What to Do With All That Whey – Make Biscuits!

As you may recall, we recently delved into the wonderful world of cheese-making. And when we did, we told you to save up all that leftover whey, as we’d be featuring it in a recipe sometime soon. Soon, dear cooks and bakers, has arrived.

Now, what if you don’t happen to have embarked on the previously mentioned cheese-making adventure, and thus don’t have a jar of whey kicking around in the back of your fridge? Fret not, for this recipe is charmingly adaptable, and you can use just about any liquid dairy product you happen to have on hand: milk, buttermilk, cream, even leben thinned down with a bit or water or milk would be great.

Biscuits are most often associated with the American South, but they are essentially just individual-sized quickbreads, and can go with any kind of food. Think dinner rolls, without the yeast and the waiting. The recipe comes together in ten minutes, and bakes in maybe twelve more. When the craving for an alternative to pita hits, these are just the way to go. Plus, they’re a great way to use up dairy on the verge: biscuit-making is the perfect rescue mission for a carton of milk that’s about to turn funky.

Whole Wheat (Whey) Biscuits

• 2 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 110g (8 tbsp) butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 scant cup whey, milk, buttermilk, cream, or thinned-down leben

1. Preheat oven to 225°C/450°F.
2. Sift together dry ingredients over a large bowl.
3. Using a pastry cutter or your fingertips, work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. You aren’t aiming for uniformity or trying to blend things together completely: the little bits of butter are what create flakiness. (See picture if you’re not sure what we mean.)
4. Add the whey/milk/whatnot and stir gently with a fork until the dough begins to come together. Turn it out onto a floured work surface, and gently knead into a cohesive ball: this should only take about 4 or 6 turns.
5. Using a rolling pin or your fingertips, flatten the dough to about 2cm thickness. Flour the rim of a glass and use it to cut out the biscuits. Re-roll scraps of dough and form more biscuits, until all the dough is used up.
6. Place biscuits on a non-stick or oiled cookie sheet, and bake until puffed and golden, about 12 minutes.

Makes about 12 biscuits (depending on the size of your cutter).

Author: Hamutal Dotan

Hamutal never planned to become obsessed with food, much less with sustainable food. It crept up on her when she wasn’t looking. At first it was pure self-defense: her parents, though well intentioned, had no idea what to do in a kitchen, and so she had to learn a bit about cooking, sheerly for the sake of her sanity. Chopping things, it turned out, was great for soothing the savage teenager. Skip ahead several years, and she’d figured out that making your own jam from local organic berries was even grander. Love of food led to love cooking, led to love of ingredients, led to love of markets, led to love of farmers, led to love of land. Hamutal is profoundly convinced that sustainability and pleasure are the best of friends, and tries to write about both of these in equal measure. She can be reached at hamutal (at) green prophet (dot) com.