Old Fashioned Baking Powder Biscuits

I have noticed over the years that there are two philosophies for Strawberry Shortcake. There are the people who make Strawberry Shortcake with biscuits. And then there are those who make it with angel food cake or plain white or yellow cake. My mother belonged to the biscuit philosophy. She also made baking powdered biscuits when she ran out of bread and needed a quick bread to serve with a meal.

My mom and dad both considered baking powder biscuits spread served with butter and pancake syrup or dark corn syrup with a very special treat.

3 cups flour
1 / 2 cup shortening
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 / 2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup milk

Measure the flour, baking powder, reduced, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut the shortening into the flour with a fork until it resembles meal. Gradually stir the milk to form dough. If the dough is too dry, add milk EL. When the doughseems too soft, add flour by the quarter cup.

Knead the dough on a floured surface for a minute or so. Then roll out to a half-inch thick and make biscuits with a biscuit cutter or donut cutter or round cookie cutter.

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 or 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes about 12 to 18 biscuits, depending on the size of the cutter you use.

Strawberry Shortcake
4 cups of fresh strawberries (or thawed frozen strawberries)
1 cup of sugar (or to taste)

Crush the strawberries. Stir in the sugar until dissolved. Serve over baking powder biscuits and topped with whipped cream. Yum!

Baking Powder Biscuits - Tips For Perfect Scones Every Time

The following article is meant to help you understand a little bit about the science behind food and how understanding a little bit about this science can help your baking. There are specifically tips on making perfect baking powder biscuits (scones).

The trick to getting light fluffy flaky baking powder biscuits is to remember one very important thing: They use a chemical reaction to rise.

This is what the baking powder does. Baking powder is simply baking soda (a base) mixed with cream of tartar (an acid) and when it gets wet the acid and base mix together they produce a gas (carbon dioxide in this case). It is this gas that gets trapped in the layers of flour as the fat melts and leaves little pockets.

Why is it important to remember this? Three reasons

Reason One:

If you do not have enough chemicals for the amount of filler (flour) you are not going to have enough gas to get them to rise.

Reason Two:

Chemical reactions burn out as the chemicals concerned are consumed. If you over mix before putting it in the oven the gas will escape into the air instead of being trapped in those lovely little pockets made by the melting fat.

Reason Three:

The more pockets in your mix the more places for the gas to get trapped and make the biscuits fluffy. This is why you sift the flour. You put air in it and it makes lighter and the gas will find it easier to push the flour particles around.

Below are all things that have happened to me over the years and with the help of my domestic scientist mom I have been able to learn from my disasters.

As much as there is a science involved here I find that so much of baking is a bit of a black art. You get a feel for things. You know when the dough is mixed just enough but it is difficult to pass that on to someone else.

The more you do it the easier it gets.

The Problem: The biscuits did not rise or did not rise much.

The Solution: Classic symptom of over mixing and over kneading. Unfortunately once your biscuits are baked there is not much you can do about this except to slather them with butter and clotted cream and jam.

The Problem: The biscuits did rise but are quite heavy and/or hard.

The Solution: This is also a common symptom of over mixing.

Mix and kneading activate the gluten in the flour. Gluten is a protein and while it is important for a yeast dough, too much gluten will make your biscuits chewy and heavy. Just like a yeast bread can be!

Again after the biscuits are baked there is not much you can do but you can pre-empt disaster by using cake flour.

What is cake flour? It is a flour that has a low gluten content. You can make your own substitute cake flour by taking out a tablespoon of each cup of flour in the recipe and replacing it with cornstarch.

This is also one of the occasions where sifting does pay off. To be honest I just cannot be bothered most of the time but it does make a difference.

The Problem: The biscuits are brown on the outside but still uncooked in the middle after being in the oven for over half an hour

The Solution: Lower the temperature. Everyone's equipment works differently but an oven at 350 degrees should be optimum for golden brown well baked scones.

I hope this article has helped you understand some of the interesting science behind a really simple food and that it will help your scones and biscuits come out fluffy and light and yummy!

copyright clarissa hancock 2010

Line a baking pan for homemade cookies

Simple food is to eat some of the most delicious and this is certainly true of the traditional cookie. This small bakery cookies are easy to make and eat well. They can be eaten alone or in combination with making a cup of tea or coffee for a quick snack and easy.

Biscotti is something that most people are looking at one time or another. This is a relatively simple task and can be fun if you have kids. Teaching the art of making cookies is a very positive experienceand fun for you and your children. There are many different flavors with some of these, including the classic chocolate chip and peanut butter.

If you bake cookies, have a biscuit dough. Many people like to prepare your own homemade pasta ingredients. But others prefer the simplicity of pre-mixed cookie dough that is sold in many grocery stores. This rule is in the documents or dried and its use is reduced tothe preparation necessary to make a batch of cookies.

Biscotti is easier to do if you have a baking sheet, are available. These are the typical flat metal pan with a little lip around the edge. However, other materials used to make them. Other names for this type of products containing baking sheets or trays.

Cookie sheets are available in a variety of materials and styles. The different types that are available on the market are made of aluminum, silicon, and isolatedstainless steel plates. Most people have a preference, that bake cookies for the most effective. But each has its advantages and disadvantages of use.

Insulated trays can be a good option if you plan to bake cookies they are. They are using two sheets of metal with an air gap between them. When you use a leaf off the cushion of air heated at the same temperature of the oven and can cook it all yourself. You cancan also help to stop burning the bottom of the cookie sheet as a more traditional single-step, cookie sheet. The cost for an insulated baking sheet may be about 20.

Many people prefer to produce silicon baking sheets of cookies. These have the advantage of being able to permanently and also easy to clean, like biscuit dough is less likely to stay with them and to burn. These products at affordable prices with the cost of a silicon baking sheet typically about 10$ 20.

Cookies are a treat everyone can enjoy and what is with trays, a relatively simple process. If your dough right then you have a requirement for the kitchen scale and some of the most interesting of the area are made from Dualit. They also make the Dualit toaster and coffee, toast and sweet snack is an easy and quick to eat when hunger strikes.

Baking powder biscuits - Tips for scones always perfect

The following article will help you a bit 'as the science behind food and a little understanding' of this science can help her cheeks. There are special tips for creating perfect baking powder biscuits (scones).

The trick of baking powder flakes loose biscuits always given a very important reminder: it uses a chemical reaction to increase.

This is what makes the baking soda. Baking powder is just bakingSoda (a base) with cream of tartar (acid) and mixed, if it gets wet, acid and base, mix a gas (carbon dioxide in this case) produce. And 'this gas that is trapped in layers of flour, as the fat melts, leaving small pockets.

Why is it important to remember that? Three reasons

Reason one:

If you do not have enough chemicals to the amount of filler (flour) will not have enough gas to get them.

Reason two:

ChemistryBurn the chemical reactions that match are consumed. If you mix about before they did in the furnace gas in the air instead of the pretty bags from melting fat will escape capture.

Basic three:

The more pockets in the mix of gas and more places to catch the soft ones. That's because the flour of seven. They are, in the air, and is lighter and the gas will be easier to push the flour particlesaround.

Here are all the things I have over the years and with the help of National Academy of Sciences of my mother, I learned from my disaster happened.

As it was a science here, I find that so much to cook is a bit 'like black magic. You can get a feel of things. You know when the dough is mixed just enough, but it's hard to pass that on to someone else.

The more you do, the easier it gets.

The problem: The biscuits do not rise ordoes not increase much.

The solution: the classic symptom of over mixing and kneading up. Unfortunately, once the cookies are baked there's not much you can do, except slather with butter and jam and cream.

The problem: The biscuits are rising, but are rather difficult and / or hard.

The solution: This is a common symptom of over mixing.

Mix and knead to activate the gluten in flour. Gluten is a protein, and while this is an importantmixture of yeast, gluten is also your cookies very hard and difficult. can be exactly like a yeast bread!

cookies are baked in, there's too much you can do, but you can prevent disasters by using sweet flour.

What is cake flour? This is a flour that has a low gluten content. You can make your cake flour replaced by the conclusion of one tablespoon per cup of flour in the recipe and replaced it with the cornstarch.

This is also one of the occasions whenSeven charged. To be honest I can not be bothered most of the time, but it makes a difference.

The problem: The biscuits are brown on the outside, but still first for hours in the oven for half an hour after central

The solution: lower the temperature. Everyone's device works differently, but an oven at 350 degrees for perfect scones should be golden brown in the oven.

I hope this article helped you understand some of the interesting sciencebehind a very simple food, and that helps your scones and pastries are detached, easy and delicious!

Copyright 2010 Clarissa Hancock

Baking Homemade Bread - Not As Hard As it Sounds

In a world of instant mixes, frozen dinners, and fast food, the simple pleasure of baking bread has almost been forgotten. From early childhood, I have pleasant and cherished memories of my mother and grandmothers baking yeast breads and batter breads-hearty breads for meals, sweat breads for desserts. Baking bread, much like sewing, crochet, and knitting, is fast becoming a lost art, but the truth is that baking batter breads doesn't take much longer than a bread mix.

Hmm, fresh yeast bread! The aroma fills the entire house, causing all within to follow the fragrance to the kitchen in hopes of getting a slice of hot, buttered, yeast bread. For as long as I can remember, the smell of bread baking has been a comforting sign of home.

There are so many things that come to my mind when I think about bread: my grandmother's old stories of times when bread and cheese, or worse, bread and water, were all that was available to eat; the five loaves Jesus blessed and fed to 5,000 men (the women and children were not counted); the unleavened bread of remembrance for the body the Christ sacrificed that the world might have peace with God; the buttered bread toasting in the oven on a cold winter morning; the first time I punched down the yeast dough, then baked the loaf and served it to my new husband. . . So many things come to mind that I can spend an entire, serene morning just thinking while enjoying the scent of rising and baking bread. Even batter breads (breads leavened with baking powder or a combination of baking soda and buttermilk rather than yeast), such as the cornbread my mom served with hot brown (pinto) beans, lend a sense of home and belonging.

Grocery stores have long sold boxes of cake mixes on their shelves (I confess that I occasionally use one of them.). For some time, now, they have also sold different types of bread mixes, biscuit mixes, cornbread mixes, and frozen yeast breads and rolls. While these are usually ok, they just don't have give your home the ambience of handmade, fresh breads. Nor do the pre-made, brown-in-the-oven varieties.

Think you don't have time to bake bread? While it is true that yeast breads take some time, after all, they need to rise, many bread recipes don't take much, if any, longer than using a mix. For instance, to use a cornbread mix, you open the package and pour it into a bowl, add egg, oil, and milk. To make cornbread from scratch, you measure cornbread, flour, salt, and baking powder into the bowl, and then add egg, oil, and milk. While it might, maybe, take two extra minutes to measure four items, the taste difference is incredible! Another example would be homemade biscuits. To make biscuits from scratch, measure flour, salt, and baking powder into the bowl, add oil and milk. Depending on the biscuit mix you buy, you can open the package and pour it into the bowl, or open the container and measure the appropriate amount into the bowl, then add oil and milk. Not much difference, is there?

It doesn't even take too much longer than "whampum" biscuits (store-bought refrigerator biscuits in a roll can). Even with those, you have to open them and put them in the pan. Frozen biscuits might be faster, but again, the difference in taste is definitely noticeable.

I have memorized three bread recipes: the yeast bread I use for both pizza crust and table bread, the cornbread my mother taught me to make, and the biscuits my husband loves. The following three quick bread recipes, with full instructions, will help you recapture the aromatic art of baking bread.

Yeast Bread

Can be used to make 2 loaves or to divide and use as the crust for two pizzas.
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons dry baker's yeast
4 tbsp. oil
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
5 cups flour

In a 2 cup measuring cup, add the yeast to the warm water and mix well. Add the sugar, salt and oil. Stir liquid and let sit for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease two pans (loaf pans or pizza pans, depending on which you are making) with 1 tablespoon of oil for each.

Pour yeast liquid into a mixing bowl. Add half the flour and stir gently with a fork until moistened, then add the rest of the flour. Stir with fork until dough forms ball around fork (about 25 stirs). Flour hands and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Divide dough into two balls.

For bread loaves, roll each ball into an 18" X 9" rectangle. Starting at the small end, roll dough into a log shape. Pinch edges together, and tuck ends under. Place into oiled pan, cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

For pizza crust, press each ball into a 12" to 14" oiled pizza pan. Make sure that the dough is distributed evenly. Top each with ½ cup pizza sauce and your favorite toppings. Bake for 20 minutes until toppings are done and bottom is lightly browned. After 10 minutes, I trade places with the two pans, moving the one on top to bottom, and the one on bottom to the top. This prevents one being overdone and the other underdone. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before slicing.

Biscuits

2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder
¼ cup oil
¾ cup milk

Preheat oven to 420 degrees F. Measure the dry ingredients into a medium mixing bowl. In a glass, liquid measuring cup, measure ¼ cup of oil. Into the same cup, over the oil, pour in milk to the 1 cup mark (mixture will bubble). Pour all at once into the dry ingredients. Using a fork, stir until dough follows fork, then stir 10 more times. Flour your hands, and knead dough ten times. Roll or pat dough onto a cutting board or clean counter. Cut into squares or use a floured glass to cut round biscuits. If you are in a hurry, you do not have to roll the dough. Pat it out and tear off biscuit size pieces and put them into the pan. If you want the biscuits to be crispy, butter or oil the pan. Otherwise, just place then in the pan. If you prefer the sides to be crusty, place the biscuits 2" apart on the pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until light golden brown.

Mom's Cornbread

2 cups cornmeal (yellow is best, for the color)
1 cup flour
2 tbsp. aluminum free baking powder
1 tsp. salt
¼ cup oil
2 eggs, slightly beaten
Enough milk to make medium dough-should not be as thin as cake dough, but not as thick as cookie dough.

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a 12" baking pan. The best pan to use in baking cornbread is an iron skillet. Pre-heat oiled pan. This allows the cornbread crust to crisp nicely.

Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Add eggs and oil and stir to make a crumbly mixture. Add enough milk (start with 1 cup, and add a little more at a time until you have enough), to make a medium dough-dough will pour, but not very fast. Do not over-mix. Pour dough into iron skillet. Bake for 20 minutes. Delicious with bean soup of any kind, corn and ham chowders, or just crumbled into a large glass of milk for breakfast!

Whichever bread you prefer, the aroma of baking bread will bring your family running to the table. Spend a few extra minutes to create some special memories for your children, or even better, let them help measure the ingredients and roll out the dough! Bread making, once a common, daily activity, is not almost a forgotten art. Learn to bake bread, make some memories, and help a tradition that spans thousands of years to survive!

Copyright 2008, Linda Pogue