How to Try a Recipe: Biscuit Edition
Feb. 1st, 2016 11:12 pmIt's good to learn how to cook your favorite foods. Especially ones that you can't get in restaurants. Bizarrely, I have not been happy with any biscuits I've had in restaurants for a long time. Some are really rolls, some are full of sugar or otherwise trying to be really fancy. Also they should be served hot with salted butter that can be melted on them and this is hard for restaurants to do.
Unfortunately, on the way to finding that perfect recipe, there are, well, the other recipes. Some of them may even be perfectly good except for the user error. But, for the same reason I have only house plants that can handle being watered only once a week, I also collect only recipes that don't require me to do icky stuff that I refuse to do.
So, for your amusement, I submit my latest try, "Rolled Biscuits," from Prevention's The Healthy Cook. I've been looking for a good recipe for biscuits that is not full of a million calories. Because no matter how rich it is, I'm going to slather it in butter anyway. At first I was trying drop biscuits because they seem quicker than rolled biscuits. But they ones I tried were not quite right. So I've started trying rolled biscuits, which is what my mom makes, and they really aren't much more trouble.
The recipe will be shown below in italics and my thoughts and actions in regular font.
We cut the fat but retained the flaky texture of classic rolled biscuits by replacing butter and whole milk with margarine and buttermilk.
But margarine has the same fat as butter. Hmm, only 3 tablespoons, though. I'll try it.
2 cups all-purpose flour - which I don't have; I'll be using white whole wheat flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons nondiet tub-style margarine - ick, no, I'm using butter
2/3 cup buttermilk - Robin keeps that--yes, he has enough for me to use some
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Can do. Coat a no-stick baking sheet with no-stick spray. - I mostly coated a regular aluminum baking sheet with no-stick spray. In case it's not needed, I left one end free of spray--it's good to experiment. I don't have a no-stick baking sheet but I love my aluminum baking sheet, so that's what I use for things.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder an baking soda. Medium bowl? I'm using my big bowl I use for mixing stuff. And a wire whisk.
Using 2 table knives or a pastry blender, cut in the margarine... Knives? I don't even know how to do that. I'll use a fork. Maybe I should try melting the butter first. No, I'll try that trick I heard where you grate the butter. Hmm, works nicely! Except that the butter that sticks to the grater does not want to come off. Well, this probably works best in winter. Wait! It IS winter. ...until course crumbs form. Course crumbs? That's not happening. I'll just stir it the same amount as I usually stir cookie dough, and that will probably be enough.
Gently stir in the buttermilk until a dough forms. Gently? Okay. Hmm, no dough. I'm going to add more buttermilk. And more. And more. Okay, that seems better.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead for 1 minute. How do you gently knead a dough? I'll just knead it normally until it's all nice and smooth. While it's still in the bowl, because it's still hard to get all of it together. And with no extra flour because it's barely moist enough as it is.
Using a floured rolling pin, gently roll the dough into a 1/2"-thick rectangle, or flour your hands and pat into shape. Gently roll? Again, I have no clue how to do that. I'm mashing it down with my unfloured hands on the unfloured counter until it's mostly flat, which turns out not to be a rectangular shape at all. Warning--I have very dry skin, so if you have normal skin, this strategy may not work for you.
Using a 2" biscuit cutter, cut the dough into rounds, rerolling as necessary to cut 12 biscuits. I've heard that the more you handle the dough, the tougher the biscuit gets. But in the cookie-decorating class I took, the instructor said you could re-roll the cookie dough as often as you want with no bad side-effects because you're not adding flour, just rolling between parchment paper pieces. So, no flour. And I used a juice glass. It was pretty easy to get the dough off the unfloured counter top. I ended up with only 10 biscuits.
Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet. Done. Lightly coat the top of the biscuits with no-stick spray. Oops, forgot. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the bottoms of the biscuits are browned and tops are lightly golden. Like I can see the bottoms of the biscuits. I guess I could use a spatula.
After 12 minutes the tops looked the same and the bottoms were lightly golden. After about 15 minutes, the bottoms were medium brown and the tops looked the same. I declared them done.
They did not stick at all to any part of the cookie sheet, even though they were made with so little butter. Score!
And they are a pretty good texture. Robin declares them yummy. I think they're close. They are the closest I've come to re-creating Mom's biscuits. But they might be a little boring.
When I couldn't get my oatmeal recipe right, it turned out it was because I wasn't including salt. And when I leave all salt out of my chocolate chip cookies, I merely quite like them instead of really liking them. So I decided to look up other biscuit recipes--they all have salt. Most have 1 teaspoon, one has 1/2 teaspoon. Next time I'll try 1/2 teaspoon.
Also, I'll try 1 cup of buttermilk (easy to measure), though maybe I won't pour it all in right away, just in case that's too much. And maybe I'll remember to spray the tops before putting them in the oven.
Hey, a victory for once! I really didn't think that would happen when I first stuck the biscuits in the oven and started on this entry!
Unfortunately, on the way to finding that perfect recipe, there are, well, the other recipes. Some of them may even be perfectly good except for the user error. But, for the same reason I have only house plants that can handle being watered only once a week, I also collect only recipes that don't require me to do icky stuff that I refuse to do.
So, for your amusement, I submit my latest try, "Rolled Biscuits," from Prevention's The Healthy Cook. I've been looking for a good recipe for biscuits that is not full of a million calories. Because no matter how rich it is, I'm going to slather it in butter anyway. At first I was trying drop biscuits because they seem quicker than rolled biscuits. But they ones I tried were not quite right. So I've started trying rolled biscuits, which is what my mom makes, and they really aren't much more trouble.
The recipe will be shown below in italics and my thoughts and actions in regular font.
We cut the fat but retained the flaky texture of classic rolled biscuits by replacing butter and whole milk with margarine and buttermilk.
But margarine has the same fat as butter. Hmm, only 3 tablespoons, though. I'll try it.
2 cups all-purpose flour - which I don't have; I'll be using white whole wheat flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons nondiet tub-style margarine - ick, no, I'm using butter
2/3 cup buttermilk - Robin keeps that--yes, he has enough for me to use some
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Can do. Coat a no-stick baking sheet with no-stick spray. - I mostly coated a regular aluminum baking sheet with no-stick spray. In case it's not needed, I left one end free of spray--it's good to experiment. I don't have a no-stick baking sheet but I love my aluminum baking sheet, so that's what I use for things.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder an baking soda. Medium bowl? I'm using my big bowl I use for mixing stuff. And a wire whisk.
Using 2 table knives or a pastry blender, cut in the margarine... Knives? I don't even know how to do that. I'll use a fork. Maybe I should try melting the butter first. No, I'll try that trick I heard where you grate the butter. Hmm, works nicely! Except that the butter that sticks to the grater does not want to come off. Well, this probably works best in winter. Wait! It IS winter. ...until course crumbs form. Course crumbs? That's not happening. I'll just stir it the same amount as I usually stir cookie dough, and that will probably be enough.
Gently stir in the buttermilk until a dough forms. Gently? Okay. Hmm, no dough. I'm going to add more buttermilk. And more. And more. Okay, that seems better.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead for 1 minute. How do you gently knead a dough? I'll just knead it normally until it's all nice and smooth. While it's still in the bowl, because it's still hard to get all of it together. And with no extra flour because it's barely moist enough as it is.
Using a floured rolling pin, gently roll the dough into a 1/2"-thick rectangle, or flour your hands and pat into shape. Gently roll? Again, I have no clue how to do that. I'm mashing it down with my unfloured hands on the unfloured counter until it's mostly flat, which turns out not to be a rectangular shape at all. Warning--I have very dry skin, so if you have normal skin, this strategy may not work for you.
Using a 2" biscuit cutter, cut the dough into rounds, rerolling as necessary to cut 12 biscuits. I've heard that the more you handle the dough, the tougher the biscuit gets. But in the cookie-decorating class I took, the instructor said you could re-roll the cookie dough as often as you want with no bad side-effects because you're not adding flour, just rolling between parchment paper pieces. So, no flour. And I used a juice glass. It was pretty easy to get the dough off the unfloured counter top. I ended up with only 10 biscuits.
Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet. Done. Lightly coat the top of the biscuits with no-stick spray. Oops, forgot. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the bottoms of the biscuits are browned and tops are lightly golden. Like I can see the bottoms of the biscuits. I guess I could use a spatula.
After 12 minutes the tops looked the same and the bottoms were lightly golden. After about 15 minutes, the bottoms were medium brown and the tops looked the same. I declared them done.
They did not stick at all to any part of the cookie sheet, even though they were made with so little butter. Score!
And they are a pretty good texture. Robin declares them yummy. I think they're close. They are the closest I've come to re-creating Mom's biscuits. But they might be a little boring.
When I couldn't get my oatmeal recipe right, it turned out it was because I wasn't including salt. And when I leave all salt out of my chocolate chip cookies, I merely quite like them instead of really liking them. So I decided to look up other biscuit recipes--they all have salt. Most have 1 teaspoon, one has 1/2 teaspoon. Next time I'll try 1/2 teaspoon.
Also, I'll try 1 cup of buttermilk (easy to measure), though maybe I won't pour it all in right away, just in case that's too much. And maybe I'll remember to spray the tops before putting them in the oven.
Hey, a victory for once! I really didn't think that would happen when I first stuck the biscuits in the oven and started on this entry!