Biscuit Recipes - The Bake School

How to make homemade butter biscuits: it's as easy as 1-2-3

Janice Lawandi — Mon, 12 May 2014 12:05:57 +0000

A basic homemade butter biscuits recipe is as easy as 1-2-3 and that's the ratio you need to remember when baking biscuits. Here's what the ratio means and how to use it.

North American biscuits versus European biscuits

Biscuits in North America refer to baking powder leavened, flaky bun of sorts, served as a side for lunch or dinner. The dough for biscuits is most often rolled and cut into squares or rounds before baking, served with meals, in the same way that you'd serve bread buns as a side. They are also used to make breakfast sandwiches and shortcake desserts (like raspberry shortcake or even an ice cream strawberry shortcake).

These North American biscuits are not to be confused with British and European biscuits, where the term refers to cookies, often shortbread or sablé cookies. Remember that "biscuit" is the French term for cookie. Here, we are most definitely talking about North American biscuits.

The biscuit ratio

Actually, American biscuits resemble scones quite a bit. My favourite scone recipes happen to fall pretty close to a 1:2:3 recipe of 1 part fat, 2 parts liquid, and 3 parts flour, by weight. And this same ratio apparently works for biscuits, according to Michael Ruhlman (in his book Ratio).

Turns out homemade biscuits are as easy as 1-2-3 and to make a basic biscuit recipe, that's all you have to remember: a biscuit ratio is 1 part fat, 2 parts liquid, 3 parts flour, by weight. It's probably the easiest biscuit recipe to remember!

How to work with a ratio

Knowing that biscuits have a ratio of 1:2:3, that is 1 part fat, 2 parts liquid, and 3 parts flour, by weight, you can use this to make a batch of biscuits, big or small. You can make a batch of biscuits with 100 grams of fat, 200 grams of liquid, and 300 grams of flour. You'll end up with about 8 biscuits this way (if you cut them with a 2.5 " round biscuit cutter).

Want more biscuits? Double all the amounts, so make a batch with 200 grams of fat, 400 grams of liquid, and 600 grams of flour. You should be able to make about 16 biscuits this way, more or less depending on how you cut them.

Want to make fewer biscuits, then cut the ingredients in half: combine 50 grams of fat, 100 grams of liquid, and 150 grams of flour to make as little as 4 or 5 biscuits.

The beauty of working with a ratio is that you can easily scale up and down a recipe to make more or less. Just don't forget the leavening agents, obviously. Biscuits are often referred to as baking powder biscuits for a reason: they need baking powder too!

Basic biscuit ingredients

Fat

The fat of choice for many bakers is butter, but feel free to deviate from this and explore other solid-fat options for biscuits, like duck fat and bacon fat! Note that with butter, you are adding 80 % fat (up to 84 %) and some moisture, whereas, with bacon fat and duck fat, these solid fats are 100 % fat, no water added.

I like to use butter as my fat of choice when I make biscuits, so these are all-butter biscuits. Like with pie dough, you can also consider using a combination of two different fats, like butter and lard, to achieve more tenderness, better layering, etc.

Liquid

The liquid of choice for the basic biscuit is either milk or buttermilk. If you want to bake biscuits with buttermilk, you will need to add some baking soda to your dry mix to ensure they rise properly as they bake. For every cup of flour, add 1.25 mL (¼ tsp) of baking soda to ensure a proper rise. You could also use a liquid with a higher fat content, such as half-and-half, or a mixture of milk and 35 % whipping cream.

I prefer to use a liquid with some fat in it or a combination of milk and cream because that fat makes for a more tender biscuit that stays fresh longer.

Flour

Most of us bake biscuits with all-purpose flour though some culinary professionals may use a mixture of bread flour and cake flour. The bread flour provides more protein and a lot of structure to the biscuit dough, which helps it keeps its shape as the biscuits bake. Cake flour is lower in protein and higher in starch, so cake flour will contribute tenderness to biscuits so they aren't so tough.

I bake biscuits and scones with all-purpose flour because that's what I have in my kitchen. To achieve the layers that many biscuits have, visible, especially from the side of the biscuits, the dough for biscuits is rolled out (or pressed out with your fingertips), then cut into equal pieces which are stacked before rolling out the dough.

The process is similar to the rolling and folding that creates the layers you see in homemade croissants or homemade puff pastry. With biscuits, instead of folding the dough, you cut it and stack it to create the layers, but the idea remains the same: to create lots of distinct sheets of dough to create a layered effect.

Most biscuits are made with chemical leaveners, either baking powder or baking soda, either of which (or sometimes both) get whisked in with the flour and salt. Whether you use baking powder or baking soda is entirely dependent on the liquid you use, whether milk or buttermilk:

If you are using milk to make your biscuits, use baking powder (roughly 1 to 1-½ teaspoons baking powder per cup of all-purpose flour)—these are known as baking powder biscuits
If you are using buttermilk to make your biscuits, use baking powder AND baking soda (roughly 1 to 1-½ teaspoons baking powder + ¼ to ½ teaspoon baking soda per cup of flour)—these are referred to as buttermilk biscuits

Variations on the basic biscuit recipe

Just like with scones, once you have mastered this basic recipe, you can easily adapt it to add different flavour elements and get creative:

add herbs, fresh or dried, like thyme or rosemary
add salty flavours, like chopped sun-dried tomatoes, chopped cooked bacon, shredded cheese

These cheddar bacon biscuits are a prime example of taking a base recipe and then modifying it. Biscuits that are served on top of cobblers, with fresh strawberries and whipped cream for strawberry shortcakes, or as a side with dinner are not to be confused with these spicy cheddar biscuits, which are rich, flaky homemade cheese crackers. Actually, those might fall under the savoury shortbread category upon further investigation.

This basic biscuit recipe is similar to a stripped-down version of basic scones because biscuits and scones seem like they are cousins. These biscuits are tender on the inside and just a little chewy on the outside. They are buttery and delightful as is, but perfect with a generous schmear of homemade jam.

How to achieve more layers

I made these biscuits a little smaller than most would. The secret to a big, tall biscuit: more dough rolled out thick. But besides the height of the biscuit, there's another important technique to keep in mind when making biscuits: rolling and folding, which is what you do to make flaky homemade croissants and puff pastry.

Rolling and folding the dough works the proteins in the flour more which builds up a little gluten and adds structure to biscuits. Folding ensures that your biscuits will have lots of flat layers of butter tucked between the dough. Those butter layers will open up the crumb of the biscuit and add physical layers.

Frequent problems when making biscuits

Butter melts out as the biscuits bake

If you've ever baked a batch of biscuits and checked on them as they bake, discovering that pools of butter have formed underneath them, you aren't alone! I've done this too and it's a very common problem!

What I've found is that if you don't take the time to incorporate the butter into the flour properly so that the butter is in very small flour-coated pieces, then when you roll out and cut your biscuits, you will notice that the butter chunks are very visible on the surface and edges of the biscuits, and the pieces of butter are quite large in appearance, close to the surface. This is when you may end up with butter leaking from the dough as it bakes.

This also happens with pie dough! It's very important to take the time to work the butter into the flour sufficiently so that the pieces of butter are just a few millimetres in size.

Also, I like to chill the biscuits (or briefly freeze them) before baking to ensure that the butter is cold so that the surface and edges will dry out and set before the butter melts. I find this helps reduce that butter-pooling effect.

Biscuits are flat

I used to roll out my biscuit dough too thin and obviously, there's only so much rise the baking powder can bring to compensate. If you find your biscuits are too flat or not thick enough, next time simply roll them out thicker. Lately, I've been pressing the dough out with the palms of my hands and I find with this technique, I'm less likely to roll out the dough too thin.

Biscuits spread

If your biscuits spread when they bake, it's probably because your dough was too soft or because you added too much liquid. Try freezing your biscuits 15 minutes before baking them to help them hold their shape. If that doesn't work, try adding less liquid next time.

Biscuits are tough

There's a reason why, in the South, bakers use bleached low-protein flour called White Lily to make biscuits: it allows them to roll, cut, and stack the biscuit dough repeatedly without developing too much gluten. But if you use all-purpose flour as I do, or a higher protein flour, there is a risk that all that manipulation of the dough will lead to tough biscuits as the gluten develops the more you handle it.

You have to handle biscuit dough as little as possible, just enough to form a dough. You don't want to knead the dough more than 2 or 3 times, just enough to gather all the pieces of shaggy dough into one ball. You aren't making bread and we don't want to develop gluten, nor do we want an elastic dough. Quite the opposite. Other options to consider for next time if you are having trouble with tough biscuits:

add a tablespoon of vinegar to your liquid (milk or cream): the vinegar will lower the pH of the dough, making it more difficult for gluten to form (just like you would add vinegar to a pie dough you are making)
replace the milk with buttermilk: buttermilk is an acidic dairy and that acidity, besides providing flavour, makes it a great baking ingredient to use when you want to minimize gluten formation
replace the all-purpose flour with lower protein flour, as they do in the south. Or perhaps try combining a couple different types of flour, like all-purpose flour with a little spelt flour.

Biscuits are deformed

If you are cutting out neat shapes, like circles, but you find when they bake, your biscuits end up oval or distorted in shape, it could come from your cutting technique. When you cut out biscuits, you want to cut straight down, through the layers you created. You don't want to twist or turn the cutter too much. The twisting leads to the biscuit shape distorting in the oven.

Biscuits are too sweet

I add a little sugar to my biscuits, sometimes several tablespoons and I garnish the biscuits with turbinado before baking. Generally, I'm probably using the biscuits to make a fruit dessert, like a raspberry shortcake or ice cream strawberry shortcake. The sugar isn't essential in the recipe so feel free to remove it. You can also up the salt in the recipe, add some freshly ground pepper. You can also incorporate shredded cheese in the dough and even bacon, as in these cheddar bacon biscuits.

Biscuits aren't flaky enough

When I make biscuits, I only go through 1 round of stacking to create layers in the dough, the minimum. This creates enough layering that I can easily split the biscuits open to fill them with cream and berries for a dessert, for example. If you want more layers and a more "flaky" look to them, repeat the rolling, cutting, and stacking several times.

Remember that the more you handle the dough, the higher the risk that gluten will develop, and the tougher your biscuits may be. So more layering may also make a more chewy, less tender biscuit.

📖 Recipe

Homemade Butter Biscuits

This is a good all butter basic biscuit recipe. These biscuits are tender on the inside and just a little chewy on the outside. They are buttery and delightful as is, but perfect with a generous schmear of homemade jam.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 25

Total Time 40

Servings

Calories 253kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

Ingredients

345 grams bleached all-purpose flour
15 mL baking powder
6.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
14 grams granulated sugar for sweeter biscuits, use up to 45 grams (3 tbsp) of sugar
115 grams unsalted butter cut into small chunks
250 mL half-and-half cream (10 % fat) plus more for brushing on top of the biscuits (see note)
Turbinado sugar for garnishing

Metric - US

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200 °C). Line a baking sheet with parchment.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and the sugar.
Add the butter and work it into the flour with either your hands or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles a coarse crumble.
Add the milk and cream. Stir it in with a fork, then dump out the biscuit mixture onto the counter and knead it 2 or 3 times til it comes together.
Press the biscuit dough to 1 inch thick on a very lightly floured surface. Cut into four pieces and stack them to make a tower.
Press out the dough again until it's 1 inch thick and cut out about 8 circles with a 2.5 " round cookie cutter, if you can. Press the scraps together gently enough to cut out the rest of the biscuits. You should have 10 to 12 biscuits, depending on how thick the dough is.
Place the biscuits on the baking sheet. Brush with a little milk and sprinkle with turbinado (if using).
Bake until the edges and tops of the biscuits are golden brown, about 25 minutes. Serve fresh.

Notes

This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
For the biscuits, you can replace the half-and-half cream (10 %) with a mixture of 35 % whipping cream or heavy cream and milk:
- to replace 250 mL of half-and-half cream (10 % fat): combine 80 mL of whipping cream (35 %) and 170 mL of milk as a substitute
For this recipe, I baked with Stirling Churn 84 unsalted butter

Nutrition

Baking temperature

Though many bake their biscuits at 350 ºF, I prefer to bake them at a higher temperature (400 ºF) so that they rise up before the outer crust sets. I also prefer to bake at a higher temperature to help them brown more since biscuits are low in sugar, browning is slow at 350 ºF.

Storing biscuits

Freshly baked biscuits taste great the day they are made, but the longer they are stored, they will dry out and become pretty unappetizing. Though they can be quite rich, biscuits are lower in fat than scones and lower in sugar. Remember sugar leads to moist baked goods that store well because sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs humidity. That lack of sugar in most biscuits means that they don't have as much ability to retain, nor absorb moisture. They dry out very quickly, especially because they are made with milk or buttermilk and not that much butter. For this reason, it's best to bake smaller batches of biscuits, or better yet, freeze unbaked biscuits so that you can bake the amount you need when you want them.

Freezing biscuits

To freeze unbaked biscuits, set them on a parchment-lined sheet pan and freeze them in a single layer. Once they are frozen solid, you can transfer them to an airtight freezer bag to seal them and store them in the freezer long term.

To bake frozen unbaked biscuits, preheat the oven to 400 ºF and bake them, straight from the freezer, for at least 5 minutes longer than the recipe calls for.

You can also freeze freshly baked biscuits in the same way, on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Then reheat them in a low oven (around 250 ºF) for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they are warmed through.

And if you are looking for a scone, I definitely have a few scone recipes that you can try that are variations on the base recipe but with more sugar added:

fruit-stuffed scones like these apple pie scones that I love to make in the fall
fresh fruit scones, like these rhubarb scones that are perfect in spring
fruit scones made with dried fruit like these date scones
tea-infused scones like these lavender scones made with white chocolate (and feel free to swap the lavender for some Earl Grey tea leaves!)

I do my best to bake with the finest ingredients. Stirling Creamery, a Canadian company, has provided the butter for this post.

The post How to make homemade butter biscuits: it's as easy as 1-2-3 appeared first on The Bake School.

Ice cream strawberry shortcake

Janice Lawandi — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 18:56:04 +0000

This ice cream strawberry shortcake is an easy recipe that's a twist on a classic summer dessert: replace the whipped cream with vanilla bean ice cream to make your strawberry shortcakes with homemade biscuits and fresh strawberries. Everybody will love this dessert!

What is a shortcake?

A shortcake is usually a butter biscuit which, like a scone, combines flour, butter, salt, and a liquid, and the mixture is leavened with baking powder. Sometimes if an acidic dairy ingredient is used, you may also add a little baking soda as an additional leavening agent to make sure the dough rises properly as they bake. Shortcakes are a simple treat to make, and like the best scones, they are great for breakfast and even as a sweet treat for dessert.

Depending on where you live, a classic strawberry shortcake dessert can mean different things. The dessert may refer to:

biscuits split in half and filled with whipped cream and berries and served individually (as with this raspberry shortcake recipe)
a big round vanilla cake split in half and filled with whipped cream and berries, a layer cake of sorts that is sliced to serve it

Where I live, we are usually referring to the biscuit-based dessert when we think of strawberry shortcakes. And to make this summer dessert even easier, why not replace the whipped cream with vanilla bean ice cream or even cardamom ice cream or lemon custard ice cream? Filling strawberry shortcakes with ice cream makes the dessert that much easier to get on the table, but equally as satisfying and impressive. This way, you can make the components ahead of time.

How to prepare the strawberries

Fresh summer strawberries are a beautiful thing, but you should handle them with care because they are easily bruised or crushed. When I bring home fresh strawberries, I store them in the fridge, as is. When it comes time to eat them, at that point, I rinse them off and gently pat them dry before eating them. It's important to handle fresh berries with care because they are delicate, and I avoid washing them before storing them because sometimes that extra moisture can lead to the berries going bad faster.

For desserts, you can use sliced strawberries or plain, and if your strawberries are in season, you may want to skip the step of mixing them with a little granulated sugar, but I encourage you to give it a try anyways: the sugar will draw out the juices from the fresh cut berries (in a process called maceration), transforming the berries into a saucy strawberry topping that is perfect paired with vanilla ice cream, and then the biscuit can soak up the juices, making the dessert even better. The sugar mellows the acidity of fresh berries, which can be a little sharp without the addition of a little sugar.

This extra step of macerating the strawberries is worth it and you can do it ahead of time and store the berries in the fridge until you are ready to serve. And a little sugar goes a long way, especially with naturally sweet strawberries, so you don't have to add much sugar to have a big impact on them.

Served at strawberry socials, the classic strawberry shortcake dessert was often made with mashed and sweetened berries, but it seems a shame to mash summer strawberries when they are in season and at their best. I much prefer to keep them intact, simply sliced and macerated.

The ice cream

The ice cream represents a major element in this summer dessert, and you should choose wisely. You can use either store-bought ice cream or homemade. For store-bought ice cream, if you don't have a local ice cream parlour in your area, I'd recommend splurging on Haagen Dazs vanilla bean ice cream or Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream. You can't go wrong with either of these brands and they are available at most grocery stores. These brands are higher in fat and contain less air than cheaper brands, and they are known for producing quality products.

Better yet, if you plan ahead and you have an ice cream maker, consider churning a batch of homemade ice cream.

Whatever you decide to do, choose the flavour wisely because you are pairing the ice cream with berries, so flavours like vanilla bean ice cream, lemon custard ice cream, or even cardamom ice cream would be perfect with this strawberry dessert.

This ice cream strawberry shortcake is an ideal summer dessert to make. It's cooling and comforting, and it's a great way to celebrate the local berries in season.

More strawberry desserts to try

Make the most of the short time when berries are in season by making these other strawberry recipes:

Want more? Check out these berry recipes.

📖 Recipe

Ice Cream Strawberry Shortcake

This beautiful summer ice cream strawberry shortcake dessert is an ice cream twist on the classic recipe, made with all butter biscuits, ice cream, and strawberries

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 25

Chill time 15

Total Time 1 5

Servings

Calories 563kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

Ingredients

All-butter biscuits

250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
30 grams granulated sugar
10 mL baking powder
3.75 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
78 grams unsalted butter cut into small chunks, very cold
170 mL half-and-half cream (10 % fat) plus more for brushing on top of the biscuits
*see notes
Turbinado sugar for garnishing

Macerated strawberries

450 grams fresh strawberries washed, hulled, and sliced
50 grams granulated sugar use more granulated sugar if your strawberries are very tart (you'll have to taste and adjust)

Assembly

750 mL Vanilla bean ice cream

Metric - US

Instructions

Biscuits

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200 °C). Line a baking sheet with parchment.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and the sugar.
Add the butter and work it into the flour with either your hands or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles a coarse crumble.
Add the milk and cream. Stir it in with a fork, then dump out the biscuit mixture onto the counter and knead it 2 or 3 times til it comes together.
Press the biscuit dough to 1 inch thick on a very lightly floured surface. Cut into four pieces and stack them to make a tower
Press out the dough again until it's 1 inch thick and cut out circles with a 2.5 " round cookie cutter. Press the scraps together gently enough to cut out the rest of the biscuits. You should have 6 or 7 biscuits, depending on how thick the dough is.
Place the biscuits on the baking sheet. Brush with a little milk and sprinkle with turbinado (if using).
Bake until the edges and tops of the biscuits are golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely before assembling your shortcakes.

Macerated strawberries

In a medium bowl, combine the sliced strawberries with the granulated sugar. Stir well so that all the berries are evenly coated.
Let the berries macerate for at least 30 minutes until the sugar has dissolved and the berries are saucy, stirring every 10 minutes to evenly distribute the sugar. You can do this ahead and store the berries in the fridge.

Assembly

Split opened the cooled biscuits.
Place the bottom of each biscuit on a plate.
Top with a generous mound of macerated strawberries and a big scoop of ice cream. Place the biscuit top over the ice cream.
Serve immediately.

Notes

For the biscuits, you can replace the half-and-half cream (10 %) with a mixture of 35 % whipping cream or heavy cream and milk:
- to replace 250 mL of half-and-half cream (10 % fat): combine 80 mL of whipping cream (35 %) and 170 mL of milk as a substitute
- to replace 170 mL (⅔ cup) of half-and-half cream (10 % fat): combine 3 tablespoons of whipping cream (35 %) with 125 mL of milk as a substitute
This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!

Nutrition

The post Ice cream strawberry shortcake appeared first on The Bake School.

Cheddar bacon biscuits with bourbon maple glaze

Janice Lawandi — Thu, 28 May 2020 23:04:45 +0000

These cheddar bacon biscuits with bourbon maple glaze are fantastic. You can't go wrong adding bacon to a biscuit dough, along with shredded cheese. And the thyme in the glaze really brings out that oaky barrel-aged flavour of bourbon and works so well with maple.

The traditional biscuit ratio is 1-2-3, meaning 1 part fat, 2 parts liquid, 3 parts flour, by weight, and in this recipe cheddar bacon biscuits, the ratio is pretty much that. The great thing about working with a ratio, like the 1-2-3 biscuit ratio, is that you can use the recipe as a jumping-off point and get creative.

As long as the ratio stays the same, you can add ingredients like chopped cooked bacon, shredded cheese, fresh herbs or dried, etc. What sets this recipe apart, besides the bacon and cheddar incorporated in the biscuit dough, is the thyme-infused maple glaze that adds so much flavour and sweetness to balance the salty biscuits. These biscuits are perfect if you ask me.

This technique of infusing maple with herbs and a little bourbon is a great way to add even more depth to maple syrup and so this is a maple syrup recipe to keep in mind for future uses! This recipe will leave you with some leftover bourbon maple syrup, perfect for spiced pancakes. Yum!

Using the food processor for the dough makes this recipe so easy, just like the food processor is an essential tool for making pies faster. I use the big 11-cup Cuisinart that I got on Amazon for the job. You could also do the work by hand, using your fingertips, and that's how I make most scone recipes.

📖 Recipe

Bourbon-maple glazed cheddar bacon biscuits

These cheddar bacon biscuits are easy to make (done in the food processor) and topped with a bourbon maple glaze infused with fresh thyme after baking for the ultimate salty-sweet combination

Course Breads

Cuisine American

Prep Time 12

Cook Time 45

Total Time 57

Servings

Calories 552kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

Ingredients

Biscuit dough (1 pound)

230 grams bleached all-purpose flour
5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
20 mL baking powder
85 grams unsalted butter
150 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat) cold

Bourbon-maple glazed cheddar bacon biscuits

450 grams biscuit dough (recipe above)
170 grams bacon uncooked
250 mL pure maple syrup
45 mL bourbon
30 sprigs fresh thyme
58 grams extra-sharp white cheddar cheese grated

Metric - US

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 °F (220 °C). Heat a large flat skillet over medium heat. Cook bacon for about 25 to 30 minutes, flipping with tongs every five minutes until crispy (this took me less than 25 minutes, to be honest). Transfer to a paper towel–lined plate. Once cool enough to handle, chop into fine pieces.
Bring maple syrup, bourbon and thyme to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat to maintain a slow boil and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, until liquid is reduced by a third. Set aside.
Pulse flours, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor. Add chopped bacon and grated cheddar to the dry ingredients.
Chop butter into ½-inch cubes. Add to flour mixture. Pulse for 1 to 2 seconds 8 to 12 times, until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
Add milk and pulse 2 to 4 times, until dough begins to come together. It will form a few large chunks and many small ones.
Transfer dough chunks to a very lightly floured surface and push together. Knead 3 to 5 times, until dough just holds its shape. Take care not to knead the dough too much or add too much flour, which can make the biscuits tough.
Pull dough apart with your hands into six chunks and arrange them on a parchment paper–lined baking sheet.
Bake for about 12 minutes, until biscuits just begin to turn light golden. Remove thyme sprigs from infused syrup and discard. Brush biscuits with glaze while they are still warm.
Serve.

Notes

This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
This recipe was adapted from Making Dough: Recipes and Ratios for Perfect Pastries by Russell Van Kraayenburg, published by Quirk Books. You can find it on Amazon. I made the following changes from the original recipe in the book:
- the ingredients list for this recipe in the book includes only baking powder, which is fine except the directions state to add "the baking soda". Most of us know that baking soda and baking powder are not the same chemical leaveners. And I knew right away that the author most probably meant baking powder, firstly because no recipe would ever call for 4 teaspoon of baking soda unless we were working on a kilo scale recipe, and secondly because there isn't an acid present in the recipe to react with that baking soda. Clearly baking powder was the correct ingredient to use. I deduced this and you probably would too, but we can't expect every reader to come to the same conclusion. I fear somebody may read the directions and add 4 teaspoon baking soda instead of 4 teaspoon baking powder. Yikes! That would be inedible, if that happened. Use baking powder! They aren't interchangeable.

Nutrition

The post Cheddar bacon biscuits with bourbon maple glaze appeared first on The Bake School.

Raspberry shortcake

Janice Lawandi — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 17:29:08 +0000

Celebrate summer berries with this easy recipe for raspberry shortcake made with homemade biscuits, vanilla bean whipped cream, and macerated raspberries.

Depending on where you live, a shortcake could be a layer cake made from two round layers of vanilla cake with whipped cream and strawberries sandwiched in between.

A shortcake is also a dessert made from baking powder biscuits like these 1-2-3 biscuits sandwiched with lightly sweetened whipped cream and fresh fruit. The most popular of these would be the strawberry shortcake, which is made with sliced strawberries that are either fresh or macerated with a little sugar so that they become a little softer and saucier.

Shortcakes are not to be confused with shortbreads. Shortbread cookies are made from butter, sugar, and flour in a 2:1:3 ratio. Although, interestingly enough, some older versions of the strawberry shortcake were made with baked rounds of sweetened pie crust or even round cookies, not biscuits, and they weren't garnished with whipped cream. Few people think of this version of the dessert when they think of a shortcake.

Once you've mastered making homemade biscuits and scones, the logical thing to do is to make shortcakes, a classic fruit dessert that everybody loves. This raspberry shortcake is a variation on that theme, made with homemade butter biscuits, macerated raspberries and vanilla bean whipped cream.

The biscuits

I opted to use plain butter biscuits (American style biscuits, not to be confused with European biscuits that are essentially sablé cookies). You could also use these lavender white chocolate scones because lavender and white chocolate pair nicely with fresh berries.

Whatever you decide to use as your biscuit component, make sure to cut them to a size appropriate for a dessert portion. I cut biscuits with a 2.5" cookie cutter, roughly, but you can easily cut your dough into squares with a knife or even a bench scraper!

Some will cut massive biscuits to make this dessert, but I prefer a more "dainty" size portion. Plus, the biscuit is there to soak up the juices and bring the dessert together, it shouldn't represent 75 % of what's on your plate because the shortcake is a summer dessert celebrating berries!

Macerating raspberries in sugar

For the raspberries, obviously depending on the season, your raspberries may be more or less sour so feel free to taste the berries and adjust how much sugar you use. Biscuits aren't very sweet and the whipped cream is only a little sweet, so you will need to add enough sugar to the fruit filling to sweeten the berries if they are very tart.

You can also use plain raspberries without any sugar if you prefer, especially if your raspberries are sweet enough. But know that adding sugar to the fruit brings out the juices, transforming the raspberries into a saucy topping that give the biscuits something to soak up. You can help the raspberries become saucy by mashing just a few before stirring them with the sugar. This will get the juices flowing to help them become a saucy mixture.

Vanilla bean whipped cream

I like to flavour whipped cream with a little vanilla bean paste, which is vanilla extract laced with flecks of vanilla bean. You can replace the vanilla bean paste with the same amount of vanilla extract if you prefer. Remember the ratio for making perfect, lightly sweetened whipped cream: calculate 10 % of the weight of cream and that's how much icing sugar you should use. So if you want to use 250 mL (1 cup) of cream, use 25 grams of icing sugar.

Though you can't assemble shortcakes in advance, you can get the components ready. The beauty of serving shortcakes for dessert is that you can make the biscuits in the morning and you can prep the berries in advance by mixing them with granulated sugar so that they get extra saucy. Then when you are ready to serve, all you have to do is whip the cream. Make sure to whip them to soft peaks, then add the icing sugar and vanilla, and continue whipping until it's thick, but still soft, yet holds it's shape

If whipping cream seems like too much, consider replacing the whipped cream with scoops of cardamom ice cream, lemon custard ice cream, or even vanilla bean ice cream, as for these ice cream strawberry shortcakes.

📖 Recipe

Raspberry Shortcake

This beautiful summer raspberry shortcake dessert recipe couldn't be easier, made with all butter biscuits, vanilla infused whipped cream, and raspberries

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 25

Chill time 15

Total Time 1 5

Servings

Calories 473kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

Ingredients

All-butter biscuits

220 grams bleached all-purpose flour
30 grams granulated sugar
10 mL baking powder
3.75 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
77 grams unsalted butter cut into small chunks, very cold
170 mL half-and-half cream (10 % fat) plus more for brushing on top of the biscuits
*see notes
Turbinado sugar for garnishing

Macerated raspberries

340 grams Fresh raspberries
50 grams granulated sugar use more granulated sugar if your raspberries are very tart (you'll have to taste and adjust)

Whipped cream

250 mL whipping cream (35 % fat) cold
25 grams icing sugar
2.5 mL vanilla bean paste

Metric - US

Instructions

Biscuits

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200 °C). Line a baking sheet with parchment.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and the sugar.
Add the butter and work it into the flour with either your hands or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles a coarse crumble.
Add the milk and cream. Stir it in with a fork, then dump out the biscuit mixture onto the counter and knead it 2 or 3 times til it comes together.
Press the biscuit dough to 1 inch thick on a very lightly floured surface. Cut into four pieces and stack them to make a tower
Press out the dough again until it's 1 inch thick and cut out circles with a 2.5 " round cookie cutter. Press the scraps together gently enough to cut out the rest of the biscuits. You should have 6 or 7 biscuits, depending on how thick the dough is.
Place the biscuits on the baking sheet. Brush with a little milk and sprinkle with turbinado (if using).
Bake until the edges and tops of the biscuits are golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely before assembling your shortcakes.

Macerated raspberries

In a medium bowl, combine the raspberries with the granulated sugar. Stir well so that all the berries are evenly coated. Don't worry if a few berries get a little mashed. That's okay because that will help the mixture become saucy.
Let the berries macerate for at least 30 minutes until the sugar has dissolved and the berries are saucy, stirring every 10 minutes to evenly distribute the sugar. You can do this ahead and store the berries in the fridge.

Whipped cream

In a big bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form. You can do this by hand with a whisk or use an electric hand mixer.
Add the sugar and vanilla bean paste. Continue whisking until the whipped cream is fairly firm, but don't whip too much or you may form butter!

Assembly

Split opened the cooled biscuits.
Place the bottom of each biscuit on a plate.
Top with a generous mound of macerated raspberries and a big dollop of whipped cream, then place the biscuit top over the whipped cream.
Serve immediately.

Notes

For the biscuits, you can replace the half-and-half cream (10 %) with a mixture of 35 % whipping cream or heavy cream and milk:
- to replace 250 mL of half-and-half cream (10 % fat): combine 80 mL of whipping cream (35 %) and 170 mL of milk as a substitute
- to replace 170 mL (⅔ cup) of half-and-half cream (10 % fat): combine 3 tablespoons of whipping cream (35 %) with 125 mL of milk as a substitute

Nutrition

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