BISCUITS-1(B)            USENET Cookbook            BISCUITS-1(B)

BISCUITS SUPREME

     BISCUITS-1 - Simple, fluffy biscuits

     This originated in The Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook,
     which I consider basic equipment for genteel middle-class
     living. Here "biscuits" is the North American meaning of the
     word and not the Commonwealth meaning of the word. In Eng-
     land these would be called "scones."

INGREDIENTS (makes 10-12)
     2 cups    flour
     4 tsp     baking powder
     2 tsp     sugar
     1/2 tsp   cream of tartar
     1/2 tsp   salt
     1/2 cup   shortening
     2/3 cup   milk

PROCEDURE
          (1)  Preheat oven to 450 deg. F.  Stir together the
               flour, baking powder, sugar, cream of tartar, and
               salt.  Cut in the shortening until the mixture
               resembles coarse crumbs.

          (2)  Make a well in the center.  Pour in the milk all
               at once.

          (3)  Stir just until dough clings together; no more.

          (4)  Knead gently on a lightly floured surface for
               10-12 strokes.

          (5)  Roll or pat to 1/2-inch thickness.  Cut with a 2
               1/2-inch
                biscuit cutter, dipping the cutter into flour
               before each cut.

          (6)  Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake in a
               450 deg. F oven for 10-12 minutes, or until gol-
               den.

NOTES
     Lots of cookbooks tell you to use two knives, or some such,
     to do the cutting-in of the first step.  Forks work fine for
     me (I'm a klutz.)

     All of the trick to making light, fluffy biscuits is in how
     you handle them: the less, the better. You can make these as
     drop biscuits (skip the rolling; drop batter by tablespoons,
     and bake); they're even better for the lack of handling.

     Outside North America you might not know what "shortening"
     is. Use butter, margarine, copha, or lard.  Vegetable shor-
     tening really is better for this recipe, but don't forget
     lots of butter to put *on* them....  I make these for study
     breaks.  They disappear at an exponential rate....

RATING
     Difficulty: easy.  Time: 10 minutes preparation, 10 minutes
     baking.  Precision: measure the ingredients.

CONTRIBUTOR
     Jean Marie Diaz
     Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., USA
     Ambar@athena.mit.edu

     Path: decwrl!recipes
     From: nlm@sfyog.uucp (Nancy Mintz)
     Newsgroups: alt.gourmand
     Subject: RECIPE: Caribbean black-eyed peas and rice
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     Date: 28 Aug 87 03:08:55 GMT
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