Fish Biscuits

From the LOST television series 

 

The infamous fish biscuit made its debut in the television series LOST, when characters Sawyer and Kate were locked in a cage by the "Others" and faced a puzzle contraption made for those mysterious polar bears.  The Others casually mention that the bears solved the puzzle in just a couple of hours, while Sawyer, being... well, Sawyer, took nearly the whole day. When he finally cracked it, out popped a fish biscuit. Though these treats are tied to the whole Sawyer-and-Kate-love-in-a-cage situation,, making them a fun Valentine's Day recipe, I’d argue they’re perfect for any time of the year. I'm having a flash forward of you making them right now. LOST.

Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 large egg
• Red and yellow gel food coloring (about 8 drops each)
• 1 fish-shaped cookie cutter 

Directions

1. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter, lemon zest, and orange zest with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.
3. Add ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup powdered sugar, and cream together until fluffy.
4. Beat in the egg and food coloring (if desired).
5. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients until the mixture forms a soft dough.
6. Divide the dough into two halves and flatten each into a thick disk, about the size of your hand. Wrap each disk in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours.
7. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place it in the freezer.
8. Generously flour your work surface and rolling pin. Roll one disk of dough between two sheets of parchment paper to about ½ inch thickness. Keep the remaining dough refrigerated while you work.
9. Use a fish-shaped cookie cutter or a homemade template (drawn on thick paper) to cut out each cookie. Save the dough scraps for additional cookies. Carefully transfer the finished cookies to the prepared baking sheet.
10. Using a small, sharp knife, carve the the DHARMA letters into the finished cookies.
11. Place the finished cookies in the fridge. Combine the reserved dough scraps, shape into a ball, and flatten into a disk. Wrap the disk in plastic and freeze for 15 to 20 minutes, until firm again. Repeat steps 9 and 10 until all the dough has been used.
12. Place the cookie sheet with all the finished cookies in the freezer for 15 minutes. This will help them hold their shape during baking.
13. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cookies have just set.
14. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes until mostly set, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

Makes 6 large cookies

Hey, you got yourself a fish biscuit! Now how'd you do that?

This recipe has been reformatted and reworded for clarity. Some minor tweaks have been made for more consistent results.