 30g honey

• Flaky salt

Method:

Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C) with a rack in the center.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Scatter the cold butter pieces over the top and, using your fingers or a pastry blender, cut it into the flour mixture until the butter pieces are roughly the size of peas.

Drizzle the buttermilk over the top and gently fold it into the flour mixture using a flexible spatula. Continue to fold the dough onto itself a few times, just until the dough holds together but is still a bit shaggy with a few dry spots. Dollop the ricotta over the mixture, then continue folding until all the flour is all moistened and forms curds, but is not a cohesive dough, like this:

Turn the mixture onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper and use your hands to pat it into a rectangle about 1-inch (2.5-cm) thick. (It will still be very shaggy at this point; don’t worry!) Using a bench scraper or sharp knife, cut the dough into quarters. Stack the pieces on top of each other, sandwiching any stray floury bits between the layers. Pat or gently roll the dough back to an inch thickness, then repeat the cutting/stacking/rolling process once more, ending with the dough rolled into rectangle roughly 4.5” x 8” and an inch thick.²

If you want, cut a 1/4” strip off each side of the rectangle—this will help the biscuits rise more evenly. But to be honest, I never bother. Slide the dough still on the parchment onto a sheet tray and freeze for 15 minutes or until chilled, but not completely hard.

Meanwhile, make the honey glaze. Combine 30g unsalted butter and 30g honey in a small saucepan and heat over medium-low until the butter is melted, stirring occasionally.

When ready to bake, use a sharp knife to slice the chilled dough into a 4x2 grid, making eight equal pieces. Arrange on the sheet pan at least 2” apart. Brush the tops lightly with honey butter and sprinkle with flaky salt. (You’ll use the rest of the honey butter post-bake.)

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375F and bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until the tops and edges are golden. Due to the ricotta these tend to brown quickly, but don’t be tempted to pull them out too soon (tent them with foil if needed). These are tall biscuits and they need a bit of time to bake through! If you want to check the internal temperature, a fully cooked biscuit should register at least 200F in the very center.

Brush the biscuits, liberally this time, with more honey glaze (rewarmed gently if needed). Use up all the glaze!

Cool on the pan for 10 minutes before serving. Biscuits are best the day they’re baked, preferably still warm from the oven. But if you have any leftovers, store them airtight in the freezer and reheat at 325F for ~5 minutes; they’ll taste pretty close to fresh.

1. Thankfully, ye olde “turn it off and turn it on again” seemed to revive the oven and we’ve been error free since.

2. For a visual on the cutting/stacking step, which adds those flaky layers, see this reel! Different biscuit, but similar process. Note that I only did this once in the reel, but I now prefer two rounds for more layers.