Saturday, June 30, 2007

Biscuits

I love baking powder biscuits. At home, it was always a big treat to have them. Every time, we would ask my mom to tell us about the time that my Baba - her mother - made the biscuits with baking soda and served them with rhubarb sauce. If you have ever mixed baking soda with an acid you know how it foams rather vigorously....but hearing about the acid rhubarb reacting with the biscuits is a story that we never got tired of.

I've tired making biscuits a few times since I moved out, using a recipe from The Joy. But it just wasn't the same. However, after seeing some southern lady make biscuits on the food channel I decided to give biscuits another try. The television recipe did not get such a great review on the internet, so I went hunting in my book shelf for a promising recipe. As soon as I found that the Dorrie book, Baking: From my home to yours, had a biscuit recipe I decided to try it.

Paul's verdict: They are, like, awesome. The biscuits are a meal on their own.
I think this picture, taken with Paul's camera, natch, illustrates the point nicely. They look like a biscuit commercial. I fully expected the Pillsbury dough boy to appear in my kitchen to praise the perfection of these biscuits after I made them.

I baked off half the biscuits to eat with dinner. They were excellent both plain and as a jam vector.
Here, one last bite is pictured with some very excellent jam that my doting parents brought me from France.

The recipe was quite easy and did not require any special equipment. Unlike the biscuits my mom makes, there is a little sugar in the dough. Not enough to make them sweet, but I think it helped create a truly delicious brown biscuit bottom.

I put the other half on a baking tray in the fridge. I baked these off for breakfast, and they were still delicious. Obviously, I ate them with more jam.

4 comments:

Queen of Light and Joy said...

OKay but what about the recipe? I love these biscuits but have never had any success in making them, mine always taste too baking soda-ee. Gross.

Cerulean Bill said...

Yes, if the recipe could be supplied, that would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

happened upon the biscuit post today. my search found the following link/recipe and think I will try soon, Dorie's name is mentioned so hopefully it is the recipe discussed above
http://www.recipezaar.com/189693

laura dot said...

Hey guys,

Sorry for the late reply - this weekend was a long weekend in Canada so I have been away up north.

The link wintkat posted is the same recipe, with a couple modifications. I used 2 cups all-purpose flour, to replace the mixture of all-purpose and cake flour in the recipe, both options are given in the original recipe in the cookbook. Although, I used butermilk, the original recipe also suggests you could use regular milk (and not add any baking soda).

Hope that helps - and of course, I really recommend the cookbook it came from "Baking: From My Home to Yours". I've made about seven recipes from it now and I have been pleased with all of them.