Biscuits! A Simple and Delicious Way to Start (or end, or continue) Your Day!

Hmmm. Yum. What else is there to say about biscuits, the anytime delicious snack of delicious flakiness slathered in butter and other various condiments and such like. I like them a lot. They are so simple and delicious and make me go nyom nyom nyom. Because I like them. I do not deface mine with gravy (sorry if i have offended any biscuits and gravy lovers, its just not my thing) gravy just doesn't go with biscuits, in my opinion. But butter and jam/jelly and honey do. Annnywho, I know you don't actually care about my opinions, you just care about food. Delicious, delicious food. I would be inclined to agree with you on this, I mean I am not even interested in my own opinions when i could have food instead. So.


Ingredients: Flour, Salt, Baking Powder, Milk, Butter


This is the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl on the mixer stand. I don't know why i used the mixer, as this is one of the few recipes I can make without it. Thats right, I'm lazy, too lazy to give up my kitchen aid. I love my kitchen aid. I allows me to be lazy. And I like that.


So then you put some butter in there, especially if its the freakish colored butter like we have here. That makes it taste better. I should know. My butter is a freakish yellow color.


Now heres the part where it says you can use a pastry blender or two knives. Ive tried the whole two knives thing, its not so great, its hard. It does not allow me to be lazy. They should invent a pastry cutter part for the kitchen aid. That would be nice.


And then, just for kicks and giggles, lets add some milk. But just for kicks and giggles. This picture is the wrong way round for kicks and giggles as well. Also for lazy. Hooray. I was goiong to start a team of cheerleaders for lazy people, but then it sounded like a lot of work.


You know what I think? I think we should roll out the dough. But only after kneading it a bit. Kneading tings is one of my greatest pleasures in life. Great for anger management. Although crying isn't so great while you're kneading tings, because then the dough gets all salty. And too much salt does not taste good in things like bagels. Unless thats what you're going for. Salt bagels. In which case, cry away.

So then if you happen to be fancy like me cut them with a biscuit cutter, if you are not, use a cup. Now this part is very important (since Cooks Illustrated told me so) do not twist the biscuit cutter!!! This will result in deformed, lopsided biscuits, and they will not be half as pretty as you want them to be!

Before


After

Still after. And looking delicious, if i do say so myself.


Now break it in half and butter the dang thing.


And utilize the culinary deliciousness of jam! Strawberry jam!

Or honey! Honey that doesn't look like honey in this picture but is honey, I promise!

Kay, so heres the recipe from the Joy of Cooking

Rolled Biscuits
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled butter
3/4 cup milk

Mix baking powder, flour and salt. Cut in with pastry blender or 2 knives the butter. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, stir, knead about 8 times then roll cut with biscuit cutter or glass and bake at 450 degrees for about 12-15 min. Enjoy.

A Cake Out of Cookies! (Guest Post)

So the other day Caitlin was all baking at my house, and then she was all, you should post this on the interwob! So we did. And then she wrote about it because: 1. She's awesome 2. It's her cake 3. there is no "3." there are only two reasons.
So, yes. If you this she's cool like I do, she has another interwob related enterprise:
Less Gravity http://lessgravity.wordpress.com/
If you read it, you will be impressed. Because of her many knowleges.



Some of the best things in life go parading around pretending to be something else. Cupcakes pretend to be real cake, pizza pie pretends to be real pie, Twinkies pretend to be real food... But my favorite masquerading food in all the world is cookie cake. I think it even beats the real deal. What's not to like? It's a cookie with icing and large enough to feed en masse (or one very hungry stomach).

You'll need only some rather elementary ingredients: flour, baking powder & soda, choco chips, sugar, &c. You may also want to fetch a little light corn syrup if you don't have any (or just cheat with dark corn syrup like we did).

First thing is to preheat the oven, which is a background buzzing to most bakers. Dial it up to 350 and let it warm up.

From there, it's a lot like any other baking venture. Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately, then combine them gradually.

I added choco-chips, about three-quarters of a bag, although it's really your call. I also threw in a rather large "dash" (I'm not much of a chef) of walnuts for good measure.

Then I popped it into the oven and let it bake away for awhile while making the icing.

You can be lazy and buy some, or make your own. I made chocolate. If you have a fancy double-boiler (or can steal one from someone else) then you can melt some chocolate and add sugar and butter to make a nice buttercream frosting.

Once cooled, spread on the frosting and decorate how you see fit. Immediately begin eating.


Blondies (The Cookie Part)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 stick (half cup) butter
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (or not)
1 cup (or more, more is good) chocolate chips

preheat the oven to 350 degrees line a round cake pan with foil and then grease it. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a saucepan melt then boil butter about 4 min till light golden brown. remove from heat and add to brown sugar and sugar. Let cool to barely warm, add egg, egg yolk, corn syrup and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture and nuts/chocolate chips. Scrape into pan, bake for 25-30 min, until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cool then frost with the icing below to make it even more delicious.

Quick Chocolate Butter Icing
3 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup hot milk (or coffee or cream)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted (or not, it doesn't really matter)

Melt chocolate with butter in a double boiler, then add milk and vanilla after removing from the heat. Add sugar gradually until spreadable.