Biscuits

It's been years since I've made biscuits from scratch.  They're not something I eat often because they're so full of fat and calories, but I grew up having them on a regular basis.  My momma would make big pans full for our family and I doubt if she ever really measured the ingredients.  She always baked them with the sides touching in a 13 x 9 pan so the tops and bottoms were nicely browned but the sides were soft.  Knowing her, she probably put melted bacon grease in the pan and dipped the biscuits in it, turning them over before she'd put the pan in the oven.

I don't remember her ever using buttermilk or butter for the fat in her dough.  Momma used a lot of Crisco in her cooking so I imagine she spooned that into the flour mixture.

These turned out pretty darned good.  I grated the butter into the flour mixture and used a pastry blender to mix it up so there weren't visible pieces of butter in the dough.  Three tablespoons of sugar made them taste sweeter than I like so next time I'll try using two.  My dough was a little dry, probably because of the moisture content in the flour I used so the dough wasn't as smooth as it should have been when I cut it.  

Using a 3" round cutter the recipe made nine big biscuits. I baked them  in a 7 x 11 pan sprayed with Pam, with the biscuits touching each other.  The biscuits rose enough in the oven while baking that the pan was completely full.

Commercial baking powder is a 4:1 ratio of cream of tartar to baking soda so I'm guessing that adding additional cream of tartar is what makes the biscuits lighter.  You can omit the cream of tartar and the recipe will still be fine.

You could even stir in grated cheddar cheese and some parsley and brush the biscuits with garlic butter before baking to make Red Lobster style biscuits.

BISCUITS

3 C. flour

3 T. sugar (try using 2, these were too sweet)

½ tsp. salt

4 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. cream of tartar

¾ c. cold butter

1 egg

1 c. milk (I used buttermilk)

Heat oven to 450°.

Mix dry ingredients. Cut in cold butter until you have pea sized pieces of butter.

Add milk and egg.  Mix until combined.

Turn onto floured surface and knead 10-15 times.

Pat out to ¾ - 1” thick.

Brush tops with melted butter.

Bake on greased baking sheet or use parchment paper 15-18 minutes.

Irish Scones

This website is getting me into trouble!  Gemma Stafford is a professional chef from Ireland.  Recently, a link for one of her bread recipes appeared on my Facebook feed and I've spent hours on her blog watching videos and reading recipes as well as tips to make baking more successful.

This is the link for the scone recipe.  If you watch the video you can see how simple these are to make.

The recipe calls for raisins, which I do not care for.  I substituted dried cranberries and added the zest of one orange to the dough.  The results were delicious!

If you pat the dough out to 1 to 1 1/2" thick and use a 3" round cutter, you wind up with a dozen large scones.

Gemma's Best Ever Irish Scones

Servings: 12 scones

Ingredients

•             4 2/3 cups self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting

•             3/4 cup butter, frozen

•             3 level teaspoons baking powder

•             1/2 cup sugar

•             1/2 cup raisins/sultanas

•             1 1/4 cup  milk

•             2 eggs , beaten

Instructions

1.            In a large mixing bowl, add self-rising flour .

2.            Using a cheese grater, grate the butter in until it is all gone. (alternatively using a pastry         cutter, cut/rub butter into flour until fully crumbed and resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

3.            Stir in raisins, baking powder and sugar.

4.            In a small mixing bowl, whisk eggs and milk and until thoroughly combined. Pour mix into flour mix and stir until a soft dough is formed. Transfer dough to a floured surface and press to 1 1/2 inch thick. (if your scones are not forming a dough add a little more liquid)

5.            Cut scones out with a round 3 inch cookie cutter.

6.            Place cut scones onto a baking tray lined with parchment.

7.            Gather remaining dough in a ball, re-flatten then cut scones from dough. Repeat until entire batch of dough is cut into scones. If you have a little excess dough left, just pat it onto the top of the scones.

8.            Bake at 425° for roughly 22-26 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.

9.            Serve warm or fully cooled with butter, jam, or fresh cream.

Not Too Bad Biscuits -- 4 Smart Points

This recipe surprised me.  First, because it's supposed to make six biscuits and second, because the biscuits are really pretty good.

If you roll the dough out and only make six biscuit, they're going to be huge.  I divided the dough in half, cut six small rounds and topped a chicken pot pie with them.

The other half of the dough was rolled out and cut into four biscuits.  I baked them in my counter top convection oven.  They came out nicely browned and fluffy inside.  Since there's no added fat, the outer crust is tougher than a traditional biscuit.

NOT TOO BAD BISCUITS

Makes 6 – 4 Smart Points each

2 cups flour

1 T. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. baking soda

1 ¼ cups nonfat yogurt

Combine.  Roll out and cut 6 biscuits.

Bake 400° (convection) or 425° traditional 12 minutes.

Flour – 24 Smart Points

To make the chicken pot pie I used one can of Veg-All, one 9.75 oz. can grilled Swanson chicken breast, one .87 oz. package of McCormick chicken gravy mix.  I drained the Veg-All and chicken, reserved the liquid to mix with the gravy mix packet.  Combined the gravy mix, vegetables and chicken, topped with six biscuits and baked until biscuits were browned.  Using only half of the dough (12 points) makes these biscuits only 2 points each.

Soft Wrap Bread -- 6 Smart Points

This is a recipe from King Arthur Flour.  It's simple to make and the bread turns out tender and will be perfect for a sandwich wrap, soft taco, or as the base for an Indian Taco.

This is the photo from King Arthur Flour.

This is a photo of the bread I made today.  You'll definitely want to roll each ball of dough to at least 7" in diameter for it to be large enough for a sandwich wrap.  You could make it slightly smaller and it will cook up thicker and use as a base for Indian Tacos.  I think it needs more than the 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt.  Next batch, I'll use 1 1/2 teaspoons.

SOFT WRAP BREAD RECIPE  -- 6 Smart Points per serving

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

• 3 to 3 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/4 cups boiling water
• 1/4 cup potato flour or 1/2 cup potato flakes
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast

Instructions

1. Place 2 cups of the flour into a bowl or the bucket of a bread machine. Pour the boiling water over the flour, and stir until smooth. Cover the bowl or bucket and set the mixture aside for 30 minutes.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the potato flour (or flakes) and 1 cup of the remaining flour with the salt, oil and yeast.
3. Add this to the cooled flour/water mixture, stir, then knead for several minutes — by hand, mixer or bread machine — to form a soft dough. A 5-minute knead in the bread machine, once it gets up to full kneading speed, is fine. The dough should form a ball, but will remain somewhat sticky. Add additional flour only if necessary; if kneading by hand, keep your hands and work surface lightly oiled. Let the dough rise, covered, for 1 hour.
4. Divide the dough into 8 pieces (each about the size of a handball, around 3 ounces), cover, and let rest for 15 to 30 minutes.
5. Roll each piece into a 7" to 8" circle, and dry-fry them (fry without oil) over medium heat for about 1 minute per side, until they're puffed and flecked with brown spots. Adjust the heat if they seem to be cooking either too quickly, or too slowly; cooking too quickly means they may be raw in the center, while too slowly will dry them out.
6. Transfer the cooked breads to a wire rack, stacking them to keep them soft.
7. Serve immediately, or cool slightly before storing in a plastic bag for up to 4 days. Freeze for up to a month.

Tips from our bakers

• This recipe works best with instant yeast because it dissolves during the kneading process, so you don't have to knead liquid into the dough. If you really prefer to use active dry yeast, use only 1 cup boiling water for the initial dough, dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup warm water, and add this mixture to the dough along with the potato flour mixture. It'll be somewhat "slippery" at first, but will knead in and eventually become smooth.
• You can allow the dough to go through the entire kneading cycle(s) in the bread machine, but it's not necessary; about a 5-minute knead in the machine, once it gets up to full kneading speed, is fine. The dough should form a ball, but will remain somewhat sticky. Add additional flour only if necessary; if kneading by hand, keep your hands and work surface lightly oiled. Let the dough rise, covered, for 1 hour.

Smart Points  -- calculated on the brands of ingredients I used

3 cups flour     36

¼ cup potato flakes     1.5

2 T. oil             8

Potato flakes were used rather than the potato flour.  I didn’t need to use the additional ¼ cup of  regular flour.  If your dough requires using it, add an additional 3 Smart Points.  Each serving will then be slightly over 6 Smart Points.  As I prepared it, the points calculated at 5.7 so I rounded them up to 6.