So recently, I have picked up some new hobbies- and they are the names of
knitting and
spontaneous baking. I'm terrible at the former, which I learned to do after small bouts of crying and whimpering that knitting was invented by a sadistic bitch (which I'm fairly certain was).
Spontaneous baking, however, is going fabulously, and this blossoming homemaker found a neat recipe on Google for biscuits, which turned out excellently! I made some modifications, but here's the recipe if you guys want it.
You need
TWO CUPS of all-purpose (aka regular) flour
ONE TABLESPOON of baking powder
A HALF-TEASPOON of salt
A HALF-CUP of shortening (like, Crisco) You can also use butter though because it's like, the same damn thing
3/4 CUP of
milk. I don't think it matters what kind of milk you use- I use 2% reduced fat, it's the only kind we keep in the house.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees fahrenheit
What you want to do is mix the flour, baking powder & salt together in a big bowl. That doesn't really make sense to me, since they're all loose, dry ingredients, but I did it anyway. I guess you don't really have to... anyway. Then you cut the shortening into little bitty pieces and put them all in, stirring the mixture together until the whole thing looks like bread crumbs. Now, the stirring didn't work for me- the Crisco didn't want to mix, so I got in there with my hands and started mixing it that way- and trust me, when they say they want it to look like bread crumbs, they MEAN it. When I'd mixed it together properly, it really did look very crumbly. There shouldn't be any chunks.
Last, pour the milk in and mix it together until you have dough. The dough will be sticky and a bit thick, so put it on a flat surface, with or without wax paper, that has been floured. So what you want to do is put flour on your surface (I used a bread board), and guys, don't be afraid to use it liberally. A little flour won't cut it, you really do need heaps of it. If you don't want your surface covered in flour, though, just cover your hands in it- less messy and gets it through the dough faster.
Toss and stretch it with the flour until it isn't sticky anymore- then stretch it out into a modest 'sheet' and start cutting. You can use a biscuit cutter if you're lucky enough to own one, or if you're the daughter of willfully ignorant chefs, like myself, get a cookie cutter. I used an egg shaped one, like.. for easter or something, but some lady did a heart one. I suppose it doesn't matter, the biscuits should be about one-two inches in diameter. Put them on an ungreased cookie sheet and stick it in the oven for anywhere between ten and fifteen minutes. The original recipe recommended ten, but they just were not done by then. I ended up doing around fourteen, but they were barely golden. Guess it depends on how old (or shitty) your oven is.
Makes twelve freakin' delicious biscuits.
The biscuits themselves are pretty plain in flavor, but they taste very good with butter or brown sugar. Jam, if you've got it- not something we generally stock in my house, although it tastes great with biscuits and scones. Goes awesomely with breakfast gravy.
