Scallion & Gochujang Biscuits
Nibbles and Bites Issue #2: Will it Biscuit?
Savory biscuits studded with butter and scallion greens, and laminated with heaps of gochujang paste for a rippled effect. These biscuits are super flaky, spicy and delicate.
Last year around the holidays, when food publications started churning out copious amounts of Christmas cookie recipes, a particular cookie recipe caught my eye: Eric Kim’s Gochujang Caramel Cookies. Eric’s recipe is straightforward and simple, but quite genius. The results elevate the humble sugar cookie and utilize gochujang in a completely new way.
In his recipe, Eric has you mix together one tablespoon of butter, a bit of brown sugar and a tablespoon of gochujang. This mixture is then folded into a basic sugar cookie dough, creating little ripples and rivers of deeply colored gochujang caramel throughout the dough, and as the cookies bake, little puddles of chewy caramel form. The spicy flavor, as Eric says, is reminiscent of a snickerdoodle and he’s spot on in that description. There is something deeply nostalgic, but also new and exciting about this cookie that got me hooked.
I’m not saying that there is a prescribed season for cookies that we’ve moved past, but I did want to take the flavors of these cookies and turn them into a biscuit that could be eaten more regularly year-round and felt less like dessert. So that’s just what I did!
I baked my first batch of these biscuits the day before a 10k race that I participated in this weekend, and I was so excited to try them as a post-run treat. I enjoyed them slathered in maple butter and with a side of fried eggs, but I noticed a few flaws in the recipe that I wanted to improve on.
In the second, more refined version I used plain butter in the biscuit instead of making a brown sugar and gochujang compound butter. I then layered the biscuits with generous amounts of gochujang paste between folds. I wanted to achieve more distinct ripples of gochujang post-bake with these changes. I also removed the ground ginger from my original recipe because its flavor couldn’t be detected among the other spices and I do not believe in unnecessary ingredients in a recipe.
Below is the new and (I think improved) zesty gochujang biscuit recipe. It really does pack a punch! 🌶️ 💥
Scallion & Gochujang Biscuits
Ingredients
4 scallions, thinly sliced
12 tbsp unsalted butter, diced and divided
3 tbsp gochujang
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 ½ tsp Diamond Crystal Salt
1 ¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 ¼ cup sour cream
Instructions:
Place a rack in the middle of the oven; preheat to 425°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Thinly slice the scallions. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter on the stovetop or in the microwave. In a large bowl, whisk together the salt, baking powder, baking soda, and flour until combined.
Add the cold, diced butter to the bowl of dry ingredients. Toss to coat and mash the butter into the dry ingredients. Flatten the pieces of butter between your thumbs and fingers until there are thin flakes of butter and pea-sized pieces. Add the sliced scallions and toss to combine.
Add the sour cream to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Work the sour cream into the flour until large clumps form and fold it over a few times in the bowl until everything comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until everything is incorporated.
Pat dough into an 8x4” rectangle about 1” thick. Spread half of the gochujang across the top of the dough and sprinkle with half of the brown sugar, fold the shorter sides of the dough in thirds into the middle like a letter. Pat the dough back out into a 8x4” rectangle. Spread the top with the remaining gochujang and sprinkle with remaining brown sugar, folding the dough over itself in thirds one more time in order to create flaky layers with distinct layers of gochujang rippled throughout.
Cut the 8x4” rectangle in half lengthwise, then cut each half crosswise into 4 squares for a total of 8 biscuits. Transfer biscuits to the prepared baking sheet and place in the fridge for 10 minutes to allow the butter to set. Brush the tops gently with melted butter; sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
Bake biscuits until golden brown, 18–22 minutes. Serve the biscuits warm.
After sampling batch #2, I think the answer to whether Eric Kim’s gochujang cookies can be transformed into a savory biscuit is clear: it’s a resounding yes. I will say, as you can see above, they look a bit like a saucy slice of lasagne pre-bake, but there is nothing wrong with that and the end results are excellent.
I’m also dying to try this recipe with some jam folded between the layers to see if it works. It could get a little messy, but why not pre-smear your biscuit with your favorite topping to save yourself the trouble later on?
Let me know if you enjoyed this recipe, and if you want to see more spins on other popular recipes. If you have any particular ones you love in mind, send them my way.
I hope you have a happy and tasty week ahead! Thanks for reading! ✨
- Kristen