Subject: RECIPE: Biscuits supreme
From: [email-masked] (Jean Marie Diaz)
Date: 25 Sep 87 03:10:20 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.gourmand

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.RH MOD.RECIPES-SOURCE BISCUITS-1 B "27 Mar 87" 1987
.RZ "BISCUITS SUPREME" "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 England these would be
called ``scones.''
.IH "makes 10\-12"
.IG "2 cups" "flour" "200 g"
.IG "4 tsp" "baking powder" "20 ml"
.IG "2 tsp" "sugar" "10 ml"
.IG "\(12 tsp" "cream of tartar" "2.5 ml"
.IG "\(12 tsp" "salt" "2.5 ml"
.IG "\(12 cup" "shortening" "100 g"
.IG "2/3 cup" "milk" "150 ml"
.PH
.SK 1
Preheat oven to
.TE 450 230 .
Stir together the flour, baking powder, sugar, cream of tartar, and
salt.  Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
.SK 2
Make a well in the center.  Pour in the milk all at once.
.SK 3
Stir
.I just
until dough clings together;
.B no more.
.SK 4
Knead gently on a lightly floured surface for 10\-12 strokes.
.SK 5
Roll or pat to
.AB "\(12-inch" "1-cm"
thickness.  Cut with a
.AB "2\(12-inch" "6-cm"
 biscuit cutter, dipping the cutter into flour before each cut.
.SK 6
Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake in a
.TE 450 230
oven for 10\-12 minutes, or until golden.
.NX
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.)
.PP
All of the trick to making light, fluffy biscuits is in how you handle
them: the less, the
.B 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.
.PP
Outside North America you might not know what "shortening" is. Use butter,
margarine, copha, or lard.
Vegetable shortening 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....
.SH RATING
.I Difficulty:
easy.
.I Time:
10 minutes preparation, 10 minutes baking.
.I Precision:
measure the ingredients.
.WR
Jean Marie Diaz
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., USA
[email-masked]