Boxed to Boujee Laminated Red Lobster Biscuits

Ouuh!! Say no more, boxed to boujee? Lamination? I don't know about you but I think you can fool anyone that you are one professional baker!

Boxed sides are my favorite easy-prep meals that I keep in the pantry. They have a very long shelf life and they are effortless. Even though I love these easy-prep boxed baked goods, sometimes they dry-up too quick. Biscuits are notorious for drying up, I swear. Once they reached room temperature, they become a hard, crumbly puck. and warming up them up means, they get even dryer than before. What's a girl to do?

These are made from Red Lobster's original biscuit mix. They are already pre-seasoned so you do not need to add anymore sugar, salt or spices. According to the box, all you ever really need is 3/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup of shredded cheese for the dough, and 1/4 cup of butter to add with the garlic seasoning pouch to brush after it's baked.

But if there's one thing I really want to improve on, is the moisture and flavor of this biscuit. Even though the ingredient list already said it contained some sort of dehydrated soybean enriched oil, the biscuits still have a dryness to them and isn't really buttery unless you just lick the tops.

To combat this issue, I applied the same secret ingredient that I add when I make own homemade biscuits. That secret ingredient is: GREEK YOGURT. Yogurt even a little bit of it, helps to retain the moistness of the baked item even at room temperature. And the butter lamination amplify the butter flavor tremendously and gives you beautiful layers that you can have fun peeling.

Ingredients:

1 box of Red Lobster's Original biscuit mix

1/2 cup of milk

2 tablespoon of Greek unsweetened yogurt

1/2 cup of shredded cheese, blitz to finer bits

1/4 cup of chopped chives/green onions

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder*

* If you do not have baking powder, you can omit it since the mix already have some leavening agent. But if you like me, love a big biscuits, a little bit extra won't hurt.

Beurrage (Butter slab):

1.5 stick of salted butter (12 tablespoons)

Butter finishing:

4 tablespoon of salted butter

Garlic seasoning pouch (that comes with the mix)

You will need:

A large/medium Ziplock bag or Parchment paper

Rolling Pin

Directions:

Place your cut 1 tablespoon cubes of butter into a 4 by 3 rectangle inside a ziplock bag. Alternatively, you can used either a parchment or wax paper or plastic wrap to package your butter.

Close the zipper end and leave about an inch gap so the air can escape.

Using a rolling pin, press down on the butter so it becomes one whole rectangle.

Place the butter inside the fridge, to harden up a little.

In a food processor, blitz the cheese into finer bits. This will ensure that no large chunks of cheese falls off during the lamination process. Set aside.

Next, mix your greek yogurt and milk together until no visible lumps can be found. Set aside.

Pour your biscuit mix into a mixing bowl. Then add in your baking powder, cheese, chives and yogurt milk.

Using a fork , mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. The dough will look incredibly shaggy at first. Once the dough comes together, you can start using your hands.

Gently fold the dough together and knead it gently. Just knead it enough that it becomes a ball, but do not over-knead it as if it's bread. Over kneading will make the biscuits tough.

Once turned into a ball, let your dough rest for 15 minutes and cover the bowl with a cling wrap to prevent drying.

(This would be a good time to wash up)

Remove your butter slab from the fridge and let it thaw out.

You want your butter to be soft enough that it can bend without breaking in chunks.

Flour your work surface and rolling pin to prevent sticking.

Then roll your dough out into a large rectangle, big enough to wrap around your rectangular butter slab.

Before you place your butter slab, ensure that it is soft enough to bend, so it won't cracked when rolled.

Place your beurrage in the center and then fold the dough to cover it.

Pinch the seams and the sides so no butter can escape.

Roll out your dough gently till it is about 1cm thin and an even rectangle.

Then fold it like a letter. One over the other.

Repeat by rolling lengthwise.

Once again fold it like a letter.

You only need to tri-fold it twice. Once completed, transfer it on flat surface and wrap it with a saran wrap to prevent drying. Let it rest and chill for 15-20 minutes until ready to be cut.

This recipe will yield 8 biscuits total.

Once you're ready to bake. Remove your dough from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes or until the butter softens a little. The longer you let it sit in the fridge, the longer you have to thaw and soften the dough slab. Do not attempt to roll a hard brittle dough or you risk breaking both dough and butter layers. If this happens the butter will leak excessively while baking and the biscuit will bake unevenly. So, it's better to over-thaw than under-thaw.

Let's continue,

Roll out your dough into a rectangle about 9.5 inches in length, 6 inches in wide and 1/2 inch in height.

Trim your sides in one clean cut. Try NOT TO DRAG the knife as this will pull the beautiful layers apart.

Cut into 8 equal pieces.

When your butter is at the right temperature, it will roll out evenly in between the dough.

It's okay if your have rougher broken pieces of butter, it will still puffed up in the oven and make delicious buttery biscuits ;)

Lay a parchment paper over your baking sheet pan.

Chill the pieces in the refrigerator for 5 minutes to harden up the butter again. You want a very cold butter and dough before placing them inside a very HOT oven. The drastic change of temperature causes the butter to steam up rapidly and puff the biscuits immediately.

*This is also a good time to make make-ahead biscuits! If you want to make this for the next day or over the weekend, just freeze them while they lay on the pan. Once frozen, place them inside a freezer proof bag or container.

Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit.

While preheating, heat up the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter together with the garlic seasoning pouch. Melt and mix, set aside.

Brush the tops of your cold biscuits with the melted garlic butter.

Then bake at 400 Fahrenheit for 15-16 minutes until golden brown.

Look how beautiful these came out!

Brush them with more of your garlic butter and serve immediately with some fried chicken, chilli con carne or your meal of the day. These biscuits are so buttery, you can even eat them on its own!

Do not worry if they plop over to the side like mine did. These rise so well in the oven, naturally gravity has to take over, and yet they still taste amazing!

To reheat: Place them in the microwave or an air-fryer. For microwaves and air-fryer, just heat them at 350 for 1-2 minutes, do not burn them. For an oven, reheat your oven and warm them up for 5-8 minutes at 350 Fahrenheit.

Baker's note: These biscuit will naturally be tall when it's freshly out from the oven. As it starts to cool, they will deflate a little because naturally all the hot steam inside the biscuit has been evaporated, And that's completed normal, even though the height shrunk a little, the buttery flavor and moisture content will remained :)

Bon appetit!