I was craving a bit of home the other day, so I decided to make some good old American biscuits from scratch. These are not the biscuits most Aussies are used to. Here, a biscuit is typically a sweet cookie type thing. The Aussie version of the scone is closer to the American version of the biscuit. I started with a well tested recipe from one of my favorite teachers, chef Alton Brown. I have said this before, this is not a recipe blog, and I couldn?t provide the recipe if I wanted to, since Alton sort of copyrighted it and all. So let?s just look at the highlights, shall we? I have never made biscuits from scratch, so I set my hopes low, just in case things didn?t work out. If the biscuits turn out less than shitty, score! If not, no harm done. The recipe called for buttermilk, yogurt and an egg to keep it moist, but most recipes I?ve seen only use one of these things. Alton suggests kneading the dough on some floured parchment paper so the dough doesn?t go ape shit on you and forms a large clump that sticks to your hand. I didn?t have any parchment, so I tried using plastic wrap. BAD IDEA. It just didn?t work. Period. And about halfway through using the plastic wrap, I realized I DID have some parchment. Yup, I?m a quick one. I made one batch plain and another batch with some aged manchego cheese and chives. Alton stresses kneading the dough very gently, but in my biscuit excitement, I think I manhandled it a bit. The biscuits turned out okay, but not as tender as I would prefer them to be. The manchego and chive biscuits looked great, nice and brown and a decent size and height, and they went great with some goulash.
The plain biscuits?not so much. But let us all learn from mistakes. Just see what I did and then DON?T DO IT.
I made them too thin, which was sad, and when I tried to knead together the scraps, I didn?t do it well enough because I didn?t want to make the dough too tough, and you could totally see the pieces coming apart after they were baked. They tasted ok, especially with some local jam, but I was embarrassed at the sight of them?so I had to eat them all. Trust me, people. It was better this way. I think it was an honorable first attempt at biscuits. Maybe. I swear I used to be a pastry chef. ~LTG
