Can you remember a childhood breakfast? I think back to age eight or nine. Down the stairs I came with my hair in a tangled knot and my prepubescent body hidden beneath one of my father’s white t-shirts. Noelle, four years younger, followed close behind. Our mother, never a coffee drinker, held a cup of diet coke and ice. Her long brownish black hair would have been swept to one side of her face. She greeted us with hugs and kisses and all sorts of other morning pleasantries. And then we’d both sit down to glasses of orange juice as my mom took waffles out of the toaster and slathered them with peanut butter and jelly.
It’s funny how Noelle and I have tended towards different breakfasts as adults. I start my day with eggs and an English muffin, while Noelle fills a bowl till it’s brimming with cereal and fresh fruit. We didn’t grow up eating either, and yet now they’ve become a part of our daily routines. I wonder what breakfast will look like with Lucy. If she’ll eventually get tired of eggs and bread and then spend her adulthood devouring cream cheese pastries or pancakes with syrup. All I know is that like my mother, I’ll work to make the mornings a time of communion–a sacred space where I can nourish my children’s bodies and their souls.
Ryan taught me to love many things. His fondness for biscuits is unquestioned, and he learned how to make a beautiful omelet from his dad. So when I set about making these whole wheat biscuits and mini quiches, I thought of my husband, how much I love him, and all the good things he’s brought into my life.
Whole wheat biscuits can be a tricky recipe to pull-off well. Whole wheat makes any dough denser…and there is nothing quite as terrible as a tough biscuit. I have made several batches of whole wheat biscuits without success, but I’m happy to say that this particular recipe won rave reviews from Ryan, me, and my parents. My mom eagerly enjoyed a second helping, and I loved watching her delicate fingers peel away each layer of buttery biscuit dough.
These mini quiches would be an ideal partner to a freshly baked biscuit, or they would serve well as an on-the-go breakfast. Bite-sized and flavorful, they make morning extra special. I could see kids enjoying these as they got ready for school and the rest of us taking a few on the road as we made our commute to work.
So whatever you might be most drawn to for your first meal of the day, consider changing up your routine and making a batch of these biscuits and quiches. Your house will smell heavenly, and your stomach will growl with its early morning protest. How lovely will that first bite be!
Whole Wheat Biscuits
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons honey
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and line one baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or fork until mixture resembles small peas. Your butter must be very cold. Chill butter and flour mixture in refrigerator for 10-20 minutes.
Whisk together your honey and buttermilk. Add buttermilk mixture to your dry ingredients and stir until just moist. Flour your workspace and turn dough out. Knead lightly, about five times.
Roll dough into a 9”x5” rectangle. Dust top with flour. Fold dough into thirds, just like you would a letter to fit into an envelope. Repeat two more times. Roll dough out until it is 3/4 inch thick. Using a very sharp biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits. You may roll out the additional scraps, but they won’t rise as neatly as the original batch.
Bake biscuits in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, or until just lightly golden. Brush with melted butter (optional) and eat while warm!
Mini Quiches
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1 cup cream
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
3/4 teaspoons salt
A dash of pepper
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Peppers or mushrooms or any other vegetable you desire! (diced or cut thin)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease two 24-count mini muffin pans.
In a large bowl, whisk together cornstarch, milk, and cream. Add eggs, whisk until light and frothy. Stir in salt and pepper.
Sprinkle a teaspoon of cheese in the bottom of each mini muffin tin. Arrange vegetables on top of cheese. Pour in 1 1/2 tablespoons of egg mixture (or until near the top of the muffin tin).
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for ten minutes before CAREFULLY removing with a knife. These can be enjoyed right away or frozen after they’ve thoroughly cooled. We like to freeze them in Ziploc containers.
I love your mini quiches! That’s the perfect breakfast for me. Eggs are such a perfect food to start your day with.
What delicious biscuits and quiches!
Biscuits are my all-time favorite breakfast food!
What a beautiful breakfast!
I loved reading about your breakfast routines, past and present
Your quiches and biscuits look so delicious and healthy!
Hi Monet,
Both your biscuits and mini quiches looks wonderful! And I love reading about your childhood days, beautiful memories to treasure forever.
Wish you a lovely week!
I love both biscuits and quiches
my partner likes different breakfasts than I do as well. I’m a sweet tooth, he likes his eggs and ham.
These biscuits would be perfect my friend, they looks delicious
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I love your mini quiches very much.I had been searching for similar breakfast recipes for my kids.Thank you for sharing them.
What a nice memory of your mornings as a kid! Lucy will grow up in a home full of good food and lots of love, I’m sure. These quiche and biscuits are perfect for Easter morning or any long, lazy weekend. Love them, Monet!
Yes! These would be great treats for Easter morning. We’ll be flying to Austin Easter Sunday…maybe I can sneak a few on the plane?
Those mini quiches look pretty darn hard to beat! Love all of your your childhood memories. Have a lovely week Monet!
I’m so excited to try those biscuits. I’ve tried to many times to make whole wheat biscuits, and they never turn out quite right. I don’t buy regular flour very often, so whole wheat is usually my only option, and I’m always so let down when the biscuits don’t turn out.
Hooray, tiny quiches! I would be tempted to make a huge batch and put most of them in the freezer for future instant breakfasts.
Hi Monet!
I only know that making croissant dough from scratch is done similarly what with folding over new butter and repeating this on and on. So I’d be very glad If you could tell me how it worked for you with the biscuits 
Your biscuits look abolutely delicious! I’d like to try them soon even though I usually only use whole wheat like Leah wrote before. I’ll just give it a try soon I guess.
About the foldng in thirds….what do I do after I’ve folded it once? Am I to roll it out before folding it again or how exactly does the repeated folding work? I have to admit I’ve never made biscuits like this befoe
They wouldn’t be for breakfast, though, as I am a oats and fruits person like your sister is
Hi love! The original recipe was vague…but what I did was fold it repeatedly (without rolling the dough out). You’ll end up having a very small square of dough (and you may not be able to do the three repetitions). If I’ve learned anything about biscuit dough, the less you handle it, the better. Once you’ve folded the dough on top of each other, roll out to 3/4 inch and then cut. Let me know if you need more clarification. I’ll be sure to add these details to my recipe instructions too!
Hi Monet!
Thank you very much
I think I now have an idea as to what you mean. I will let you know how they turned out, as soon as I’ve given them a try!
Hi Monet! Love the idea of tiny quiches! Just right to start the day! I have to tell you that my Mom had a complete set of the Franciscan China that you use in some of your photos! She only used it for special occasions and everytime I see it, it brings back fond memories of her. She passed away a couple of years ago and my niece now has it! Thanks so much for your wonderful recipes and the memories!
Hi Wendy. I’m so glad to hear this. Those apple dishes belonged to my mother’s adopted grandmother “Granny Margaret.” They hold a special place in her heart…and now in mine too! Isn’t it amazing how a smell or a dish or a meal will bring us back to a certain place and time? Thank you for sharing. Many blessings!
I’ve never been much of a breakfast person… I honestly have no idea what to make in the morning. But when I do get a chance to think about it, I usually go for something eggy. Sometimes a biscuit/bagel/english muffin. I lean towards the savory. Point being, I love these mini quiches and biscuits. All I need is someone to make it for me.
Come to Colorado Brian! I’ll be baking you biscuits morning, day, and night!
As a born and raised southern girl (now a midwest transplant), I grew up on light as air biscuits and I loved them–still do. However, now that my husband has started making biscuits, he prefers the healthier whole wheat for them. I love them too!! Of course, a nice slice of Virginia country ham helps.
Best,
Bonnie
I’ve never been a biscuit fan but your’s look great Monet. And I know that I definitely wouldn’t have any trouble eating a couple of those mini quiches – YUM! I bet you are so excited about bringing Lucy into your lives. Us readers can’t wait to meet her either!
I make biscuits quite often but have never tried whole wheat – yours look perfect! And those quiches are so cute!
going to Austin in a few weeks with MY ryan!! I need your recommendations!!!
Scrumptious! Both the mini quiches and biscuits look mouthwatering.
I rarely eat anything for breakfast, but I love to brunch.
Cheers,
Rosa
I find it so interesting how tastes change as one grows up. I was a big fan of rice krispy cereal. Now not so much. Your mini quiche are so cute and portable for an on the go meal.
I think I mostly ate cereal or eggo waffles for breakfast as a kid…though now I eat peanut butter and jelly on an english muffin! Totally different. I would be so happy to have one of these biscuits though…perhaps with a good dollop of peanut butter on it!
Yum– these look perfect, both recipes! There really is nothing worse than a tough biscuit– I bet coming up with a whole wheat recipe was tough! I’m definitely going to remember this one– biscuits are big in our house.
What a perfect luncheon meal! I would just love every minute of these goodies!
These will make an excellent breakfast! Love that you used whole wheat flour in biscuits, definitely healthier! And I love the bite size quiches so much! Perfect for our big Sunday breakfasts!
My mom used to drink soda in the morning instead of coffee too
These biscuits are gorgeous and I can almost smell them and taste how flaky they are-it’s unbelievable that they’re whole wheat! Great job
It is so much fun to wonder and dream what our children will like and dislike as an adult. What things they will keep from their childhood and what they will change. Your creations look beautiful!
I enjoyed reading about your breakfast memories. One of my memories is my sister dunking her hand in my Lucky Charms because she thought I took too much. Little did she know I had already poured the milk in, so she ended up with a fist full of wet charms! Those quiches look perfectly bite-sized and yummers.
Hi Monet – you have a lovely blog and I loved reading your story here! I love breakfast time and nothing more than leisurely sitting around the breakfast table with my family on the weekend. I generally like protein (a ham & egg sandwich) for breakfast but my husband and 7-year old are big fans of pancakes and such. Nutella is part of the breakfast table sometimes…
I love that your biscuits are whole wheat and the quiche looks really scrumptious!
They look wonderful, I love English muffins too and that is what I prefer for breakfast. Normally with a smear of fatty Turkish feta cheese.
By the way, I really love the dresser
Beautiful biscuits Monet!! I would love a cooking class on how to make biscuits
Hope you are feeling well and having a great week 
Your mini quiches are very sweet-love the way you’ve presented them -just like we are there in person
Monet, your post is so beautifully written, it will certainly “carry me through the day” today and I must say that it feels good! The two recipes that you featured are terrific – I adore the mini quiches (and, of course, the very pretty plate that you served them on), they would be perfect finger food for the family and the biscuits are just too good not to try them out during our upcoming Easter break! It is all just wonderful!
Have a good Wedbesday!
those biscuits are gorgeous! i’m so in love with those mini quiches, they are adorable and sound wonderfully delicious
Love how fluffy and pillowy your biscuits look and those mini quiches are the cuuutest! Love food that connects us with our pasts =)
I love things in mini form, and quiches are no exception. Home cooked meals, hands down, are the thing I wish I had growing up. As for my kids that almost all they get. I want them to know what work and love goes into a meal.
I know Lucy will be so blessed to have you and Ryan.
I hope you are doing well and filling out nicely.
Have a great day Monet (I love saying that in my head because it rhymes…I know sort of childish of me…we all have to have a little bit of kid in us to keep us young).
What PERFECT biscuits, Monet! And I’d be delighted with either of your offerings for my breakfast. Lucy will have many favorites, I’m certain!
My family doesn’t really care for biscuits so I seldom make them. But those mini quiches are adorable. I bet they’ll be gone in minutes if I make them for my family!
This is one of the sweetest posts I’ve ever read! you’re going to be such an amazing Mother! The recipe looks incredible too!
Love the idea of doing mini-quiches and adding various toppings. A touch of indulgence for breakfast and why not
I LOVE biscuits…especially with gravy.
Everything looks wonderful, Monet.