Ham biscuit brunch

One of things I love most about brunch is the ability to take leftovers, like last night’s ham, and pair it with homemade baking—to everyone’s delight.

Enter the decadent but super easy to make biscuit. Make a batch of these Martha Stewart-inspired biscuits, set out ham, cheese, pickles, mustard, rhubarb compote, and butter, then let your guests build their own brunch experience.

Of course any roast from the previous night would work here, but about once a year I try to make a mini-ham and this was the night. Because I don’t bake a ham very often, I always struggle to find a glaze that I think is worthy. Here’s my beef with ham glazes: they’re too sugary. Hot take: ham does not need brown sugar. Don’t at me.

My glaze consists of 1/4 cup of tamari, 2 tbsp dijon mustard, 1 tbsp olive oil, and 1 tbsp honey. I pop the mini-ham onto a sheet pan, score it with a knife a little too vigorously (it happens), nestle it in foil, then I add the glaze and about 1/4 cup of chopped pineapple for flavour and moisture.

Loosely cover that ham in tin foil, bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. It comes out beautifully.

That’s going to get sliced thickly for tomorrow’s biscuit sandwiches, so that the ham is as much the star as the homemade biscuit.

You can see I scored that too deeply. It doesn’t impact the flavour but, visually, I’m not entirely pleased. Ah well. Time for a good night’s sleep because I’m on baking duty in the morning—and I’m not the world’s greatest baker.

The trick to great baking is to follow the recipe, word for word. This does not seem to be in my DNA, so it’s a struggle, but I’m committed to follow this Martha Stewart biscuit recipe to a T. Let’s see if I can do it. First, my mise en place.

In a large bowl I’ve got three cups of all-purpose flour, 1 tsp kosher salt, 2-1/4 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp baking soda, and, begrudgingly, 1 tbsp of sugar. I try my best not to incorporate sugar in my food, but I’ve committed to following this recipe to the letter, so sugar goes in.

I’ve cubed up 1 stick + 2 tbsp unsalted butter and popped that back into the fridge to chill a bit before going into the flour mixture.

Butter is chilled and ready for me to work into the flour mixture. The goal here is to break that butter into little pearls that are incorporated throughout the flour.

I start with my pastry cutter but realize it’s not breaking down the butter chunks enough, so I get my hands in there until the butter is crumbled and incorporated throughout the flour mix. I create a well in my bowl and pour in 1 cup of buttermilk.

With a fork, I work the flour into the buttermilk until I’ve got a shaggy mess, then I plop the biscuit dough onto a sheet pan that’s lined in parchment paper. The parchment paper is key here, because we’re going to put that to work. We’re going to shape the dough into a rectangle, then fold it in half using the parchment paper.

Press down on that folded dough until it’s in a rectangle, turn it 90 degrees, then, using the parchment paper, fold the dough in half again, working the dough with the paper. Fold it over a couple of more times until the dough looks like it’s incorporated.

This dough looks ready. I cut it into six pieces, separate them a bit so they don’t touch while they’re baking, then brush the tops with buttermilk to encourage browning.

Into a 450 degree oven they go. I set the timer for 15 minutes and, after that, keep watch until they’re browned and ready to go (it took me 25 minutes in my oven). Now look at these babies: brown on top, buttery soft in the middle. And the place smells butter heaven.

Time for brunch!

I set out Nathans pickles, last night’s ham, butter, dijon, rhubarb compote, and some segmented orange pieces on the side. Everyone gets to build their sandwich and, as long as you like ham, it’s a beautiful thing.

— Trish Hennessy