These are simple to make and a cross between Welsh cakes and a scones. The little cherry biscuits bake up slightly crunchy, sort of like a cookie, and have a bit of nuttiness from white whole-wheat flour. The biscuits are mildly sweet and get a nice tang from the dried cherries. I recommend using your food processor to mix up the biscuits, which will take only a few minutes. The resulting dough is easy to roll out on a piece of waxed paper, saving you from a messy counter cleanup project. I make the biscuits fairly thin so that I can easily pop them into the toaster to reheat. The biscuits are great as a snack, breakfast treat, or with dinner. If you'd like more of a dessert biscuit, or you just like chocolate, you can add a quarter cup of mini chocolate chips to the dough before you roll it out. The result will be quite acceptable--especially if you serve the biscuits warm and oozing bits of warm chocolate.
Tart Cherry Biscuits -- Makes 12-18
1½ cups of flour
1 cup of white whole-wheat flour
½ teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of baking powder
½ cup of Smart Balance or butter
¼ cup of sugar
2/3 cup of low-fat milk
Grated zest of half an orange or a clementine
1/2 cup of dried tart cherries
1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips (optional)
1-2 teaspoons of low-fat milk
Raw (or turbinado) sugar for sprinkling
Heat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or coat it with nonstick spray. Put the flours, salt, and baking powder in a food processor and pulse to mix them. Add in dollops of Smart Balance or pieces of butter and pulse a few times until little granules or pea-like pieces form. Add in the sugar, milk, and zest and pulse again until a soft dough forms. Add the tart cherries and pulse again. Don’t over pulse--just a quick pulse is plenty. Dump the dough out onto a piece of lightly floured waxed paper and pat the dough into a circle about 1/2-inch thick (adding in the chocolate chips, if you'd like). Cut the dough into smallish wedges or use a cutter to make round or other shapes. Re-roll the scraps gently. Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet, and with your fingers, moisten the tops with a little milk. Sprinkle a little raw sugar on top of each biscuit, and bake the biscuits 10-15 minutes or until medium brown on top. Cool the biscuits a few minutes before serving them.
