Wishbone Kitchen’s Meredith Hayden Pairs Fluffy Biscuits with Blueberry Jam and Boozy Lemonade

The chef-influencer makes a spring menu with recipes from ‘The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook’

When developing dishes for her forthcoming Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook, Meredith Hayden made sure her recipes were multi-purpose.

The food and lifestyle influencer demonstrated this for PEOPLE’s Spring Entertaining cover shoot — where she prepared a seasonal menu of biscuits with blueberry jam and boozy blueberry-basil lemonade that also utilizes her homemade jam. (Get the full recipes below.)

“A lot of my recipes kind of pull from each other,” says Hayden, who first went viral with videos documenting her job as a private chef in the Hamptons. “That’s something that I started doing when I was a private chef. It was me, myself cooking for all of these people all day, and I tried to find ways to make the most of my time. And so finding things like that homemade blueberry jam that can go into the biscuits, and then it goes into the lemonade, and then it also goes into my blueberry goat cheese salad recipe in the book as well.”

“I just think it’s nice to be able to learn how to leverage different ingredients and different recipes,” she adds.

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Her Cathead Biscuits (named that “because they’re as big as a cat’s head!” says Hayden) are an homage to the biscuits she grew up eating.

“They’re more of like a drop biscuit instead of a laminated rolled and then layered biscuit. And by not layering the dough, you get this tender, fluffy, buttery light biscuit,” she says.

Spread on top is a jam that requires no “special equipment or ingredients or feeling like you need a degree in chemistry” thanks to the naturally high amount of fruit pectin in blueberries.

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Hayden adds ¼ cup of that jam to a large batch of “refreshingly tart” boozy lemonade to naturally flavor (and color!) it. Leave out the alcohol and add some granulated sugar to taste for a kid-friendly version.

If you want a more hearty menu for a daytime bash, Hayden suggests adding dishes like a lobster avocado salad, crab cakes and a chicken cutlet club sandwich, all recipes shared in her Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook, out May 6 and available for preorder now.

Meredith Hayden’s Cathead Biscuits

4 cups (about 17 oz.) all-purpose flour or unbleached cake flour, plus more as needed
2 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. fine sea salt
½ cup (4 oz.) cold unsalted butter
2 cups whole buttermilk
Blueberry jam (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 475°. Line 2 large baking sheets using silicone baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.

2. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Using largest holes of a box grater, grate cold butter into bowl; use your hands to gently incorporate butter into flour mixture, ensuring that each piece of butter is coated.

3. Pour 1 cup of the buttermilk into flour mixture; use a fork to stir and mix. Add remaining 1 cup buttermilk, and mix until combined into a shaggy dough that is just beginning to hold together—try not to overwork the dough. (The dough will be sticky, so lightly coat your hands with flour before handling.) Break off pieces of dough about the size of a tennis ball (about ½ cup each) for large biscuits or a golf ball (about ¼ cup each) for small biscuits. Gently shape into rounds without compacting the dough or smoothing the rough texture of the exterior. (You want the dough to remain somewhat shaggy on the outside to maximize the surface area that’ll crisp up in the oven.)

4. Place dough on prepared baking sheets, leaving space between them as the biscuits will almost double in size in the oven. (You should have about 10 large biscuits or 20 small biscuits total.)

5. Bake in preheated oven until biscuits are golden, 15 to 20 minutes for large or 8 to 10 minutes for small. Serve warm with blueberry jam.

Makes: 10 large biscuits or 20 small biscuits
Active time: 15 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes

Meredith Hayden’s Blueberry Jam 

4 cups fresh blueberries, washed and dried, leaves and stems removed
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon)

1. Stir together blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a large saucepan. (The jam will bubble up quite a bit as it cooks, so use a pan that’s at least 2 ½ quarts so it doesn’t boil over.)

2. Place saucepan over medium-­high heat. Using a potato masher or wooden spoon, smash berries and release their juices, and bring to a boil. Allow mixture to gently boil for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring and scraping bottom and sides of pan occasionally so it doesn’t burn. Reduce heat, as needed, to keep mixture from boiling over.

3. To test if the jam has cooked long enough, place a teaspoon of the mixture on a small plate, and place in freezer for about 5 minutes. When you remove from freezer, the consistency should resemble sticky jam not runny, loose syrup. Turn off heat, and let mixture cool before using or storing.

4. I am not a canning expert (yet), so I can’t guide you go through the whole canning and preserving process (although you absolutely can). Instead, I recommend doing as I do and portioning your jam into 8-ounce deli containers or jars. Store 1 in the refrigerator for up to a week and the rest in the freezer for up to a year.

Makes: 2 cups
Active time: 20 minutes
Total time: 35 minutes

Meredith Hayden’s Boozy Blueberry-Basil Lemonade

2 cups (16 oz.) vodka or gin
1 ¼ cups freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 5 lemons) 
¼ cup blueberry jam
5 cups cold filtered water or club soda
Crushed ice
Fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
Lemon slices

1. Whisk together vodka or gin, lemon juice and blueberry jam in a large container. Chill lemonade concentrate in refrigerator until ready to serve, at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days.

2. If using water, combine lemonade concentrate and 5 cups of filtered water in a large pitcher, and stir to combine. To serve, fill glasses three-quarters full with crushed ice, and pour in lemonade. Top with a few pieces of torn basil leaves and a lemon slice.

3. If using club soda, do not premix with the concentrate as the carbonation will go flat. Instead, prepare each glass when ready to serve. To serve, fill glasses three-quarters full with crushed ice. Pour in about ⅓ cup of the lemonade concentrate; add about ½ cup of club soda. Top with a few pieces of torn basil leaves and a lemon slice.

Makes: 9 cups 
Active time: 15 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes