As a woman who hates waste (yeah – I’m cheap!), I was trying to come up with something to do with leftover feta cheese. True, it can always be a crumbled topping for salad, but I wanted something new. As I was looking for a bread recipe to post, I decided to merge the two. Biscuits! There were also a handful of pistachios lurking about, so I threw them in for crunch.

Once again, my frugality prevailed – PISTACHIO-FETA BISCUITS were a success! For those of you who have never made biscuits, it’s easy as pie (I felt obliged to use a food simile).

Note: I toyed with the idea of adding in leftover dried cranberries. Next time, I think I will.

PISTACHIO-FETA BISCUITS

• 390g (3 cups) all-purpose flour
• 2 T baking powder
• 60g (1/3) cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 112g (8 T) butter, room temperature
• 83g (2/3 cup) pistachio nuts
• 70g (2/3 cup) feta cheese, crumbled 
• 2 eggs
• 250g (1 cup) milk or cream (sometimes I use nonfat, sometime I use cream)

Preheat oven to 500º Fahrenheit. (You will lower the temperature when you bake the biscuits.)

Into the work bowl of your food processor, put the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Pulse a couple of times to mix. Cut butter into about 8 pieces and add to flour. Pulse 20 times to incorporate butter. Mixture should be crumbly.

Note:  If you don’t have a food processor, then do this by hand: using 2 knives, cross-cut the butter into the flour mixture.

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs with a fork just to break them up. Pour in milk, as you continue to beat eggs.

Set aside 2 tablespoons of this mixture to glaze the biscuits.

Stir the feta and pistachios into the egg mixture. Pour the flour mixture into the eggs, blending with a spoon until most of the flour is incorporated.

Empty the bowl onto a floured large breadboard or counter. Knead the dough about 20 times to unite all the flour into the batter. With your hands, shape the dough into a 1″ thick rectangle. Cut the dough into 12 squares.

Note: I prefer to cut squares – it’s faster and there’s no waste. You can cut circles, if you want, then gather the uncut dough and reform it so you can cut more circles. BUT – overworking dough can cause it to become tougher – not a good thing, so after re-gathering one time, just bake the odd bits as is – they’ll still taste wonderful.

Place cut pieces on baking sheet lined with parchment paper or greased. Brush with the egg/milk you set aside (you probably won’t use it all).

Put sheet in preheated oven. IMMEDIATELY LOWER OVEN TEMPERATURE TO 425º. (I can’t stress this enough!) Bake 10-12 minutes, until golden brown on top. Serve immediately for best quality.

Note:  Leftovers can be reheated in oven at 375º Fahrenheit for about 5 minutes – until hot to the touch (they’ll brown a wee bit more).