Healthy Bread: Recipe for Simple Biscuits-Daring Bakers

Mmmm, fresh out of the oven! We don't eat biscuits as a general rule although I used to eat them frequently enough when I lived in the South. I was surprised how much we both enjoyed these when I made them for our monthly Daring Bakers challenge.

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host.. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens! Aud hails from down under, hence the "scone" reference.

This lovely, simple recipe has so many possibilities beyond the simple, yet fabulous plain biscuit (scone). Cheese biscuits come to mind as the first variety I might try next.

Tuck this away for when you want a quick and reliable biscuit recipe!

Yield: 8 biscuits
Time: 20 minutes (or 60 minutes if you follow the options)

Ingredients:

1 cup/140 grams plain all purpose flour
2 tsp/10 grams baking powder (make sure it is fresh)
1/4 tsp/1 1/2 grams table salt
2 TBSP frozen grated butter (grated on large holes of box grater)
1/2 cup (120 ml) cold 1% milk plus a dab for brushing the tops

Method:

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
Sift the flour, salt and baking powder three times.
Optional: place sifted ingredients in refrigerator for 20 minutes to chill.
To the sifted dry ingredients, rub in the grated butter until the mix looks like a mix of large sand pieces and pea sized pieces.
Add the milk to the bowl with the dry ingredient/butter mixture and mix with hands until a sticky dough is formed.
Turn dough out on to a floured surface and sprinkle the top with flour.
Gently knead a few times, then fold into thirds several times, gently pressing out between folds.
Pat dough out into an approximately 6 x 4 inch rectangle.
Using a floured biscuit cutter (approximately 2 inches) cut 4-5 biscuits pressing down, not twisting.
Reform dough and cut out 2 more biscuits.
Use scraps to form final biscuit.
Place biscuits in baking pan.
Optional: place formed biscuits into refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Brush top of biscuits with milk and then bake for approximately 10 minutes.
Serve warm. Can be cooled to room temperature and stored in freezer bag in freezer.
Reheat briefly.