Chef
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Registered: June 13, 2006
Posts: 169
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| | March 15, 2009 at 07:55 PM | Reply with quote | #1 |
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BISCUITS BY REE
These are really good "down home" biscuits! They are tender and light but toothy as well. The batter-like dough is very soft and sticky. It must be handled deftly and with a lot of loose flour. These biscuits are best when they are cut into small one-inch thick by one-inch diameter rounds. Larger versions produce heavy-in-the-middle pucks with outside crusts that are tough because of the longer baking time required. Thinner renditions produce dryer more cracker-like results.
Ree’s Biscuits (with or without substituting a cup or two of cornmeal for an equal measurement of the flour) can be used to make great steamed dumplings when spooned on top of a pot or casserole of chicken or beef stew, covered and left to simmer gently just until the dough rises and is transformed into cloud-like ‘dumplings”!
This recipe can also be modified to create “Mother's old fashioned ‘shortcakes’, and used to create Strawberry or Peach Shortcake simply by doubling the sugar, and then free-forming the batter into dollops and baking them lightly. Of course the best fruits to use for Strawberry or Peach Shortbread should (or MUST) be locally grown and picked when at the peak (or just past) ripeness. Simply clean and prep the fruit and sugar it just enough to cause the fruit to produce juice. To assemble this summertime dessert, split a ‘short-cake’ in half equatorially and lay the open-halves facing up into a rim soup bowl or plate; then pile-on the sugared fruit along with some of the juices. Serve with pitchers of cold heavy or whipped cream and dig-in. When I was a boy growing up in southern New Jersey we often had nothing else but fruit shortcake for our supper
• 10 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons baking POWDER
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking SODA
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 lb COLD butter, margarine, or lard - cut into 1/2 inch cubes.
• ~ 5 cups buttermilk (or use 5 cups of regular milk mixed with 2 tablespoons lemon juice)
PREHEAT OVEN TO 400-425°F
1. In a very large bowl, thoroughly mix together all of the dry ingredients. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE BAKING SODA AND BAKING POWDER BE EVENLY DISPERSED THROUGHOUT THE MIXTURE
2. Using your well-scrubbed hands, “crush and rub” the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles uncooked oat meal. The mixture should be uneven and coarse looking.
3. Add the buttermilk all at one time and using your hands, QUICKLY toss together until a sticky mass forms. The dough may seem to be “too” sticky; it is not. This is a very soft and wet dough. DO NOT OVER-MIX AND DO NOT KNEAD
4. Dust a board or table top with a generous amount of flour. Turn the dough onto the work surface, and with well-floured hands, pat into a uniform thickness of one-inch.
DO NOT KNEAD; PAT ONLY.
5. Cut one-inch diameter biscuits and place onto a greased or Teflon® baking pan. Brush each biscuit with melted butter or cream and bake them plain or sprinkle with caraway seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, cracked oats, etc.,
6. Bake until golden brown.
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Leslie
Registered: April 26, 2007
Posts: 3
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| | June 19, 2009 at 10:45 AM | Reply with quote | #2 |
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What's a good size of dollop to use if making shortcakes? I don't want to end up with heavy-in-the-middle pucks.
Leslie
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Chef
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Registered: June 13, 2006
Posts: 169
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| | June 23, 2009 at 06:58 AM | Reply with quote | #3 |
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Use a standard Ice Cream Scoop and place one level scoopful into your well floured hands, and form into a ball by gently tossing the dough back and forth hand to hand. Deposit this onto a baking sheet and gently pat it evenly forming it into a puck. Bake this trial Biscuit and judge the results after it has cooled enough to be handled. Using this as your guide, adjust the size and shape of the remainder of the dough. Remember too that short bread cobblers (or biscuits, or whatever you want to call these repositories for juice-producing fruits (peaches come to mind) and berries (strawberries in particular) are meant to serve as sponges for these juices and any other garnish you may choose to offer such as thick heavy cream or whipped cream. If you macerate your chosen fruit or berries with sugar ahead of time, unsweetened heavy cream should suffice to pour over the top.
Offering sweetened whipped cream, on the other hand, may yield a dessert that some folks may find simply too too sweet! At home in south Jersey, we served these summertime desserts in rim-soup-bowls along with a soup spoon. |
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