A Question for the Bakers

[Guest guest]

I can't make biscuits to save my life! No matter what recipe I use, how gentle I handle the dough, what flour I use, they always come out like hockey pucks! Dumplings, too, but for them, the outside gets soggy and the insides stay hard and dry.

PLEASE, can you share your favorite biscuit recipes and ANY helpful hints!

I got a Baker's Catalog from King Arthur Flour yesterday and see they have a cast iron biscuit pan. I'm putting an order in next week for some dried tomato flakes (I add these to my pizza dough - delicious!) and a few other small things, and I'm wondering if this pan might finally give me the biscuits I crave.

http://tinyurl.com/4jqpb

If not, HELP!

Thanks,

Sue in NJ

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

From: " Sue in NJ " <susang@...>

>PLEASE, can you share your favorite biscuit recipes and ANY helpful hints!

I go to the refrigerator section and pick up the can of flaky biscuits.

They come out perfect every time.

People used to rave over my great aunt's " angel biscuits. " I just don't

like floury biscuits though. Love those flakies.

Have you tried allrecipes.com? I like it because people give reviews of the

recipes after they make them so it helps weed out the dogs.

Ann

[Guest guest]

LOL Ann....that was gonna be my suggestion!

Re: A Question for the Bakers

>

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: " Sue in NJ " <susang@...>

>

>>PLEASE, can you share your favorite biscuit recipes and ANY helpful hints!

>

> I go to the refrigerator section and pick up the can of flaky biscuits.

> They come out perfect every time.

>

> People used to rave over my great aunt's " angel biscuits. " I just don't

> like floury biscuits though. Love those flakies.

>

> Have you tried allrecipes.com? I like it because people give reviews of

> the

> recipes after they make them so it helps weed out the dogs.

>

> Ann

>

>

>

>

> I am the most important person I'm losing this weight for. - - " Daily

> Saying " from ' old web site

>

> 100-Plus Files page 100-plus/files

> 100-Plus Links page 100-plus/links

>

[Guest guest]

> I go to the refrigerator section and pick up the can of flaky biscuits.

> They come out perfect every time.

Believe me, when those cans are on sale I do buy them, even though they're

not whole grain and usually high in fat. Still, once in a blue moon on top

of a stew isn't gonna kill us, but I would like to have a healthier one

ready.

I looked at Alton Brown's Good Eats transcript for his biscuit show, and it

seems biscuits=fat, usually butter and shortening and sometimes lard, that

there's no way around it. It's the fat that makes them flakey, coupled with

a softer wheat. But mostly the fats.

I guess if I want " healthy " biscuits I'm stuck with hockey pucks.

Sue in NJ

[Guest guest]

Sue/All:

All biscuit recipes are simular: flour,fat,milk/buttermilk, baking

powder/soda. The trick is for the baker to have the right touch.

DO NOT overwork the dough. After working the flour/levening and

(cold!) solid fat together (may be done in food processer), BARELY

mix in the cold milk or buttermilk (use what the recipe calls for,

the type of levening used determinds which type of milk to use). It

is OK if the dough looks crumbly or if there are dryish or sandy

spots in the dough (the fat will incorporate during the baking),

just gently pat it together, and only if necessary knead GENTLY no

more than 3 folds. The dough should have a light spoungy feel to

it.

That said, my mother who is elderly & has arthritis (and a

Virginian), has taken to making her's with mild vegetable

oil. This eliminates the hassle of mixing a solid fat into the

flour. She just sifts the flour & levening together then pours in

the oil & buttermilk, then mixes gently. The dough will not seem

quite as dry but still, no over mixing is allowed. They won't be

flakey like the great southern buscuits but they have a light soft

texture like a great muffin.

If you want to use whole wheat flour try to use ww pastry

flour (it is more finely ground & lower in protein) and start by

using 1/2 white & 1/2 WW. Then, each time you make them, increase

the ratio to more & more WW until you find the right amount you

like. Also, my mom replaces about a 1/4 cups of the flour with soy

soy flour to boost the nutritive value.

It sounds much more complicated than it is. It would be so much

easier if I could show you...

Also be sure your oven is preheated all the way. The heat is

resposible for allot the the rising. Oh and if using a cast iron

pan be sure to preheat it in the oven. Cast iron is not a good

conductor of heat (though it holds & distrubutes heat well), so if

not preheated it will stay cooler than the air in your oven, for a

while, which discourages your buscuits from rising to their

potencial and will, possibly, become " puckish " . And be sure you

season it first, unless it is one of the new age preseasoned ones.

Good luck & enjoy!

Alice

[Guest guest]

p.s. can you tell I'm a cook?

[Guest guest]

> p.s. can you tell I'm a cook?

With a username like " Alice Is Cooking " what else could you be doing? LOL

Thanks for the detailed instructions. I saw what my problem was as soon as I

read the first few paragraph's of the transcript for Alton Brown's biscuit

show, when he stressed fat, a light flour, and a gentle hand. I was trying

to get light, fluffy and flaky biscuits using a heavy flour (even AP flour

he says it too heavy), little to no fat, and I always over-work the dough.

I guess if I want flaky biscuits I have to just forget about them being

healthy and just aim for tasty, and probably just take Ann's advice and

keep buying the canned ones.

Sue in NJ

where a plan just jumped the runway, drove across a *major* highway,

clipping a car, and crashed into a building across the street, all just down

the hill from hubby's " aunt from hell's " house - cause and death/injury toll

still unknown, but it was a private jet owned by a Texan tax services

company

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

From: " Sue in NJ " <susang@...>

> where a plan just jumped the runway, drove across a *major* highway,

> clipping a car, and crashed into a building across the street,

Yeah, my plan has a tendency to crash and burn too.

How far away was that from your apartment?

Ann

[Guest guest]

> > where a plan just jumped the runway, drove across a *major* highway,> > clipping a car, and crashed into a building across the street, > > Yeah, my plan has a tendency to crash and burn too.

Oops, forgot that "e".

> How far away was that from your apartment?

1/2 hour drive in no traffic, anywhere from 45 to over an hour with, yet it's less than 20 miles away. Teterboro Airport is less than 5 miles from Meadowlands/Giant Stadium and is where all the rich folk land their planes and helicopters to go to see the Jets & Giants games. The jug-handle turn off Rt 17 that we take to go up the hill to that aunt's house turns right to the airport, left to cross the highway and up the hill. 2 blocks up that hill is her house - if I call her she might even tell me she could see the flames from her front porch. The plane took off across the other side of the airport, across Rt 46, but it's less than a half mile from her house.

Last I heard it was 12 injured, all the missing now accounted for, only the co-pilot seriously.

One of our local TV stations, News12NJ, had a team doing a story just a mile down the road when it happened and hurried over there and have been broadcasting some fantastic pictures. The reporter says it looks like something out of Bruce Willis movie, the entire front half of the plane sitting right in the warehouse building. Right now everyone is just grateful none of the jet fuel ignited and caused an explosion. This wasn't a rinky-dink private plane but a big corporate jet.

Here's a picture from a news helicopter after they got the fire out.