It’s officially two and a half weeks since we packed ourselves up and left New Orleans for the summer to explore our new home in rural East Tennessee, a life decision that so far has garnered basically two distinct responses: “What a dream!” and “What???”

Between daydreaming about our plans for how we want this place to one day look and learning which nearby restaurants are hidden gems and which ones are trash, we’ve been exploring the property’s nooks and crannies to see what little treasures there are. We both grew up in homes on standard suburban lots, so now that we’ve got a handful of acres to call home we’ve been giddy with excitement every time we discover a new bird, bug, plant, mushroom, or view of the nearby mountains.

A few days ago I was traipsing around the wooded part of the property and came across a blackberry bush with a few ripe berries and got lost in the moment, picking berries off the bush and wondering to myself if I was standing in poison ivy or just regular ivy. Do those even look alike? After a moment I looked up from my crouched down position and saw rows and rows of blackberry bushes, filled with pops of red and deep purple and black berries, sitting there totally undisturbed and humble, as if their bounty couldn’t go for hundreds of dollars at Whole Foods.

I brought Matt back to this spot and we got to picking the berries and, well, we decided to make sweet blackberry biscuits. The recipe is actually based off of my blueberry scone recipe in Housewarming (page 245), but with a few alterations. They get finished with salted butter and honey which is not an optional addition—they really make these sweet little things perfect.

The biscuits are buttery, slightly cakey, sweet, with pops of tart blackberry. They’re great for breakfast, but equally as good for eating in the afternoon with coffee or tea, or while on your porch shaking your shotgun and screaming at children to get off your property.

If you try them out let us know and if you share on social tag @probablythis so we see!

The recipe is loosely based on the blueberry scone recipe on page 245 of our book *Housewarming.*

Benwood Sweet Blackberry Biscuits

Takes 40 minutes (prep + baking) | makes 8 large biscuits, 12 small biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

⅓ cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup (1 stick) very cold unsalted butter
½ cup whole milk or full fat non-dairy milk substitute (we used Oatly full fat for this batch)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 ½ cups fresh or frozen blackberries (popping your berries in the freezer a few hours before allows them to stay whole while you make the biscuits, which we prefer and recommend!)
Finishing “glaze”: salted butter and honey

1. With a rack in the center position, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Use the large-hole side of a box grater to grate the butter over the flour mixture, folding in the butter as you go. Use a fork or pastry blender to cut in the butter until there are no lumps larger than a pea. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, vanilla extract, almond extract and pour it evenly over the flour mixture, using a rubber spatula or spoon to mix in evenly without overworking the batter. Fold in the blackberries gently–typically one or two turns with your spatula does the trick, they don’t need to be fully mixed in and you don’t want to overwork your batter or break apart the berries.

4. Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Use your floured hands to shape the dough into a large disk or oval, and gently pat it down to about ¾” thick. You should be able to get 6-8 large biscuits out of this shape, so test with your biscuit cutter to ensure you’ll be able to do so. Use a biscuit cutter to cut out 6-8 large biscuits or 12 small biscuits, placing each one onto the prepared baking sheet about 2" apart from each other. You can use scraps of the dough to gently form a new disk to cut biscuits from, just don’t overwork it. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and while they’re still warm add a large pat of salted butter (~1 tablespoon) onto each biscuit followed by a spoonful of honey in the center.

The biscuits are best enjoyed warm out of the oven. To reheat, place in a 300 degree oven for 5-8 minutes. Store in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3 days.