Baking and Pastries, Day One...

There is a restaurant in MO called the Big Biscuit and the sign outside has a little guy carrying a HUGE biscuit and when you finally get to walk inside after waiting in a long line, it has 50s oldies playing and the wait staff buzzing about to the beat of the music.

The biscuit is indeed Big and from my years of frequenting this establishment for breakfast I must say that their biscuit was very tasty but...Todays biscuit was by far the BEST biscuit from scratch that I've Ever had.  What was the difference?  Well, what I should say is, what Makes a difference is How much you Man/Woman handle the flour/dough.

When you cut in the shortening/butter into the flour you should not spend TOO much time doing so as the heat from your hands will melt the fat and you don't want to make dough out of the flour and fat. What you want is a crumbly consistency.  If you're using a combination of butter and shortening then mix the butter First then the shortening.  If you are lazy and want to combine the butter and shortening then you should refrigerate it before cutting it into the flour.

Now, when you add the liquid you should pour it all in at once then stir it just until it's combined.  Flour your counter then turn out the dough onto the counter and when you knead the dough you'll want to knead it perhaps no more than 6 times... and gently as she goes...roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thick starting from the middle and making your way out, then cut out with a cooking cutter.  Gently bring together the scraps, rinse and repeat rolling and cutting procedures.  Did I say GENTLY!!!  Do NOT Over Knead the dough!!!

Parchment paper to line your cookie sheet then when you place your biscuits on the sheet you will have the biscuits touching each other, it makes for a more uniform rise of your biscuits.  Then you bake it to a Golden Brown Delicious.

So, go and find yourselves a biscuit recipe and apply these techniques and let me know how it turned out.  Weigh out Everything, even the liquids.  If you really want me to give you the recipe that I have then ask and ye shall recieve.  Oh, and due to the lack of glutens because of the gentle kneading, your biscuits should be wonderful even after you nuke it in the microwave...

That's my blip for my BFFs today.