The Secret Behind Perfect Biscuits Is… Potatoes?
We all know a good biscuit when we see one. Pulling open a warm biscuit should give way to layer after layer of buttery, flakey pastry just waiting to be slathered with jam. A bite of a biscuit should be tender on the inside and crumble just a bit on the outside. How do you achieve such a delicate, unique biscuit texture? For Petee’s Pie Company in New York City, the answer is potatoes. Yes, those very potatoes you planned to turn into hash browns Sunday morning can actually be used to improve a classic biscuit recipe. When processed into tiny pieces with a ricer, cooked white potatoes become a valuable baking ingredient. Cut riced potatoes into the dry ingredients of a biscuit recipe for extra moisture in the finished product. Due to their starchy composition, potatoes also affect the structure of the finished biscuits. Like cornstarch in a cake, potatoes help soften the gluten in all-purpose flour and generate a lighter biscuit interior. If that weren’t enough reason to try it, potatoes also help the pastry stay fresh for longer after they’re baked—because is there really anything sadder than a stale biscuit? This method, used in the biscuits made at Petee’s, serves as the base for the restaurant's “bisquiche.” Half biscuit sandwich, half classic quiche, Petee’s bisquiche is a vegetable-packed quichelet sandwiched between a fluffy biscuit. One of those try it once, crave it every morning breakfasts, you can pick up a bisquiche at Petee’s Pie Company or make one yourself.Petee's Pie Company Bisquiche
