Whole Milk Biscuits

Nancy Lopez-McHugh with her take on the American version of the British scone. Perfect for the breakfast table, and a great match for the afternoon tea.
By Nancy Lopez-McHugh

American Biscuits are small quick breads that are leavened with baking powder. They are very similar to a scone and can be eaten in savory or sweet forms. They are perhaps most common on the breakfast table sliced and spread with butter and jam. In the American south biscuits are also eaten with sausage gravy and scrambled eggs. Of course we can forget to mention the popular McDonalds biscuit breakfast sandwiches.

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Biscuits can be made with butter, shortening, or lard, whole milk or buttermilk. How ever you eat them or whichever ingredients you use biscuits are an easy baked good that can be prepared in no time and mastered by the novice baker. My recipe is a very basic recipe that can be doubled or easily tweaked to ones own personal taste and needs.

Ingredients:
2 cups or 220 grams all purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. or 60 grams butter or shortening, at room temperature
3/4 cup or 80 ml whole milk

Preheat the oven to 220C / 428F

1. Sift the flour,salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Cut the butter/shortening into small pieces and place inside the bowl with the flour. Using either a pastry cutter or your hands work the fat into the flour mixture. Continue until it has become coarse crumbs. Little by little start adding the milk and stopping to work it into the crumb until all of the milk has all been used.

2.Gather the dough into a large ball then section into 6 pieces. Form 6 balls and place on a cookie sheet. Or the dough can also be rolled out and round pastry cutters can be used to cut out the biscuits. Bake for 15 minutes or until baked through. Allow to cool on a wire rack before serving.