Biscuits

 Video by Jake J. Thomas

    

     I have to say, that one of my very favorite baked things to eat is a biscuit.  When made correctly, they are fluffy, full of flaky layers, buttery, and warm.  They can be dense little bricks though too (which I have made several times).  I have made this biscuit recipe before, but this is the first time that the biscuits turned out to my liking.  I'm not sure if it's because I have been in the bread zone, or if the weather was the perfect in temperature and humidity, or if I was just lucky, but whatever the reason, I did not make little bricks this time.   

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     My friend Eileen's dad's girlfriend Louise, (phew) makes the absolute best biscuits I have ever had.  Eileen brought them into work one day, wrapped up in a kitchen towel inside of a basket. They were towering little sculptures of flour and butter, and were as light as a feather.  Maybe I was channeling Louise's Southern roots when I made the biscuits this time, or maybe it was just luck.  The word biscuit refers to different things in North America than it does elsewhere.  A biscuit is a cookie of sorts every where but in the US which is why the root of the word means "twice baked" (as they are first baked and then dried) implying a hard, brittle texture that varies greatly from the light fluffy biscuit in North America.  Maybe that's why I made those little bricks before...

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     Biscuits are delicious eaten straight out of the oven, while they are still burning your fingers, with butter, with jam, with peanut butter, with cream cheese, under sauce, over cobblers, eaten cold, eaten hot, eaten lukewarm, eaten as dough...as long as they aren't little bricks, they are good with just about anything.

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Finished Biscuits

#47 Flaky Biscuits

From the Tassajara Bread Book

1 cup unbleached white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

[Makes 12 biscuits]

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine flours, baking powder, and salt.  Cut butter into dry ingredients with a pastry cutter, two knives, or rub gently between hands until pea-sized pieces are formed.

Make a well in the center and add the eggs and milk.  Beat the eggs and milk with a fork until smoothish.  Then continue stirring with the fork, gradually incorporating flour, until all moistened.

On a floured board, knead the dough just enough to bring it together.

Roll the dough into a rectangle 1/2 inch thick.  Fold in thirds.  Turn dough a quarter turn, and repeat rolling and folding.  Repeat once more.  (The rolling and folding make a flakier biscuit).

To make the biscuits, roll out the dough again to a 1/2 inch thickness.  Cut into rounds with a floured cutter or glass.  Place on an un-greased sheet, and bake at 425 degrees for about 8-10 minutes until the bottoms are browned lightly and the tops are slightly golden.  Keep an eye on them--they get dry if over baked.