Deep Fried Honey

Preheat your oven to 425oF and lightly oil a 10″ cast iron skillet with butter or vegetable shortening. Set it aside.

Sift the dry biscuit ingredients into a metal bowl and  stir together to combine. Go ahead and toss all of the cubed butter into the bowl too and stick the bowl and your pastry cutter in the freezer or refrigerator.

Grab another bowl, a small one this time. To it, add all of the ingredients for the cinnamon filling. Whisk together well until a thick brown paste has formed, then set that aside. Don’t go nuts, you don’t need that much. Pull your bowls from the freezer and cut the butter into the flour. There should be chunks of butter throughout, but none larger than a pea.

Make a well in the center and pour in the cold buttermilk. Use a silicone or wooden tool to everything stir together, just until mixed. It shouldn’t take you more than 10-15 stirs. Too much stirring makes tough biscuits.

Flour a clean work surface – not too much, just a small dusting should be fine – and then turn the dough out and form into a large mound. Press it down and out with your fingers until the dough is about 1/2” thick.

Grab your biscuit cutter or glass. Press the cutter or glass directly down to the dough and do not twist, but spin. Move your hand around in a tight circle, keeping the cutter pressed against the work surface. This movement will form the biscuits into puffy circles, and hell them release from the work surface without sticking. Repeat until you’ve cut as many circles out of the dough as you can.

Place your biscuits in the skillet, sides touching. There should be just enough to fit the pan, with maybe one extra biscuit’s worth of dough left over. Once all of your biscuits are placed, stick the handle of a wooden utensil into some flour, then use the handle to make a small indentation in the center of each biscuit. I like to twist the handle around and widen the opening.

Spoon about 1/2 tablespoon into each indentation, then add the unsalted butter to the top of the biscuits, around the filling – alternatively, you can butter the tops before you fill them. Reserve the leftover filling.

Bake the Cinnamon Biscuits for 20-29 minutes, until golden brown on top. While the biscuits are baking make the glaze by combining the powdered sugar, vanilla bean paste, and milk in a small bowl.

When you pull the biscuits from the oven you’ll notice that most of the cinnamon filling has been absorbed into the biscuit. Go ahead and spoon a little more filling into each indentation again. Then, drizzle the biscuits with the prepared glaze. Serve hot. Dassit!