Cream Biscuit

Ingredients

• To a quart of flour
• two ounces of butter
• a measure of baking-powder
• cold sweet milk, to make a soft dough

Method

1. 1

   Sift the flour and baking powder together three or four times.

2. 2

   Rub the butter through the flour until no particles the size of a pin-head remain.

3. 3

   Add cold sweet milk to make a soft dough.

4. 4

   Roll out, cut into cakes, and bake in a quick oven.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cooking and castle-building (1880) by Emma P. Ewing, Marietta McPherson Greenough, page 14. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

cream biscuit which will take your mamma cap- tive, and charm her as completely as any material substance can, if the biscuits you produce rival, as I hope the}^ may, the puffy things made by my rosy-cheeked friend, Sally. Sally and I were girls together, and much of my summer rest was found at the old farm-house, where she and her sisters STILL DABBLING IN DOUGH. 39 grew up, blossomed, and faded, as the years went by, in which I served my State as instructor of its youth. Through all my life, in which, I am sorry to say, hot biscuits have been a not infre- quent event, I have never found any that quite equalled Sally's. She, however, was the only one in the family who invariably made them just ri«:ht. If her mother or one of her sisters under- took the task, the cakes often came out of the oven yellow, and smelling of soda because of an overdose; or white and *sad,' because too little had been used ; for the exact amount required depended upon the acidity of the cream. Sally had the knack of guessing just right. Taking the bowl of sour cream in her hand, she would stir and taste it with a critical air ; and giving a w^iso little nod, as if she had solved the riddle, proceed to measure a teaspoon, half full, even full, or heap- ing full, of soda, which she placed in a cup, and poured on it a spoonful of boiling water. Let- ting this stand, she made room in the middle of the flour for the cream; and, with., her fingers, mixed the flour nearest the cream lightly in, add- ing a pinch of salt. While it was still a soft batter, she drained into it the soda, leaving any sediment there might be in the cup. Then her hands danced here and there through the dough, mixing it rapidly until stifi* enough to roll out on the bread-board, cut into round cakes, and place 40 COOKING AND CASTLE-BUn^DING. immediately Iq a quick oven. In twenty minutes these cakes came out of the oven four times as thick as they went in, the most delicate, puJSy things imaginable ; but i/oicr cream biscuit, Alice, must be made with sweet milk and a little butter, instead of cream. " To a quart of flour, add a measure of baking- powder, sifting the whole three or four times, and two ounces of butter, so carefully rubbed through the flour that you cannot find a particle the size of a pin-head. Add cold sweet milk, to make a soft dough

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.