recipes@decwrl.UUCP (09/25/87)
Copyright (C) 1987 USENET Community Trust Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the USENET copyright notice and the title of the newsgroup and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the USENET Community Trust or the original contributor. .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 Ambar@athena.mit.edu