For as long as I can remember, my mother has been famous in certain circles for her biscuits. When I was pretty young, she was famous within the immediate family for making what we so affectionately called "hockey pucks." They were usually served with her homemade baked beans, aka "bullets" (sorry, Mom!).
Seriously, though -- my mom used to cook some really great things when I was a kid, and she did figure out the beans eventually. As for the biscuits, the secret unfolded when she discovered Bakewell Cream -- "a leavening agent for better baking!" Bakewell Cream was invented right here, in Bangor, Maine, in the 1940s. You can read a little more about its history here. And check out this article from a recent issue of our local paper! "Apple Ledge Company of East Holden" (referred to in the article) was actually comprised of a couple my parents have been friends with for decades.
Anyway, once she learned about this "secret" ingredient, Mom perfected the biscuit making process. No more bullets and hockey pucks on Saturday nights! She eventually became the designated biscuit maker for the monthly bean dinners at her church. People couldn't get enough of her Bakewell Cream biscuits.
Here in northern New England, it's been cool, windy, and rainy for a couple of days, thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Frances. I'm not complaining -- it's just a little rain. No death or destruction, thankfully. But this weather makes me want something comforting and homey. For some reason, tonight was just screaming "biscuits, biscuits!" Would you believe that after growing up eating so many of them, I've only actually made them once? And the ones I made weren't even "Bakewells?" Shocking, I know. That all changed this evening.
Bakewell Cream Biscuits (recipe from the Bakewell Cream can!)
4 cups flour
4 tsp Bakewell Cream
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups cold milk
Mix and sift dry ingredients.
Add shortening and mix with pastry blender.
Add milk all at once, and stir quickly with a fork. (some flours may require a little more liquid to make a nice soft dough)
Turn out on floured board and knead 5 or 6 times. Roll or pat to 1/2" to 3/4" thick. Cut with biscuit cutter.
Bake at 475 for 5 minutes. Turn off heat and leave in oven for 5 to 10 minutes until golden brown.
These biscuits are extra high and light.
I consulted Mom before diving into this project. She said she uses a little more shortening and milk than the recipe calls for, because she likes the dough to be good and soft and sticky. She also sounded surprised when I read the part about baking the biscuits at 475 for 5 minutes, then turning off the oven. She just bakes them at 500 until they are done. I decided to follow the recipe closely for my first try. I measured the dry ingredients and shortening as I talked to Mom on the phone. When I hung up, I set to cutting the shortening into the flour. I don't make a lot of biscuits or pie dough, but I know enough to know that once the shortening is mixed in, the flour should have a texture more like cornmeal (mmm... cornmeal!) than flour. Mine looked a lot like flour. As I replayed the measuring sequence in my head, I realized I had only put in 1/4 cup of shortening. I remedied that situation, and continued on. I decided the dough was sticky enough for my taste with the ingredients called for. I dumped the mixture out onto a kneading mat and mushed it all together, patted it out, and cut with my biscuit cutter. Actually, I think it was a cookie cutter. It has scalloped edges. I was afraid that would affect the rising of my biscuits, but didn't really have any other choice. As you can see above, the effect was minimal. They came out really good, I think, for a first attempt! They are everything a good baking powder biscuit should be -- light and fluffy on the inside and cripsy on the outside. They are especially good split, buttered, and slathered with your favorite jam (plum for me right now!). They'll also be really good for breakfast tomorrow, toasted, buttered, and jammed.
Speaking of the phrase "baking powder biscuits," is that something you're familiar with? Or is it just a New England thing? We don't use a lot of buttermilk here, which I know is popular in southern biscuit recipes. And those biscuits from a can, you know the ones, are NOTHING like the ones we make around here. Just curious. What are biscuits like in your part of the world?
It's taken on an interesting color. Maybe that's because the flour is absorbing the water? It's also exuding a bit of moisture, as you may or may not be able to see around the edge of the dough. Very intriguing...
No sign of the crust yet, but the starter was only about 24 hours old when this picture was taken.
In recent days, The Signs have all been pointing me to another attempt at sourdough. Yes, another attempt. A few months ago, before this blog existed, I made sourdough starter. I did lots of research and decided on the most simple "method." I mixed equal parts of whole wheat flour and water to make a liquid starter. I stored it in a glass jar on my counter, stirred and fed it faithfully, and it fermented quite nicely over time. On the day that I deemed it ready to make bread, I used a recipe for 100% whole wheat bread. Long story short, I ended up with a rather tasty doorstop. It had all the flavor of sourdough bread, with none of the texture. I just didn't exercise any patience. I'm sure that if I had, I would have gotten somewhere. I continued to maintain my starter for a few weeks after that, but never attempted another loaf of bread. I put the starter in the fridge for a couple of months, putting it into a dormant state, intending to refresh it someday. Finally, one day, I got tired of looking at it and threw it out. Poor starter. It never did anything wrong. I just got bored.
This time, I am ready. I have done lots more reading on the subject, and am ready to go into it with the utmost patience. I am also trying a different method of making the starter. I found a really cool kids website called exploratorium.edu. It's kind of like having your own private science museum! Categories include music, sports, and food. Yay! I love food science! Within the food science is the sourdough project. It will be just like an episode of "Good Eats" happening right in my own kitchen!
Just for reference, the dough ball is about the size of a Clementine.
Basic Sourdough Starter
1 small handful (1/4 to 1/3 cup) white flour
1 or 2 tablespoons of water
1. In a mound of flour, make a small well and add the water.
2. Slowly mix the flour and the water, bringing more flour into the center of the well. The mixture will gradually transform from a paste into a small piece of dough.
3. Knead this small piece of dough with your fingers for about 5–8 minutes, until it becomes springy.
4. Place the dough in a small bowl, cover it with a damp towel, and let it sit in a warm spot for 2 or 3 days.
5. When it’s ready, the dough will be moist, wrinkled, and crusty. If you pull off a piece of the crust, you’ll find tiny bubbles and smell a sweet aroma.
6. Throw away any hardened crust. “Refresh” the remaining piece by mixing it with twice the original amount of flour and enough water to make a firm dough. Set aside as before.
7. After 1 or 2 days the starter will have a new, fresh look. Remove any dried dough and mix with about 1 cup of flour.
8. Once again, cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave it in a warm place for another 8–12 hours.
9. When the starter is ready, it will appear fully risen, and a small indentation made with a finger won’t spring back.
Now the starter is ready to be used in virtually any sourdough recipe. You can try it out on Berkeley Sourdough. Remember to save a small piece of the starter: You can put it in the refrigerator for several days, then refresh it again as above and use it to make another loaf. A good starter will serve you for years to come!
I used 1/3 cup whole-wheat flour and 2 tablespoons bottled water. We have really hard water in our apartment, so bottled water is better for experiments like this. After a few minutes of mixing, I found I had to add another teaspoon of water to get all the flour to mix in. Then I kneaded it for 7 or 8 minutes. I'm not sure it ever actually got springy, but it was starting to get a bit sticky, so I put it in a little bowl, covered it with a damp dishcloth, and put it on the shelf next to the chimney. That's about as warm a spot as I could come up with (not that it's cold here... but I was looking for a consistently warm spot!). I can't wait to see how it looks in a couple of days! I'll keep you posted. =)
Not only do I have books, magazines, and binders full of recipes, but I also have about 160 recipes in my epicurious.com “recipe box…” maybe three of which I have actually made. I was browsing through it the other day, looking for something new to do with tofu, and found this recipe (that I barely remembered saving!):
(I really hate recipes with names that divulge every ingredient… but anyway…)
¾ lb extra-firm tofu, cut into ½” thick slices
1 ½ tbsp vegetable oil
1 ½ bunches watercress, tough stems discarded
1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
2 tsp grated peeled fresh ginger
1 large garlic clove, minced
½ cup fresh orange juice
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp Asian sesame oil
Pat tofu dry. Heat 1 tbsp in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté tofu until golden brown, about 3 minutes on each side.
Heat remaining ½ tbsp vegetable oil in skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook watercress, turning with tongs, until just wilted. Stir in sesame seeds. Transfer watercress to a platter and arrange tofu on top.
Simmer remaining ingredients in skillet 1 minute and drizzle sauce over tofu.
Serves 2.
Gourmet, January 2000
I made just the tofu and sauce. I’m not too into sautéed greens, and I’m not sure I would have found watercress in my grocery store, anyway. I followed some readers’ suggestions and dredged the tofu (and myself, and my kitchen – that stuff really flies!) in cornstarch before I sautéed it. They said it would make the crispiest tofu I’d ever cooked. They were right… until the tofu cooled a bit. The “crust” turned a little gummy and starchy. Lesson learned. I’ll leave out the cornstarch next time, or cook the tofu last so it doesn’t get a chance to cool before I serve it.
To go along with the tofu, I found a recipe that sounded perfect – it’s another Asian-influenced dish, and it also calls for sesame seeds. What a great tie-in!
(apparently creative recipe names aren’t the strong suit of the folks at Conde Nast… but the recipes sure are good!)
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups jasmine rice or long-grain white rice
1 pound boiled soybeans (edamame), shelled (about 8 ounces)
1 tablespoon peanut oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
Combine 2 cups water, rice, soybeans, oil, and salt in large saucepan. Bring to boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Fluff rice with fork. Stir in sesame seeds; season with salt and pepper.
Makes 6 servings.
Bon Appétit, August 2001
I buy frozen, shelled edamame, so I cooked the rice by itself, then threw in a cup of edamame after the rice was done. That way, the edamame got thawed and heated by the hot rice, but not overcooked. I also added one bunch of scallions, finely sliced, for a bit of extra color and flavor. They also cooked slightly from the heat of the rice. Then I used toasted sesame oil instead of peanut oil, to match the tofu’s dressing.
The rice is a bit blah on its own, but with a little of that orange-soy sauce mixed in, it’s great! The two dishes work wonderfully together. As you saw in the picture at the top of the page, I served the pretty tofu triangles beside the rice, with a bit of the sauce drizzled over everything. Today, I cut up some of the leftover tofu and mixed it with some of the rice and just a bit of the sauce. It turned out a little like those frozen “rice bowls” you buy at the store, but tasted much better!
Have you figured out yet that I've had way too much time on my hands lately? I am a bread-baking fiend! I decided today would be experimentation day. Rarely do I deviate from a yeast bread recipe... you know, that whole chemistry/formula/precision thing tends to hold me back!
If you have a Borders bookstore in your neighborhood, and you've actually been to it, you've probably noticed that they have a bargain book section, usually right in the entryway of the store. The Borders in Bangor often has lots of cookbooks in its bargain section. I, of course, have a problem staying away from those books. They call out to me before I even get into the store. As a result, I have acquired several bread books from this section. A lot of them are published in the UK, which makes for some interesting reading, and some improvisation of ingredients!
One of my books is called "The Complete Book of Bread & Bread Machines," by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter. The recipe I chose to make today is "Granary Bread." For a 1-pound loaf, it calls for the following ingredients:
1 cup water
3 1/4 cups granary (whole-wheat) bread flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp rapid-rise yeast
What the heck is "granary flour?" There are several other kinds of flour in this book that they also refer to as "whole-wheat flour!" It's very confusing. I have a bag of "6 grain flour" in my fridge, which I thought would make a good substitute. It sounded feasible, anyway! The other thing I found strange about this recipe is that it only calls for 1/2 tsp of yeast. I know it says rapid-rise, but still... that doesn't seem like much. Plus, I only have active dry yeast. After much pondering and re-pondering, here's what I put into my machine:
1 cup water
3 1/4 cups 6-grain flour
1/4 cup 7-grain and seed mix
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1 tsp active dry yeast
I put everything into the pan, set the machine on "dough only," and watched it mix. After a few minutes, it looked pretty dry and coarse, so I added two more tablespoons of water. That seemed to help. I let it do its thing, which took an hour and a half. At the end of the cycle, the dough didn't seem like it had risen enough, so I let it go for about 45 more minutes. It's a cool, dry day here, and this is a 100% whole grain dough, so I figured I needed to have a little patience. When I thought it had risen enough, I punched it down, let it rest a few minutes, and shaped it into a loaf. I then put it in the oven with just the light on for its second rise. That took probably another hour, and I was finally happy with the way it looked. I got a bit artistic and made two diagonal slashes on the top of the loaf, which deflated it a bit. I hoped it would rise a bit more as it baked. I baked it at 350 for about half an hour. It did rise a bit, but not as much as I'd hoped...
It's a compact loaf, but it isn't as dense as I expected. It's a bit dry, however... almost crumbly. But believe it or not, it's pretty good. It has great flavor, and I love the texture and crunch the 7 grain and seed mix adds. I will definitely experiment with this recipe again sometime. I'll use more yeast. Maybe I'll use milk in place of some or all of the water. I might substitute some white bread flour for a little bit of the 6 grain flour. Maybe a shot of vital wheat gluten would help, too. I'll certainly be spending some time reading the "troubleshooting" sections of my bread books to figure out how to make it less dry! For now, I have a loaf of hearty, healthy bread that makes great toast.
