Tomato Basil Biscuits

Tomato Basil Biscuits are a deeply savory, herb-filled quick bread that goes with breakfast eggs, with a bowl of soup, or as a sandwich or snack.

It you haven’t yet discovered the versatility and delight of savory biscuits (or scones), let today’s recipe be your guide.

It’s from a new cookbook (more about the book below the recipe), and it shows off how easy it is to make biscuits, which don’t have to wait for yeast to make them rise. In that way, they are a quick bread, leavened by baking powder and baking soda, so you can have them in the oven quickly, and be eating them soon after you think you want them.

How to make Tomato Basil Biscuits

They’re easy because they’re basically a quick bread (no yeast). You’ll need:

All purpose flour
Sugar
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt
Cold unsalted butter
Fresh basil
Fresh parsley
Fresh rosemary
Sun-dried tomatoes
Crushed tomatoes
Garnish: Garlic butter or Parmesan cheese

1. You make them as you would a standard biscuit. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and soda and salt. Cut in butter. (I did this in my stand mixer because I find it easiest that way, but you do you and use a pastry blender if you like.) Stir in herbs (I didn’t have fresh parsley, so I doubled the basil), and sun-dried tomatoes. Stir in crushed tomatoes and you’ll see it quickly becomes dough at this point.

2. Lightly press dough into prepared 8-inch-square baking dish, and the score it into 9 pieces, so it will be easier to cut after baking, as shown above.

3. Bake and remove from oven. You can brush garlic butter over the top if you like, or do as I did and sprinkle a bit of shredded Parmesan cheese on them while they are still hot. It will melt and adhere.

4. Check them out up close! You can see the sun-dried tomato pieces and the herbs in here.

5. Serve either warm or at room temperature. They are good for breakfast with scrambled or fried eggs, or buttered as a snack.

6. Or you can split them and make a slider or sandwich out of them, as I did here. These have sliced cucumber, sliced salami and some more sun-dried tomato halves. It made a great lunch! I also ate one for breakfast with a fried egg, but I forgot to photograph it. You can imagine it.

Questions and answers regarding Tomato Basil Biscuits

1. What’s the difference between biscuits and scones?

The creator of this recipe, Father Dominic Garramone, a monk who bakes, named these scones, but I think they are more a biscuit texture, so I renamed them. In general, both biscuits and scones and very similar, and involve flour, fat, perhaps some dairy, leavener, salt and some flavoring. They’re bready and slightly sweet and bake quickly. The both can be round, square, triangular or blob shaped (if you do drop biscuits or drop scones). The nomenclature might depend on what hemisphere, country or region you live in! In general, American scones are sweet-ish, most often triangle wedge shaped, and crumbly, including cream and egg. In America, biscuits don’t have eggs, and if they have dairy it’s more likely buttermilk than cream. They’re meant to be more flaky and soft. However you think about them, they are often interchangeable, and the name depends on where you are from.

2. What’s so great about savory biscuits?

They’re the best! You can eat them for breakfast (with eggs), for lunch as either the bread in a sandwich or split them and make an open-face melted cheese or tuna melt! Or you could eat them along with a bowl of soup. They’re not wrong as a snack, either.

Tomato Basil Biscuits

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: 9 biscuits

Tomato Basil Biscuits

Tomato Basil Biscuits are a deeply savory, herb-filled quick bread that goes with breakfast eggs, with a bowl of soup, or as a sandwich or snack.

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (this is 1/2 a stick) unsalted cold butter, cut into slices
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil (or sub 2 teaspoons dried basil if you must)
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley (or sub 1 tablespoon dried if you must)
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary (sub 1/4 dried and ground, if you must)
1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes (drained, if in oil)
3/4 cup crushed tomatoes
.
OPTIONAL GARNISH: melted garlic butter and/or Parmesan cheese

Directions

Heat oven to 425F degrees. Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking dish and set it aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (Dorothy's note: I cut the butter in on low speed with my KitchenAid mixer. It takes 30 seconds or so.) Stir in basil, parsley, rosemary and sun-dried tomatoes until well combined.
Add crushed tomatoes and mix until dough forms into a ball. Take dough out of bowl and place in prepared pan. Press dough in evenly, and using a bench knife or spatula, cut into nine squares. This will make it easier to cut after baking.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until browned and the scones are slightly firm to the touch. Take pan out of oven and allow to cool in pan for 10-15 minutes, before cutting again, following original cut lines.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Makes 9 biscuits.

Notes

Recipe source: "Breakfast Breads & Sweet Treats," by Father Dominic Garramone, OSB (Reedy Press; $35)

https://www.shockinglydelicious.com/tomato-basil-biscuits/

About the cookbook

This easy recipe for Tomato Basil Biscuits comes from a charming new cookbook called “Breakfast Breads & Sweet Treats,” {affiliate link} by Father Dominic Garramone, OSB, who is a monk of Saint Bede Abbey in Peru, Illinois. He’s written 10 cookbooks, had a PBS cooking show called “Breaking Bread with Father Dominic,” for a couple of years, and still does cooking pledge break specials for public television. So you might have seen him on the tube! His folksy, conversational writing style will charm you as you go through the book, marking nearly every page with a bookmark so you can try something later. Breakfast is his favorite meal, and he takes us through English Muffin Bread, Welsh Cakes, Butter Pecan Breakfast Bread, Elephant Ears. There’s even a Zucchini Crisp, Almond Bear Claw Pastries, Cheesy Egg Puffs, and more.

He calls this recipe Tomato Basil Scones, but I after making it, I think of it more as a biscuit texture so I renamed it. If you like the idea of savory scones, he also has a Bacon Cheddar Chive Scone that’s right up my alley. I recommend this book for bakers or bakers-to-be (it would make a great gift book!), and most of the recipes are easy enough for beginners, but interesting enough for more experienced bakers, too.

Pin the image below for Tomato Basil Biscuits to your Pinterest board to save this recipe

Thanks for visiting…are you hungry for more? Follow Shockingly Delicious on…

FACEBOOK | PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER

…for all the latest recipes, ideas and updates!

This post may contain affiliate/referral links. It is a way for this site to earn advertising fees (at no cost to you) by advertising or linking to certain products and/or services that I approve and prefer. Thank you for using my affiliate link to shop, so I can continue to bring you shockingly delicious recipes!

Tagged as: bsicuit, cookbook review