Parmesan Basil Biscuits

The garden is exploding. Tomato plants knee-high and growing daily. Basil bushy and fragrant. The strawberries producing handfuls every other day. I'm running out of things to do with strawberries and have moved on to freezing them — bags of berries in the freezer, labeled and dated, summer preserved for winter. The Dawson tradition of never letting food go to waste continues in a raised bed in Boise.

Mason's school had a science fair this week. He entered a project on crystal growth — he'd been growing crystals in jars since January, documenting the process with photos and measurements. His display was meticulous: typed labels, a graph showing growth rates, actual crystals in small containers. He won second place. He was pleased with second. He said, "First place had a volcano. You can't compete with a volcano." The maturity of this acceptance at seven years old is either admirable or concerning.

Lily informed me this week that she is "the fastest reader in kindergarten," which may or may not be true but which she states with the absolute conviction that makes debate impossible. She's reading simple chapter books now — the kind with large print and illustrations every few pages — and she reads them aloud to Hank, who listens without judgment, which is the ideal audience for a five-year-old's reading voice.

I made strawberry jam from the garden berries — real jam, with pectin and sugar and the whole canning process. Four jars. Small jars, because the harvest is modest, but they're mine, and they glow on the counter like rubies, and each jar contains the sun and the dirt and the water and the waiting of an entire season.

The jam is done and the strawberries are in the freezer, but the basil is still out there — bushy and fragrant and absolutely refusing to be ignored. I’d already dried some and frozen a batch into ice cubes, and still there was more. These Parmesan Basil Biscuits became the answer: quick enough for a weeknight when Mason is recapping second-place crystal science and Lily is reading aloud to a very patient dog, and worthy enough to feel like a small celebration of everything the garden has given us this season.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 14 min | Total Time: 24 min | Servings: 10

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/3 cup cold butter, cubed
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
3/4 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon olive oil (for brushing)

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine dry ingredients. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and garlic powder in a large bowl until evenly mixed.
Cut in butter. Add the cold cubed butter and work it into the flour mixture with your fingertips or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with pea-sized bits of butter remaining.
Add cheese and basil. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh basil until distributed throughout the flour mixture.
Add milk. Pour in the milk and stir just until the dough comes together — do not overmix. The dough will be slightly sticky.
Shape biscuits. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat to about 3/4-inch thickness. Cut into rounds using a 2-inch biscuit cutter or the rim of a glass, pressing straight down without twisting.
Bake. Place biscuits on the prepared baking sheet, brush tops lightly with olive oil, and bake 12–14 minutes until golden on top and cooked through.
Serve warm. These are best straight from the oven, alongside soup, eggs, or simply with a little extra butter.

Nutrition (per serving)

Parmesan Basil Biscuits — When the Garden Gives You More Than You Can Preserve