Lilac Breakfast Biscuits

Light and fluffy Lilac Breakfast Biscuits are not your average biscuit. They are only slightly sweet, but they are very aromatic and pretty too! Some refer to these as tea biscuits, but they’re quite large and too special to be just a biscuit. Prepare these for a weekend family breakfast or make them a part of a guest brunch – they really are quite impressive!

I grew up in a home where tea biscuits were the norm. Tea biscuits were the answer to almost everything. They were sometimes eaten with butter and tea for breakfast or as a grab-and-go snack in the afternoon. If we were going on a day trip, which sometimes meant a blueberry picking excursion, tea biscuits were often packed with an apple and a mason jar filled with Tang or Kool-Aid. None of those tea biscuits were ever as extravagant as these Lilac Breakfast Biscuits!

No, our tea biscuits were either just plain, which is the way I liked them most. Sometimes, they would be baked with raisins or even apricots. And, other times, they were flavoured with spices and molasses. If memory serves me correctly, the molasses type was always called lassy buns, while the others were called buns or raisin buns. I wonder what my mom would think of these lilac biscuits. She was quite particular and not adventurous at all when it came to trying something new, so I doubt she would do anything but screw up her nose at them!

I think everyone’s mom had a tea biscuit recipe that they would turn to over and over again. The majority of my story here will refer to my mom’s tea biscuits. It’s important to note that the recipe below is not her recipe. It is an updated version. It has the same base, but I’ve added lilac and lilac-infused ingredients!

THREE WAYS TO ENJOY BISCUITS

In our home, Mom’s tea biscuits were almost always present.  To my knowledge, tea biscuits were eaten in three ways.  The first is probably the most obvious – they were often consumed with a hot cup of tea. They were usually eaten as a snack, light lunch, or for breakfast.

Home-packed lunches were also a place where tea biscuits would show up.  If we were going berry picking or hunting rabbits – anything that involved being away from home, tea biscuits tagged along. My mom would slice them in half, smear them with butter, and sandwich them together.  Wrapped in plastic wrap, the tea biscuits would be eaten at the first sign of hunger.

The third way was in the form of a dessert.  In our family home, desserts were not always present in the form of a pie or a cake. But, every meal ended with something a little sweet. Tea biscuits, again served with a liberal smearing of butter and hot tea, were the norm.  The tea had to be King Cole brand! I can also remember eating them as a bedtime snack!

THE CLASSIC VERSION LIVES ON

My dad still makes the same version that my mom used to make.  In retrospect, I’m not sure if Mom ever did bake them more than my dad.  My dad was never one of those men too afraid to throw around a little baking soda and flour!

I remember tea biscuits being made at least once a week while my dad was away at work.  For much of my childhood, my dad would go to work out of town late Sunday night. We wouldn’t see him again until later in the evening on Friday.  So, my mom is going to win the honour of being assigned the master of the tea biscuit in our family.

I encourage you to make these Lilac Breakfast Biscuits as soon as you can.  Oh, also, try smearing them with butter.  (Oh, I wish I could go back and eat one of these fresh from mom’s oven with a nice helping of Eversweet butter!)  If you’re not a tea drinker, a coffee will do just fine.  I swear, you’ll love the aromatic rustic flavours so much, you just might eat two!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THIS RECIPE

You will need Lilac Infused Sugar to make these biscuits. You can make the biscuits with regular sugar, but the end result won’t be quite right. The biscuits will still taste delicious, but they won’t have that strong, aromatic lilac scent and flavour I mentioned in the introduction. The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

DRY INGREDIENTS:

• Flour – I always use all-purpose flour, unless otherwise stated. I have not tested this recipe with other flour alternatives.
• Lilac Infused Sugar – Making your own lilac sugar is easy to do. I have the instructions right here. It does take five days to make lilac sugar, so you can use regular granulated sugar if you must. The scone will still be delicious, but will not be as flavourful nor as scented as it should be.
• Baking Powder – This is used to increase the volume of the batter and to add texture as well.

WET INGREDIENTS:

• Butter – I’m using salted butter. If you use unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon of salt when you add in the flour. It is imperative that your butter is softened.
• Lemon Juice – Freshly squeezed lemon juice should always be used in recipes unless the recipe specifically states bottled lemon juice. 
• Milk – When a baking recipe requires milk, I always use whole milk, unless otherwise stated. 
• Eggs – Whenever you set out to bake, make sure your eggs are at room temperature too – just like your butter!
• Lilac Syrup – Lilac syrup is very easy to make at home. Click here for the instructions. It only takes a few minutes to make and a few hours to steep and cool. If you don’t have any lilac syrup, you can vanilla extract. The lilac flavour and scent will be less than it should be, but the scone will still be delicious!
• Lilac Petals – Read the next section on how to collect and clean lilac petals.

HOW TO MAKE LILAC BREAKFAST BISCUITS

Begin by preheating your oven to 375 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the flour, lilac sugar, baking powder, salt (if using unsalted butter) and butter. Use a fork to smash the butter into the flour mixture. Be sure to distribute the butter throughout until the flour and sugar mixture has a coarse, crumbly texture. Next, add the lilac petals and stir them through. Set that aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, lemon juice, and lilac syrup. Pour this mixture into the flour mixture and stir with a fork until mixed through. As the liquid picks up more of the flour mixture, it will become increasingly harder to stir with the fork. At that point, remove the fork and knead the dough until a dough ball is formed. Don’t overwork the dough! It’s okay to have some crumbly bits.

Lightly flour a clean surface and transfer the dough to it. Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to 3/4 inch thick. Use a floured biscuit cutter to cut out the dough. Form the leftover dough into a ball, re-roll it with your rolling pin and cut more biscuits. Bake on a silicone-lined baking sheet for 18-20 minutes or until the biscuits are puffy and lightly golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

HOW TO GATHER LILACS

Use pruning sheers to snip clumps of lilacs from your tree. Fill your kitchen sink with cold water and dunk the lilac branches, one at a time. Gently shake the branch under the water and then lift it straight out. Do this several times. Transfer the branch and/or clump to a salad spinner and spin out the excess water. The lilacs may still be a bit damp, but they won’t be impossible to work with. Don’t be tempted to overwash and over-spin in the salad spinner. Lilacs are delicate, so treat them as such.

Here are the suggestions that I have followed. These are suggestions that I have read over the past few years from others who have prepared lilacs to eat. First, only use lilac petals from a tree that you know 100% has not been sprayed or treated with chemicals. Secondly, pick petals from trees that are not close to busy streets or highways. Those petals will be dirty with gas and diesel residue.

Please use pruning shears. Don’t break the branches with your hands or saw at them with a knife. This will damage the tree and you will want the tree to stay healthy for years to come. Oh, it’s also best to harvest the lilacs in the morning before it gets too hot. The petals have more moisture content in the morning.

SEPARATING THE PETALS FROM THE STEMS

So, I know that lilacs look gorgeous spilling out of large vases. And, every year, I have at least two large vases filled with them. But, they are great for baking too! Once you have cut and washed your lilacs, now comes to the tedious part. Removing the petals from the stems is certainly not hard work, but it’s tedious! This is how I do it.

With all of my washed lilac bunches in a large bowl, and a smaller bowl for collecting petals close by, I find a nice shady spot on our back deck. Next, I fetch a cold drink and get ready to harvest. Working with one bunch of lilacs at a time, hold the top of the petal and pull. The purplish-pink petal should release from the stem. The idea is to leave behind all traces of green. If you get a few bits of green, it won’t do any harm. But, too much will throw off the taste of your recipe.

This process is long and labourious. To make this recipe, you will need two cups of lilac petals. That doesn’t seem like much, but it takes some time. You should learn from my mistakes too, because the first time I did this, I did not sit in the shade. I ended up getting a sunburn! When all is said and done, these Lilac Breakfast Biscuits are beautifully fragrant and sweet.

STORING, PACKAGING, & FREEZING

When it comes to most biscuits, they taste best at room temperature, but they don’t hold up well to being left out on your countertop for long periods of time. Lilac Breakfast Biscuits will stay fresh in a cookie jar or food-safe container with a lid for 3-5 days if left to sit on your kitchen countertop. You can store them in a food-safe container in your fridge. When you want one, take it out of the container and place them in a single layer on a plate. Let them sit at room temperature for 5 minutes and they’re ready!

If you plan to freeze your biscuits, you certainly can! Once they are completely cooled, pile them into a clean, food-safe container. The container must be freezer friendly! You’ll want to ensure a very tight-fitting lid too. I use these quite often when freezing baked goods. I like to place a sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the container before pushing the lid on. This helps to create a better seal. The goal is to keep all of that freshness locked in!  You can freeze these biscuits for up to three months.