Temporary restaurant closures don’t have to prevent you from providing Mom with a great Mother’s Day meal. We consulted two of Pepper Place’s culinary experts – Deborah Stone of Stone Hollow Farmstead and Chef Chris Hastings of OvenBird and Hot & Hot Fish Club – for two recipes that are easy enough for you to make at home, but good enough to impress Mom.

STONEHOLLOW CRISPY BOTTOM CATHEAD BISCUITS WITH BRIE AND HERBS

Sunday morning, while everyone else was getting gussied up for church, Deborah Stone’s grandfather, “Papa”, prepared his Cathead biscuits for the family. He would happily brag that they were larger than a cat’s head, but she was never sure this was a “thing” other than his “thing”! Therefore, before she named this recipe in his honor, she researched and learned that the term Cathead Biscuit is an authentic Southern term used to describe biscuits that were as large or larger than a cat’s head. Thank goodness for sweet memories and delicious recipe foundations to build upon!

INGREDIENTS:

  • Full Fat Buttermilk by Stone Hollow Farmstead (this milk is jersey cow milk, laden in rich cream)
  • White Lily Self-Rising Flour (this is a low protein flour and will produce light, fluffy biscuits)
  • Brie, chopped (Deborah’s favorite preference is the Triple Cream by Le Fromager, France)
  • Kerrygold Irish Butter
  • Fresh Thyme, Chives or Rosemary (optional)

**Special Tools for best success: Heavy cast iron skillet (we use lodge and smithy’s)

**While this recipe can be cooked in any pan, you won’t get the crispy bottoms without a cast iron skillet.

Hands-on prep Time: 15 minutes
Total cook Time: 25 Minutes
Yield: makes 10-12 cathead biscuits or 1 XL cathead (9-inch dinner plate)

RECIPE:

3 cups self-rising flour

2 ounces of Brie cut into small pieces and be sure to grate the rind!!

2 tablespoons fresh and chopped herbs

2 cups Stone Hollow buttermilk (cultured and thick and heavy in cream)

2 tablespoons of Kerrygold Irish butter

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Turn oven to 400 degrees and allow it to heat while you work.
  2. In a mixing bowl, measure out your flour and add to bowl.
  3. Add buttermilk and stir in until mixed but don’t over work the dough.
  4. Sprinkle herbs and cheese over dough and stir again gently, until mixed.
  5. Heat skillet on medium heat.
  6. Once skillet is mildly hot, add butter and melt. Turn heat off completely. (If skillet is to hot the butter will burn, if this happens, clean skillet and add more butter.
  7. At this point you can use the drop biscuit method and spoon in large spoonful’s of dough in a circle, intentionally allowing the biscuit dough to touch together or do as I did and take a short cut making a large dinner plate size biscuit.
  8. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes and then brown the top under the broiler.
  9. Enjoy with more Kerrygold butter as a biscuit for breakfast or dinner or top with fresh fruit and honey, whip cream etc. as a dessert.

OVENBIRD STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES WITH HONEYSUCKLE CRÈME FRAÎCHE

Serves 8

As a child, Chris’ family and would go out each May and pick strawberries from the local “pick your own” farms around Charlotte, North Carolina where they lived. His mother was a great cook and she loved the adventure of foraging for food as much as she did cooking. The smell and taste of a perfectly ripe strawberry that is still warm from the sun is one of his favorite food memories. Sadly, juicy ripe strawberries are hard to find these days. Look for fresh strawberries at your local farmers’ market that are red all the way through that are naturally sweet with a slight tanginess. You can use this shortcake recipe throughout the summer, switching out the strawberries for whatever berry is in season.

INGREDIENTS:

Strawberries
1 (16-ounce) container fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered (about 2½ cups)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Shortcakes
2 cups all-purpose White Lily flour, plus more for rolling out dough
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
½ cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced
¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon whole-milk buttermilk, divided
1 tablespoon coarse, raw sugar
1½ cups Honeysuckle Crème Fraîche

RECIPE:

To Prepare the Strawberries
Combine the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a small glass or stainless steel bowl. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

To Prepare the Shortcakes

  1. Mix together 2 cups of the flour, the baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until pea-sized pieces are formed. Refrigerate the flour and butter mixture, until well chilled, about 30 minutes.
  2. Slowly add ¾ cup of the buttermilk into the chilled flour mixture until a dough begins to come together. Be careful not to overmix or the shortcakes will be tough.
  3. Preheat the oven to 425˚F.
  4. Pour the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat down into a 1-inch thick circle. Using a 1½-inch round cutter, cut as many shortcakes as you can out of the dough. Gently pull together the dough scrapes and pat into a 1-inch thick circle. Continue cutting out shortcakes with remaining dough.
  5. Place the shortcakes onto an ungreased baking sheet and brush the tops with the remaining tablespoon of buttermilk. Sprinkle the coarse sugar evenly over the tops of the shortcakes. Bake at 425˚F for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown, remove from the oven, and cool slightly.
  6. Cut the shortcakes in half, horizontally, and place 2 halves on each of 8 dessert plates. Spoon ¼ cup of the macerated strawberries and their juices onto the bottom half of each shortcake. Place 2 to 3 tablespoons of the crème fraîche over each of the strawberries and top each with the top half of the shortcake.
  7. Serve immediately.