This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe – Saint Germain des Prés onion biscuits – was clearly not meant to be. Unless, of course you live in Australia where the above ^^^^^ is a perfectly acceptable rendition of what one might consider a “biscuit”. However, Dorie was not referring to what North Americans might call a “cookie” or a “cracker”, her recipe is for those fluffy bready things that Aussies might call a sort of a “scone”. Confused? You should be.
First off, I am not huge fan of biscuits (sorry food blog world). But Dorie’s recipe seemed so easy that I figured what could go wrong. I mean, as you will know if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram – I’m eatlivtravwrite there as well – or live with me, I have made SIX batches of macarons in the past three weeks. With little or no issue. I figured I could handle some flour and butter and milk, right? WRONG!
Seriously – what IS WRONG with me???? How could I mess this up? I might have rolled the dough a week bit thin (that was purposeful – I was going to make breakfast sandwiches with them and wanted them thinner) but they never ever rose at all. Not one millimetre. And they were crunchy. Kind of like shortbreads. Normally, I would be mortified and be back in the kitchen trying to get them right. If they were macarons, I definitely would have. But I don’t care for biscuits enough to have tried again. So I didn’t. And I had a wee glass of rosé with my “onion crackers”. And it was delicious. And I was ok with that.
French Fridays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs, rather, we prefer if you purchase Around My French Table for yourselves (trust me, you definitely want this book!) which you can do here on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Go on, treat yourself and join us this year!
Speaking of FRENCH, did you see my latest article for Food Network Canada – all about cooking classes in Paris!
AND – did you know – I am leading a foodie tour of Paris this July! Read all about it here.
Your crackers look so pretty! 😉
I can relate to your failure this week. To date I have never made a biscuit that rose properly or didn’t look like a little hockey puck. A true shame – I love biscuits!
Sigh. Thankfully I am not that big a fan but it’s frustrating that they didn’t work out!
Your “crackers” looks fabulous, Mardi 😉 And your food styling is impeccable as always! So sorry, though, that they didn’t rise…how frustrating!
I think they look gorgeous, even if they didn’t come out as intended. I can’t wait for our shipment – with all my cookbooks including Dorie’s – to arrive so that I can get into FFWD again!
Yay for books shipping to Thailand!
We can pretend you planned this super original take on Dorie’s recipe!
I think they look great and am excited at how they turned out for you!
Mine didn’t rise but just looked like flat pancakes, so very impressed with your “crackers!”
Right but if you call yours “crackers” too then it’s fine!!
Weird! I am so curious as to what happened … it reminds me of a time I was trying to make a soft kind of flatbread and it turned into these giant crispy crackery things. To this day I do not know what I did … just go with it, right? : )
Oh, Mardi! They still look pretty. I truly hope you were able to enjoy a glass of wine with them.
Considering the magic you create with macarons, I think you can safely relegate these to bottom of the pile and never look back.
I will be doing just that!
I think the perfect wine pairing for these are….anything that soothes the soul of a frustrated baker. 😉
Haha!
They may not be “proper” biscuits, but they certainly do look delicious! Why is it that biscuits are so tricky? For something that doesn’t taste that magical, they sure are prima donnas! If you hadn’t said that they were supposed to rise, I would never have guessed, they’re still gorgeous 🙂
Yeah, who would have thought that they are so difficult?
Maybe the baking powder lost its activeness?
I don’t think it’s that – I have used it in a ton of other recipes lately where it’s been totally fine.
I think your onion crackers look good…I think you’ve come up with a new, original recipe! After baking mine, which did not puff up as well as I’d have liked, I decided to toss my baking powder…time for a new can. But, honestly, I like your crackers.
Nope don’t think so – it has been used and successfully in many other recipes recently…
These look great and I love the use of onion 🙂 Looks like another winning recipe from this series!
Right except mine completely failed 😉
Ha! When things like this happen to me I just rebrand them. Call them “french crackers”. I’ll bet these were tasty if not so fluffy. Thanks for posting though. I wish we would all share more of the things that don’t work out so great.
Oh I am all about keeping it real. And yes, “rebranding” – love it!
Oh, Mardi, who cares if they fluffed up? Crackers are plenty good and you can do so many things with them that biscuits just don’t work right with. Besides I like crunchy and these look delicious, I mean.. onion and cracker.. add a little goat cheese on top and you’re good to go 😀
Oh yes, now goat cheese would have been good with these. I know though it I *tried* to make these like this I would never succeed. Sigh!
your {biscuits} look fantastic!
Thanks so much 😉
Great to see the post anyway! Nice to know that even great bloggers like you mess up every once in a while 🙂
Aw thanks so much! I believe in keeping it real! Plus, haven’t missed a FFWD yet!
Your crackers look delicious, certainly more photogenic than my biscuits.
Ha! I think those biscuits were lovely!
Weird! Mine came out thin and dry, but not THAT thin and dry. lol Who needs biscuits when your a master of macarons, anyway? Oh man, I love me some macarons. I’m impressed!
Oh thanks! I t bugs me when stuff this simple does not turn out though!
If I didn’t know those were supposed to be biscuits I would think they looked wonderful! I’m sorry these didn’t work out for you, but at least you enjoyed some of your “crackers” with a glass of wine.
Right, I should have just pretended like they were meant to be crackers! LOL!
Onion crackers sound fabulous!! Add a glass of wine and what could be better!
Yes they sound good, don’t they! Let’s just pretend like they are meant to be like that!
Interesting. I also purposely rolled my dough thinner, but did get a nice little rise. I wanted to use mine more like a piece of toast or bread. They look nice and flaky like a great little cocktail cookie. Just add wine, champagne or cocktail!
Totally, right? 🙂
Welcome. I love to have a sister-in-baking-disasters to moan and groan with. Although I had no trouble with this week’s baking power biscuits, I have had my share of baking disasters. I didn’t even attempt rugelach.
Ha, neither did I!!
Well, they look pretty. They are so flat, it made me wonder whether your baking powder has expired? Or you forgot to add? I guess if you’re not a huge biscuit fan, you’re not going to be trying these again. Oh, well. On to next week!
No my baking powder definitely has not expired as I explained above. And I definitely added enough. Oh well. You can’t win them all, right?
I love these and think they turned out just fine – the flavors sound delicious and the crumbly texture looks fabulous! I would gladly take them off your hands 🙂
LOL! Thanks!
Your pictures are really lovely & I would definitely eat those crackers! I don’t think it’s a failure at all.
Thanks! But they are not at all like they are supposed to be!!
Love the looks of your biscuit crackers! Wonder what happened? Your foodie tour of Paris sounds fabulous!
I have no idea what happened. At least they were tasty!
I had a similar problem when I made these biscuits yesterday. Flat and stodgy rather than tall and fluffy. Considered that my baking powder was out of date, but it wasn’t. This was the first recipe I’ve tried from Around My French Table and hope that the next one won’t be so disappointing. Plan on making the Lamb and Dried Apricot Tangine for family next Sunday. Slightly worried.
Well, as you can see, I’ve made a recipe from AMFT every week since October 2010 and can assure you that there are very few recipes that don’t “work”. Good luck!
I’ve just cottoned on to the focus of your website. I was directed here through a Google search for how others fared with the biscuit recipe and was focused on that. Please for the connection though. Great food blog.