Baking Powder Biscuits

I’ve made biscuits a couple of times with Tuesdays with Dorie and I can’t say that they are the best success for me. I have to say that this was also the case with this round of Tuesdays with Dorie. These are the most basic biscuit: flour, sugar, shortening, baking powder, milk. Really simple. They don’t take any time to put together. You can find the recipe for these biscuits with a web search, and you can also check out the links from the other Tuesdays with Dorie bloggers on the TWD site.

These took maybe 25 minutes to make these from start to finish. You mix them by hand, literally, and a fork so not too many dishes to wash. I always take the utmost care to not over work the dough, to be gentle when cutting in the fat and I always end up with flat biscuits. I’m not sure what I could do differently! They taste fine but they just don’t look that great.

I’ve read tons of tips of what would make my biscuits rise, but nothing seems to make a difference. I think if I used a straight sided cutter it could help, but my 2-inch cutter has crimped sides. I don’t know. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will probably never have the knack of making wonderful biscuits. At least I don’t live in the south!

Recipe from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan, pages 211-212

Basic Biscuits

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort. She chose Basic Biscuits, which are a classic flour, butter, milk (or buttermilk) biscuit. You can get the recipe on Jennifer’s blog and don’t forget to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site to check out all the variations of this week’s recipe. I can imagine that you could change this one up in a quite a few ways!

I could have sworn that we already made basic biscuits for Tuesdays with Dorie, but we’d made cream biscuits which are just a bit different. These are very simple and Dorie says the trick to light flaky biscuits is to not handle the dough very much. It’s hard to know what is too much and what is too little. I used the lightest touch possible with these and I think they turned out fairly well. You’d never call them mile-high biscuits, but that’s ok.

These are super simple to make. I was making chili for dinner one night and was able to make chili and put it on to simmer, and made the biscuits while it was simmering. I cut the recipe in half and made 5 biscuits, which was more than enough for the two of us. My biscuits were flaky and had a good buttery flavor and paired well with the chili. You do need to eat them right away, but if you made a lot you could freeze the dough before baking. Unless you are like me, and forget anything that is in the freezer! These were nice rolls for a rainy fall day.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 21

Maple Cornmeal Biscuits

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Lindsay from A Little Something… Sweet. She chose Maple Cornmeal Biscuits, which are a quick little drop biscuit sweetened with a little maple syrup. You can get the complete recipe on Lindsay’s blog. I’m sure that the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers exercised their creativity this week and mixed up the recipe a bit. You can see all of their posts linked off of the Tuesdays with Dorie site.

The past weekend, when I typically bake my Tuesdays with Dorie recipes, was super busy as I had my ballet recital plus ballet photos. Luckily, these biscuits take virtually no time to make, maybe 5 minutes to stir together the dough and then 15 minutes to bake them. I decided to cut the recipe in half and I made 8 biscuits, so I guess mine are a little on the smaller side. I made mine early in the weekend, before the other Tuesdays with Dorie bloggers posted that these bake quickly and to watch the time. Oops, I baked mine for the full time and they got a little scorched along the edges. I should know better to watch!

Since I over baked mine, they did dry out quite quickly but they weren’t too bad right out of the oven. It’s amazing, I use a fairly fine-ground cornmeal, but these were still quite crunchy. I thought that the maple flavor was subtle, just a bit of background sweetness. I think that you could sweeten these up and serve them with butter and jam, or they would pair well with a soup for a more savory application. I had mine just plain, which was pretty good, too. Next time, I will watch the oven more carefully, but baking accidents happen from time to time.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 24

Sweet Cream Biscuits

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Melissa of Love At First Bite. She chose Sweet Cream Biscuits and you can get the recipe on her blog. This was another very quick recipe and I enjoyed making something different. I make so many sweet things that it was good to make something savory for a change.

I don’t recall if I have made biscuits before, but my husband has made them before. The recipe he used was fairly complex and made a big mess of the kitchen. I don’t remember how those even turned out! This was a very different recipe; just a handful of ingredients and the only fat in the recipe was the heavy cream. The recipe that my husband had tried used a lot of butter and it was the butter that ended up being so messy for him. This mixed up in a matter of minutes in one bowl, and then pat out and cut into rounds. So simple that I had made them and put them in the oven to bake and my husband asked: “You made them already?” I love recipes like this.

These were easy to make but I could have taken a little more care in getting all of the ingredients combined. I didn’t want to over mix the dough, but I never got all of the flour incorporated. My dough was really crumbly. I only made a couple of biscuits so I wasn’t too worried. I used a 2” cutter but my biscuits were super tiny. They also didn’t rise too much, but they did taste good. They would be really good as the base for strawberry shortcake or you could serve them with a nice breakfast on the weekend. We just ate them with butter and they were good that way too!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 23