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Quick-Breads, Muffins, Scones, Biscuits, & More ... |
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Biscuits:
If any quick-breads deserve top billing, it's
the biscuit.
A good biscuit can make any meal special.
They are usually leavened with
baking powder instead of yeast used in bread recipes.
Preparation is much like pie
pastry which requires a quick and light touch, cold ingredients and a
hot oven, but there are other ways to make them.
The Different Biscuit Types
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TIPS TO TENDER BISCUITS:
Some home bakers make biscuits as an everyday part of life, and they always
turn out flaky and tender. Others have to learn how, and if you do, you have
come to the right place. |
The "Standard" biscuit
varies depending on the cultural background and/or geographic location: The
"Southern biscuit" has a rough pale golden crust with a uniform fine crumb. In
the Southeastern United States, the standard or traditional biscuit has a crisp
crust and is not necessarily flaky. The ideal "Northern biscuit" has a golden
brown, smooth, tender and crisp crust without brown specks. The shape is
symmetrical with a smooth, level top and straight side.
Generally, these types of biscuits
are made from a soft dough with a leavener, such as baking powder, baking soda,
or cream of tartar, a stabilizer. Additionally, a variety of ingredients are
used in its preparation, but the primary ones are flour, sugar, salt, solid fat
(unsalted butter, margarine, vegetable shortening, or lard - some recipes may
use oil, as well), liquids such as milk (especially buttermilk or cream). Eggs
are also used in many biscuit recipes.
"Combination biscuits"
are made with yeast combined with other leaveners
such as baking powder. Not a true biscuit but rather like a yeast roll,
combination biscuit preparation requires a resting and a rising time because of
the yeast.
"Angel biscuits" or "Cloud biscuits" are examples of a combination
biscuit.
Sometimes biscuits are called
"scones"
when eggs and other enrichments (more sugar and fat) are used in the recipe.
Scones may be cut out differently than biscuits (ex: wedge shaped) but they are
essentially the same as biscuits. See the
English Scone Recipe.
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Marri, from
Ask Sarah writes: I think the main
difference between an English scone recipe and the American (baking powder
biscuit) would be the ingredients. The English tend to make them plain and
then dress them up with jams and clotted cream (YUM). With all that you
don't want 'extra's in the scones. The most daring the traditional ones
get are having currants or sultanas in them and then they are called Rich
Tea Scones. |
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A pioneer cook's skill was
almost always judged on the ability to quickly whip up and serve a batch
of light and fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth, golden brown biscuits...whether
it be the first meal of the day or the last. This was done with a minimum
of ingredients, "kitchen utensils" and refrigeration. |
The Basic Biscuit
Mixing
Methods
Biscuits can be mixed in different ways. No
matter what mixing technique is used, the way in which the dough is "worked"
greatly affects the outcome.
The general rule is to handle the dough gently, work quickly, dust your hands
and the dough only with enough flour so it is manageable, but not under- or
over-worked. The dough should be somewhat soft and sticky, rather than hard. The
result will be a lighter biscuit.
Problems can occur during mixing: undermixed
biscuits have a smaller volume, rough and spotted crusts, and the interior has a
course texture. Overmixed dough causes the development of gluten to be
excessive, thus, the biscuits are humped on top, dry and tough.
1. The
most popular is the "pie pastry" method, where
the fat is cut into the flour.
2. Biscuit dough is made with the
ingredients added in a certain order to a bowl.
The dough is soft and sticky and then are dropped
from a spoon on a cookie sheet to bake.
3.
Biscuit dough is "beaten" until blistered, a procedure not commonly used today.
The dough is beaten with a rolling
pin, or slapped on the counter or vigorously stirred until the dough cracked and
blistered. Beaten biscuits were once considered quite an accomplishment for the
Southern home baker, and recipes are often found in local cookbooks. Beaten
biscuits, in some people's opinion, are not as light and tender as conventional
ones
Tips to Tender Biscuits
MIXING AND CUTTING:
 In
days past, yeast wasn't always easy to come by, nor was it consistent in
quality. Before the arrival of commercial baking powder in the mid 1850's, a
mixture of cream of tartar or tartaric acid and baking soda, called baking
powder, along with an acid ingredient such as clabbered milk (like yogurt)
were used as leavening ingredients in making the American biscuit. |
Check that ingredients are fresh.
Shortening or
leavening that is out of date won't
give you the best-tasting biscuits.
Go out and replace it, unless you
bought it within the last four months. More baking flops occur from old, tired
baking powder than from any other cause.
| QUESTION: What
causes yellow spots on the crust of rolled biscuits? How
can this be avoided? ANSWER:
Yellow spots may be formed when all of the soda has either not been
dissolved or not been neutralized. When this soda is heated during baking,
Na2CO3 (washing soda) is formed. This encourages the
formation of yellowish spots on the surface of the crust. To prevent this
from happening, it is important that the dough be stirred and kneaded
adequately in order to moisten all of the dry ingredients. The dough can
also be left to stand, covered to prevent drying, for 10-15 minutes. This
allows time for moistening of the ingredients. Or the surface of the biscuit
dough may be brushed with a milk or egg wash to prevent drying during
baking. |
Measure
all ingredients with care. If you don't,
a coarse or crumbly texture and biscuits that don't rise can be the result.
When making biscuits always use a
quality flour. A combination of bread and cake flours are used by professional
bakers when making biscuits, but for the home baker, biscuit flour (White Lily
Flour), unbleached all purpose or a cake flour are best to start with. Some of
the flours are the self rising variety which already include baking powder and
salt, so make sure you take equal amounts out of the recipe; you don't want to
end up with double the amount. (See
Flour Substitutes). In the Southern part of the United States, a
multitude of brands of biscuit flour are available, such as White Lily Flour
brand. Also the Walmart stores with food sections carry a few kinds of Southern
biscuit and baking flours.
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The
amount of
protein in the flour
has an influence on
whether a biscuit is flaky or not. The higher the protein content, such as
with all-purpose, the flakier and the potentially tougher
the biscuit will be. It may also produce a biscuit with a darker crust and
larger volume than that produced with a biscuit, soft wheat pastry or cake
flour.
A Southern baker once told
me that she sifts the dry ingredients four times and is the reason her
biscuits are perfect. I tested it and found that sifting does make a
slightly higher, more tender biscuit, but it is not necessary. |
Shortening or lard,
traditional biscuit fats, and cold liquid ingredients will produce the best
biscuits, influence the flakiness, as well as inhibit gluten formation
and will more likely to produce a finely textured biscuit. The cold liquids keep
the fat from melting.
Milk gives a rich velvety texture, buttermilk a very tender
texture, solid white vegetable shortening a softer texture than butter or
margarine. Butter gives a richer flavor and shortening a flakier texture to
biscuits. Lard, once popular, produces the flakiest dough and is rarely used due
to health issues. Eggs may be added for volume and richness. A few teaspoons of
sugar may be added for sweetness. A tablespoon or so of dry milk or dry
buttermilk powder can also be added for a richer dough; if using, the liquid
added should be water.
It's very important to whisk the dry
ingredients together once they're all in the bowl. This way everything gets
evenly dispersed: the baking powder, salt, flour, etc. Mix
the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl and put aside.
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QUESTION: How does the technique of
making baking powder biscuits differ from the technique of making
muffins?
ANSWER: The formulation for muffins differs from biscuits in
the ratio of flour to liquid. Muffin batter has a flour to liquid ratio of
2:1 whereas biscuits have a ratio of 3:1. The method of mixing the
ingredients is also different.
a) With muffins, the dry ingredients are mixed together in
one bowl and the liquid ingredients, including the fat, are mixed in
another. The liquid ingredients are then added to the dry. With biscuits,
the plastic fat is cut into the dry ingredients first, and then the liquid
ingredients are added.
b) Muffins require very little manipulation of the batter.
The liquid ingredients are stirred into the dry only enough to moisten the
dry ingredients.
Biscuits require thorough mixing of the dry and wet
ingredients and much more manipulation of the dough to adequately moisten
the dry ingredients. |
Then
"cut in" the fat. "Cutting in" the
shortening or fat means cutting the right amount of shortening into small bits
in the right amount of flour until it resembles cornmeal (contrary to popular
belief). Use a recipe that has little shortening to flour, so the biscuit
puffs while baking. It is usually done with a pastry cutter
or you can crisscross 2 table knives through the flour. Some use their
fingertips to rub the mixture into the right consistency or use a wire whisk.
The mixture should resemble cornmeal.
Once the dry ingredients are
ready, form a "well" in the center. This creates a space in which to receive the
wet ingredients. You can use a small bowl, a large ladle, or your hand to do
this. Now, pour the wet ingredients into the well.
Next, combine the dry and
wet ingredients together with a fork or with your hands
to pull the ingredients together. Go lightly as the heat of your hands will
begin to warm the shortening which affects the flakiness. Don't mix too much
because you'll cause too much gluten to be formed in the dough which will make
the biscuits tough and dry when baked.
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SHAPING: After mixing,
the biscuit dough is ready to be shaped. There are two ways to shape them:
ROLL AND CUT or DROP. |
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ROLL AND CUT BISCUITS: Rolled
biscuit dough are flaky and not as sticky as dropped ones. Flakiness is
obtained in biscuits by mixing and rolling techniques. Both the addition of
fat and the method of manipulating the dough contribute to a tender dough.
Fat tenderizes because it is insoluble in water. The dough must be stirred
adequately and kneaded sufficiently in order to develop gluten enough to
obtain the desired flaky texture throughout the flour mixture where it
interferes with the cohesiveness of the structure. The proper amount of
manipulation of the dough, a gentle kneading of 15 - 20 strokes, is
necessary because of the comparatively slow rate of gluten development in
biscuit dough. However, too much manipulation increases toughness.
Cut the plastic fat
into the flour results in the fat being subdivided into small
particles. The surface area of the fat is increased and thus more flour can
make contact with it. The end result is that there are layers of flour
untouched by the fat alternating with layers of fat particles imbedded with
flour. In the flour layers gluten is developed and in the fat layers the fat
melts on baking leaving spaces between sheets of dough.
Dough can then be formed
by either following Step 1 or 2:
- By making turns
and rolling:
Manipulation of the dough, which involves kneading and folding the
dough into layers of fat and flour, gives a layered crumb
called laminating. It is also done in recipes such as
croissants,
Danish, and
puff pastry.
TO MAKE ONE TURN:
Lightly dust the work surface with flour, and roll the dough in it. Dust
the counter again and roll out the dough with a rolling pin into a
rectangle that is 3/4 inch thick. Using a pastry cutter or scraper, peel
the dough up from the counter and fold it, like a letter, into thirds.
Give it a one-quarter turn. Flour the counter and the top of the dough,
and roll it out again 3/4 inch thick.
TURN TWO:
Peel it up again and fold it
into thirds, etc.; OR,
- By just rolling:
For nice-looking biscuits and even
baking, roll or pat the dough to an even thickness on a lightly floured
surface. Do so without a lot of handling because that, with too much
flour, gives you biscuits that are tough and dry.
For fluffy, layered
biscuits, roll to a 3/4- 1 inch thickness. For crusty, thin biscuits (good
for soups, dips), roll the dough to a 1/2-inch thickness.
If you make biscuits often, here's a clever trick: use 2 dowels, 1 inch
thick and 14 inches long, to get the same thickness every time. Place the
ball of dough between the sticks, and roll or pat the dough to the
thickness of the sticks.
After rolling, the biscuit
dough is cut into shapes, usually round with a biscuit cutter, about 2- to
3-inches in diameter.
Biscuits can also be cut with inverted glass,
with straight sides, or cookie cutters, also 2- to 3-inches in diameter.
Fluted cutters may
be used but a perfect fluted shape may not result during baking. Biscuits
may also be formed in other various shapes.
Use the biscuit cutter dipped in flour to
cut the dough, pushing the cutter straight down through it. The sharper and
straighter the cut, the less resistance the dough encounters when it rises
in the oven, giving you more flaky biscuits. If you twist as you cut, the
biscuits will be uneven. After cutting, look at the side of the biscuit.
There should be strata-like marbling through the dough. These layers make
biscuits rise up light and fluffy.
Cut as many biscuits as you can at one
time creating the least amount of scraps as possible.
Place the pieces
on a greased baking sheet upside down. This ensures a taller, lighter
biscuit by making sure any edges crimped by the pressure of the cutting
don't interfere with the rise. (The French use the same trick when making
puff pastry.)
After cutting the first round of biscuits,
lightly press -- don't knead -- the scraps of dough together. These biscuits
will look slightly uneven and may be less flaky when baked. |
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DROPPED BISCUITS:
Shirley Corriher, Food Scientist, showed me the right way to make
drop biscuits. She said: "You want the dough to remain
really sticky and lumpy, two very important attributes which lead to a flaky
and tender biscuit. The dough should look like 'glop' ", as Shirley
demonstrated picking up a handful of the sticky mass with each hand and
while talking, flinging bits of dough around to show how it stuck to the
countertop and how difficult it was to get the dough off.
Another method, called
the dropped biscuit method, is a popular and easy way to make biscuits.
Here, a soft dough is "dropped" onto a
parchment-lined or greased baking sheet or muffin tin. To
make drop biscuits, pick up irregularly shaped pieces of dough with your
lightly floured fingertips, slightly larger than a walnut. Then, drop them
one-inch apart onto the baking sheet or place one in each muffin tin
cavity. The dough will be sticky to work with; don't add more flour. |
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General Baking Tips
Before baking, brush biscuit tops
with an egg wash, melted butter, milk or
cream before baking, which produces a rich, brown color when baked.
Bake biscuits in a well-preheated
and hot oven, usually 400 to 425 degrees F / 205 to 220 degrees C.
Always serve biscuits right after
baking; the best flavor results when they are still warm, not piping hot.
Storage Tips
It can be difficult when storing
biscuits because they are meant to be eaten fresh. A moist biscuit can get moldy
in about 3 days or taste stale if stored at room temperature or dried out when
frozen. Re-heat biscuits by brushing the tops with melted butter, wrap loosely
in foil and heat in the oven at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) or microwave for
25 to 30 seconds on HIGH.
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Here's
a way to freeze your biscuits and have them turn out nicely, too:
My favorite way to freeze biscuits and
scones are to first prebake them
partway. When I worked in Colonial Williamsburg's Pastry Shops we only
needed a set amount of scones / biscuits per day, but we had to make the
entire recipe. We baked all of the scones / biscuits until they were set,
but right before they started to take on color. Then they were thoroughly
cooled and then frozen. We just took out the amount needed to fill the order
and finished baking them. The ones I nibbled on were just as good as the
freshly baked ones. From,
Tami |
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