Meal Monday
I have found that presenting anything homemade that is still warm out of the oven at a weekday breakfast can knock the socks off almost any family member. Sad, but true. We're not a cold cereal-only family -– our repertoire includes smoothies, bagels, sausage, fresh fruit and (frozen) waffles -- but if a weekday breakfast is warm from the oven, it's usually the toaster oven.
That probably wasn't how it was in Fannie Farmer's day. I'm betting that when needing a basic recipe, many home cooks turn to The Joy of Cooking –- or, in some cases, one of Julia Child's fantastic tomes -- not to The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, originally published in 1896. But I do, mostly likely due to my New England roots, where Fannie did her cooking at a boarding house run out of the house where she grew up. There was no doubt that I was going to call on Fannie for my homemade biscuit recipe this morning.
Her recipes (as presented in Marion Cunningham's compilation) are straightforward, easy, and tasty. I altered the Baking Powder Biscuit recipe a bit by using whole wheat flour and decreasing the oil slightly, and I still loved the slightly sweet and tender biscuits. They are great with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar, jam, or honey. They take only minutes to make and they are worth it. Try these to knock off someone's socks this week!
Baking Powder Biscuit Recipe
(adapted from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham)
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white all purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
½ cup vegetable shortening (I used Canola oil and reduced it to about 1/3 of a cup)
2/3 cup milk
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 425. Grease a cookie sheet.
Put the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar in a bowl. Gently mix in the vegetable oil until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
Add the milk all at once and stir until the dough forms a ball around the fork.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and kneed 14 times. Pat down until ½-inch thick.
Cut into rounds with a 2-inch cookie cutter or other round, clean object (I used a drinking glass).
Place touching each other onto the cooking sheets and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Photo by cck via Flickr.
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