Wonderful Easy Bread (makes you poo)
I have recently discovered that I really enjoy making bread. And you notice that I didn’t say “baking bread” because I think of baking bread as bread that you have to knead. I do love to knead dough and make proper bread, but I also love to make quick breads. These “quick” breads sometimes contain yeast in the recipe but rise in the pan very quickly. And some, like banana bread, you just stir together and put in the oven. This bread is one of the former. You have to bloom the yeast, but don’t get nervous, it’s very easy. Basically, you mix the yeast in warm water and a little honey let it sit for 10 min. Pour that into the flour and oats mixture mix the dough with a spoon, put it into the pan, let it sit for 30 minutes. Put it in the oven. It’s that easy!
This is a recipe that I found on 101 cookbooks. This is Heidi Swanson’s food blog. It’s wonderful! She inspires me so much! I feel kind of silly because it seems I’m constantly referring to her recipes here. What can I say? She’s fantastic. She calls this the easy little bread. She apparently got this recipe from another recipe book (from New Zealand) and made it her own, much like I have done here. If you click that link you will find her recipe. I added pecans, because I’m from Texas, and we put pecans anywhere we can! This loaf was begging for ’em!
The next day, all that's left of the loaf.
Here’s a photograph of the other side of the bread, you can see it’s kind of boring looking Compared to this beautiful grainy exterior.
Somewhat boring looking.
But then all you need to do is slip it into the toaster, and magic happens! Butter is of course optional–I usually take that option.
Magical toast!
I urge you to give this easy little bread to try. You won’t be disappointed. I promise! I also think it’s appropriate here to make a side note that Heidi was probably to polite to mention. This bread has an incredible effect on the digestive system. If you’re feeling sluggish and feel like you need a little help, this little bread will change your life. I am not kidding. You’ll poo like mad. Enjoy my friends!
New puppy in town & How to: Overcook a Chicken
George loves Frank
This last week has been wild! There is a new puppy in town, and is name is George. George is a live teddy bear, and we all love him- TONS! Puppy’s are SO demanding! It IS all about The Puppy. Of course, I have been cooking much less because of The Puppy, but I have managed to sneak in a few things. I made a pork and chicken italian sausage red sauce for pasta. It was derived from my husband’s aunt’s recipe. Her’s contained beef and veal. I am not ready for that just yet- I thought it came out pretty good. Mr. thought it a bit bland. Veal. Beef. sigh. That’s another post.
I also roasted the hell out of a chicken. This is easy to do. First, under cook the chicken. Sigh.Butterfly the chicken and cook until you think it should be done but it will not be done. Refrigerate overnight. The next day cook the chicken in foil at 400 degrees until there is no chance of it being edible. A couple of hours should do it. Feed the chicken to the dogs over a few days.
Wednesday I cooked Chicken Cacciatore a la Michael. That is a no heat version. No peppers of any kind, (not any. not bell peppers. none.) except for fresh black pepper. Onions, mushrooms, carrots and celery roasted with lots of fresh basil and thyme in tomatoes and homemade chicken broth. (broth from the freezer. I. Am. So. Smart.) It was deelish. Also declared a success by Mr.! That’s worth everything. I made my southern yogurt biscuits to go with the hearty dish. Perfect really. Last night I made Heidi Swanson’s Easy Little Bread recipe- with my own little riff. More on that another day. Here’s her recipe and pics. Try it, you’ll love it!
This weekend I want to make brownies, and cakes and some soup. There are Meyer lemons and blood oranges calling to me. I bought them for specific recipes but… I cant remember what they were. Now where is that puppy…?
French Treats- NSFW*
I love beautiful things don’t you? Especially beautiful things that are with in reach. Or at least with in budget. Splurging on gourmet treats occasionally is fun! Macaroons are are a perfect example of a splurge on a fancy food treat. French macaroons are so beautiful, some might call them sexxy. I love the colors! Some so pale and others so bold. They remind me crayons and bring out the girly girl in me.
The other day I was at my “hip neighborhood everything- locally- sourced-(well… mostly) everything super fresh- (except for the stuff that we cant sell) super over priced- (always) deli- grocer-coffee bar-store” AKA the home of the $30. chicken. I love going to this market. This place always has beautiful things, this time the bakery cooler called to me. I could not resist the beauty and delight of these lovely treats! Four macaroons and one whoopee pie later I was on my way. (I also bought a Mexican Coca Cola and Zapp’s chips- but that is for another post).
4 macaroons and one whoopee pie
LOOK! There’s Strawberry, Lemon, Concord Grape, and Vietnamese Coffee Macaroons. At the top is the carrot cake whoopee pie. Aren’t they gorgeous? They really really are. And after you bite into them they look like this:
NSFW kids, that's hot!
They are so pretty. And I hate them. No, I didn’t write that wrong. I just hate them. They sort of collapse and smash in your mouth and become a cakey, liquidy- combination that I do not like. AT ALL. Please don’t misunderstand they look perfect. I imagine they would be very very difficult to make. Baking them is surely a feat. They are drop dead beautiful! They are sweet! Not in a good way. Uh, sorry. No thanks.
I felt terrible about this. They looked as if they would taste like heaven. I asked Mr. Darla if he wanted to try some. He declined. He said his experience was “prettier than tasty.” He’s a bit of a picky eater. Not quite convinced I wasn’t a complete waste of a palate, I was off to the interwebs. Apparently, many people dislike these fabulous looking cookies! Really? Well, as a baker I would just hate that. As a disliker of these cookies- I feel a bit better, Besides, But then there are plenty of other cookies in the sea…(?)
Yes, since you asked, the carrot cake whoopee pie was goodish. Truthfully the whole lot smelled and tasted a bit like someone’s refrigerator. Bleh. But they sure were pretty.
One bite wonders.
*not suitable for waistlines
Crackers are Easy to make!
I have not talked much about it here, but I have been cooking a ton. This past Thursday and Friday I made crackers. Not just a few- but a Crackerpalooza! I am not exactly why I started making crackers this week. I had so many I decided to take them to a party my darling husband and I were invited to. It was “pot luck” and he already agreed to bring the wine. There was no pressure- the wine Mr. Darla chose was AMAZING. AND since no one (including me) knew I was going to bring the crackers until Friday morning- I could bake with reckless abandon! And friends, I did! See? These are the ones I didn’t take… there were so many!
Assorted crackers
These crackers came out beautiful! Starting at 12 o’clock; there is a cheese cracker shaped like a fish with poppy seed, the skinny ones with Nigella and sesame seeds are Lavash crackers- some people call them flatbreads. The dark brown cracker at the 6 o’clock position is buckwheat sesame, resting on the buckwheat are small squares of toasted sesame seed crackers.
All of these crackers are very easy to make. The most difficult part is trying to figure out how thick or thin you should roll them. I used a pasta machine to get the Lavash thin enough. This made it much much simpler. They were all baked in a regular oven at various temperatures except for the Lavash which was baked on a pizza stone in the oven. The cheese cracker gave me the most difficulty. I found an online recipe that was not reviewed. I should’ve known better than to try this one, but it was the “fastest” to make. The taste was delicious but the technique described wasn’t quite right. So, I saved part of the dough in the refrigerator and rolled it out and baked them the next day (after letting the dough sit out for a little while to soften) and they came out much better. The recipe says to let the dough chill in the refrigerator for 30 min. Cracker heads- That dough needs 2 or 3 hours chill minimum.Trust me.
Here are the recipes that I used, and I should add that I used egg whites to keep the seeds and salt attached to the crackers.
Have you ever made crackers? Try these!
Lavash- AKA Olive Oil crackers
p.s. Remember to enter my giveaway if you are a yoga fan. It’s an incredible way to start your yoga book collection and deepen your knowledge of your practice. click here for details. It all ends at the end of the month. SO do it- now!
Massive yoga book GIVEAWAY!
All these books for FREE!
Hello friends. I am so excited ! Today is the mega yoga book giveaway! WHAT?? A yoga book give away??? Yep, I have so many yoga books that I have bought duplicates of many. There are certain books that I have more than 2 copies of, I’m embarrassed to say. (although, it does speak to my love of yoga) Nevertheless, my inattention to detail is your great good fortune! I’m giving away all of these books! BOOM! In one shot.
I happen to love each one of these books very much, obviously since I keep buying them. Since I already have other copies of them I’d like for you to have these.Why? I am no longer teaching public yoga classes.
I’ve come out of the heat, and onto the kitchen and I have got to make room on my shelves for my growing collection of cook books!
Winning these amazing books is very easy. All you have to do between now and January 31, 2012 6AM Central are these very simple 3 steps. Each one of these 3 things you can do from this page.
1. Subscribe to this blog. (scroll up, there’s a box on the right of the page)
2. Comment on this post. Please tell me why you want these books. Or tell me your favorite cook book. ** comments are posting, but delayed. no worries. ** 😉 dee
3. Follow me on twitter. See the little button over there on the right? (already follow on twitter? Check me out on Facebook. It’s linked here too. see the pretty f? —–>
So, the books. This is an impressive collection of books. These are all in new or almost new condition. You can see a mark or a number on each book. I did that. That is part of my library cataloguing “quick look” system. (don’t ask. let’s just say I am pretty organized. Yet, I still buy the good ones again and again.) I have chosen the least read copy of each for you. BTW, These are not your run of the mill yoga books, These are pretty nerdy, “I am waaay into yoga” yoga books. With that said, I think you will be pleased of you are into the yogas. Below are links to each one. Just in case you are as into it as I.
In Order of the pile pictured above:
Yoga 28 Day Exercise Plan, Richard Hittleman
The Mirror of Yoga, Richard Freeman
Chakra Healing and Karmic Awareness, Keith Sherwood
Yoga for Depression, Amy Weintraub
Mudras, Yoga in your Hands, Gertrud Hirschi
The Yoga Book, Stephen Sturgess
The Subtle Body, Stefanie Syman
The Yoga Handbook, Stephanie Keach
Teaching Yoga, Essential Techniques and Foundations, Mark Stephens
The Spirit of Yoga, Kathy Philliphs
Anatomy for Vinyasa Flow and Standing Poses, Ray Long
Anatomy for Hip Openers and Forward Bends, Ray Long
Anatomy for Backbends and Twists, Ray Long
Anatomy for Arm Balances and Inversions, Ray Long
See? They are pretty nice aren’t they? So would you like to have them?
Tell me why. A winner will be chosen at random. Good luck!
**out of Mainland US? You pay shipping. mmmkay?**
Thyme for some herb.
I’ve always grown herbs. Probably because they’re so easy to grow. And they smell good. Funny thing is, I never used the herbs in the kitchen because I never really cooked. So now that I’m cooking and buying herbs at the grocer constantly, This year I’m really really excited about growing them. Last year I tried to plant more flowers, I always need some color- but this year I forgive myself for being so herby!
I always grow thyme, it’s my favorite. Thyme is so beautiful, I love the way spills out over the pot and looks so elegant . I feel froofroo-ier just having it in the garden. And it tastes great fresh! I like to sprinkle it in salads, and use it all the time in other recipes. I use thyme all the time! (I know, I know) I have already bought new herbs for the garden. I’m so anxious to have them- And this is proof! I’ve already planted a few and I probably shouldn’t have. It froze in the North of Houston last night and winter is not over. So I’ve been dragging them around to keep them happy. That’s okay. They are worth it!
got herb?
Homemade wheat crackers
Crackers are fun to make. The 1st crackers I made were wonderful lavash crackers from a terrific book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. This is not about those. I’d made those crackers twice and I wanted to try something different. One of my favorite blogs is kitchensimplicity . Blogess and mom, Cheri shares all sorts of wonderful recipes and takes beautiful photographs of her work. Her tag line is “Real food doesn’t have to be complicated.” These crackers looked delicious, “real and uncomplicated!” Christmas week I was baking and hanging around a lot in the kitchen- perfect munchie opportunity, crackers sounded good- so I decided to give it a go.
The hardest part of this recipe is rolling the dough out thin enough. Cheri gives a tip about rolling out very thin dough. She suggests you place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll on top of the parchment. Using this technique you can turn the parchment to roll the dough in a different direction, rather than turning the dough. To get nice thin crackers you run the risk of it tearing when you move it or sticking to the counter. This is really a great solution. It’s a little awkward at 1st, but I have confidence you’ll figure it out. I did!
stack-a-crackers
I didn’t change a thing in her recipe this first go. BUT
I do want to figure out how to make the salt stick a little better. My salt fell off. I crunched up more salt and put it on after baking, but that made them just a tiny bit saltier than I wanted them to be. If any of you out there reading (if anyone is out there reading) have any tips about keeping salt attached to a cracker I would certainly appreciate it. Also, I made the mistake on the 1st pan of taking them out of the oven too soon. They were a little chewy. Don’t be afraid to roll really thin dough, and leave them in the oven at least 8 minutes maybe 10 minutes or more. But watch them like a hawk! It only takes seconds to go from “perfect” to “damnit!” The 2nd batch I let bake for almost 12 minutes and they were delicious. We ate them as soon as they were done. Between Michael and Frank they were gone in 20 min.
Okay, okay… I confess most of them were gone before Michael or Frank even knew they were ready!
I lost 10 pounds in 5 days
I’ve really been looking forward to the new year. I didn’t have any big plans or anything, just really tired of 2011. The last weeks of December I began looking for my inspiration for 2012. I’d closed down my yoga studio, and felt a little at loose ends. I wanted to find a little “spark” to get 2012 started off on a good foot. I was thinking a cleanse…?
I’m a very experienced juicer. I spend several weeks a year juice fasting, I have several machines and apparatus to help me bring juice out of various fruits and vegetables, but I just didn’t have the “spark”. Fooling around on Pinterest or maybe Tastespotting I found this website while looking for my inspiration. When I saw this picture I knew immediately it was time to juice!
Pressed Juicery, Los Angeles
These juices look beautiful. This photograph is maybe a little doctored or enhanced but that doesn’t matter it was enough to get me excited.
The Pressed Juicery is apparently owned by Nicole Richie and some friends in Los Angeles. This company allows you to order juice online and then delivers them to your door every morning. It’s all the rage in LA! They offer of a large menu of juices, as well as options for various cleanses or packages of juice. It’s a great idea. And it’s very expensive. It’s not overpriced -as my dear friend Katie and I realized it’s worth every penny. When you take on juicing so many different fresh foods and making mixes for more than one person that will last them for a couple of days- it’s a big deal.
The PJ protocol for detox calls for 3 different cleanses. There is a beginning, middle cleanse and a major cleanse. Each one is comprised of various juices that are designated as either greens, roots or detox. Included in all 3 of cleanses are also almond milk, aloe vera water, and chlorophyll water. There are many other juices that are not part of their detox protocol but that is what we focus on.
A few greens
Because I don’t live in Los Angeles and have lots of time, I took my inspiration and my shopping list from their website. I used their protocol for cleansing, and their menu of juice combinations for my own juicing program at home. This is something that you could certainly do yourself if you have the time and a juicer, but honestly, if I lived in LA and was going to do this and I worked full-time- I would absolutely buy this program and see how it worked out. Of course it’s always better to prepare your own food or juice if you have time. There’s an energy transfer from the person preparing the food to the person partaking of the food so especially when doing a cleanse, if you have time it’s best to do it yourself. If you believe in that sort of thing. (I do.)
Beautiful Veg
Prep is the big deal in juicing. It’s what takes the most time and it’s very very important. If you don’t prep your veg and fruit properly it can ruin the taste of your juice or worse it can be full of sand. We spent HOURS prepping. You wash the spinach several times. (even though you can buy baby spinach pre-washed there’s nothing like the taste of the real mature spinach) I like to peel the carrots and of course you have to peel and seed the cucumbers.
Here’s a photograph of our juicer set up for the session. I guess I should say our multiple juicer set up.
Vitamix, Oster citrus, manual citrus press, Hurom Slow-Juicer, Angel 8500
We used mostly 3 juicers. We use the angel juicer for all of the greens. We used the Japanese Hurom juicer for carrots, beets, cucumbers, ginger and apples. We used the manual squeezer for all of the citrus. We used the Vitamix for the aloe filet with lemon juice mixture. There’s no question that having good equipment makes all the difference in the world! If you have any questions about any of these juicers please don’t hesitate to comment or send me an e-mail.
I chose the “middle” fast to do. My intention was to juice fast for four days. I’m on day 6. I’m doing juice and having some tangerines or an apple if I start to feel hungry. Katie is new to cleansing so she chose the beginning fast for 4 days and had a successful result.
On the menu were romaine lettuce, spinach, watercress, parsley, celery, cucumbers, kale, beets, carrots, apples, ginger, lemons, grapefruit, aloe vera and mint. We did 2 sessions of marathon juicing- preparing ourselves for 2 sessions of 2 days of juice fasting each. Also in the mix were a couple of juices for my husband who was not fasting but is trying to make healthier choices.
We juiced everything separately into large jars and once we were finished juicing everything we made custom mixes in smaller jars. This really worked out nicely. The juices were so beautiful in their individual jars and the mixtures tasted delicious. There are no recipes with this post because I didn’t have any recipes. All I did was look at their website and used their menu. We guessed the proportions by the ingredient list order.
Ready to be mixed.
Here are some of the finished jars waiting to be mixed. Our results are not as sexxy as Pressed Juicery, but they are so pure and perfect for our cleanse.
The aloe vera water and the chlorophyll water were pretty easy to prepare. I admit that filleting aloe leaf is no easy task! We had a great time laughing at me trying to hold onto that slippery “aloe fish!” I’d watched a couple YouTube videos to try to figure out how to do it, so luckily everything came out great. Basically you just fillet the aloe vera gel out of the leaf and put in the Vitamix with a little filtered water and lemon juice. Swirl it together and keep in the fridge. You then use that as a concentrate, adding a tablespoon or so to a glass of water for a mild laxitave drink at night.
The chlorophyll water as super easy! I went to Whole Foods market and bought liquid chlorophyll extract. We added a few drops of this to filtered water and used it throughout the day as a thirst quencher and appetite suppressant. Chlorophyll water doesn’t taste bad at all, it’s almost tasteless but it does make your water a beautiful green color. It is good for the lungs and is a nice treat. It does not have any appetite suppressant qualities, it’s just a healthier water drink!
The almond milk is your treat at the end of the day. We used store bought Almond milk and mixed it with dates, vanilla and a pinch of salt. A few seconds in the Vitamix and WOW! EXTRA YUMMY!
(I had a BAD experience last summer making my own almond milk. An epic day of sickness followed. I think I poisoned myself. I am still scarred emotionally. I hope to try to make my own again someday after much more therapy)
The cleanse continues to go well. I’ve lost 10 pounds so far. I am starting to feel like “Me” again in my skin. Regardless of the shameless click inspiring title this is not about losing weight for me, it’s about taking a little more control of myself. I am very happy to be feeling lighter, brighter and much more positive in my outlook. What seemed like an uncertain cloudy 2012, now looks bright and fresh and clean and wide open!
The $30. Chicken
It all started with a fancy pan. This beautiful baking pan is by All Clad and it’s what they call their chicken roasting pan. This beautiful pan came as a surprise gift to me from my sweet husband Mr. Darla. He sees things and thinks that I might like them and gets them for me. You may think that this makes me very spoiled… And you’re right! But that’s a different post and not really a problem isn’t…?
All-Clad Chicken Roasting pan
This beautiful All Clad pan has an arm that’s designed to hold the chicken up off of the pan so that the entire chicken is exposed to heat. That will allow the chicken to cook more evenly and faster. I gave it a try immediately and the result was the vegetables swimming in oil. The chicken came out pretty good as I recall I don’t have any photographs of the finished chicken, but as you can see here the vegetables were a mess.
veg in grease
I decided to give it another try a couple of days later so I went over to our neighborhood gourmet, farm to market, artisan deli coffee shop, bakery, butchery, charcuterie, dairy and grocer Revival Market. This place is beautiful! I go here often to buy a particular bread and on holidays I go there to buy certain parts of birds to make broth. My dear friend Laura and I go there sometimes and have tea and gasp at the prices and that brings us my friends, to the $30 chicken.
Now friends I’m not broke. And I want to eat well. I want to eat food that’s raised humanely without chemicals if and when possible. And I understand that sometimes you pay more than you want to for food. And most often times, when you do pay more for fresh food it’s so much better, and so worth it. When you do splurge you don’t have to feel guilty. Ready to make chicken happen again while shopping (browsing) at the market I decide to buy a “happy chicken.” I think of a happy chicken as a chicken that’s raised on farm, who gets to walk around and eat bugs and worms, who get chased by dogs and harasses other chickens or whatever chickens do. And according to the beautiful soul behind the butcher’s counter these chickens were indeed happy, their life idyllic.
So I say, “I’ll take one!” (dramatic pause) Friends, that chicken cost $30. I’ll give you a minute here to let that soak in.
$30. Chicken
Yes, I was taken a little aback, and a little in shock, and quite frankly a little embarrassed that I had done it but there was! ACK! No worries I’m sure it’s going to be succulent and delicious! I could not wait to get my chicken home on that beautiful roasting pan! Dinner was going to be fantastic! Back at the house I open up the butcher paper and there it is my $30 chicken!
wrinkled chicken
I have to admit to you I am a bit underwhelmed. This chicken doesn’t look happy at all. This chicken looks wrinkled, its skin is torn back by its breasts, there some weird skin around one leg and the other one is sticking out weird. The upper leg looks fatter than the other. The whole thing looks and feels kind of dry. But what do I know? I’ve never bought a $30 chicken before! So I decided forge ahead and follow the recipe for the roasted chicken and vegetables. This time I decided to place the vegetables on a rack under the chicken so that the veg would not over cook or sit in the grease.
testing rack height in oven
I trussed the chicken and stuck it in the oven to see which rack would work best. While the oven preheated I rubbed chicken with oil and herbs. I also made a bouquet garni and stuck it inside the chicken.
bouquet garni
Lop sided
I hate to keep beating up on this chicken, but do you see how lopsided it is? (granted my trussing skills have never been addressed) I try to set it properly on the rack, and I’ve also try to tie it onto the rack, it just didn’t work. The whole chicken seems to be freakishly bigger on one side than the other. Nevertheless here it is ready to go in the oven. I am sure it’s going to be great!
So I cooked the chicken until he came up to temperature in the thigh. Here it is out of the oven:
.
YIKES!
Again I’d like for you to notice how one of the legs the skin is completely pulling away from the joint, and then the leg that’s closer to the camera has the skin still intact. You can see the bouquet garni sticking out of the cavity, you can see how crispy the skin is and how it really pulled away from the thigh. The vegetables look okay they appear to be roasted nicely- though some of them have fallen through the holes and down into the grease. All in all it looks horrible. Cutting into it was almost impossible. This chicken was so tough I swear to God it was living on the streets in Chicago in the 70s. I was absolutely horrified by this. I honestly felt like taking the chicken back to the store the day I bought it and opened it up. But I didn’t I cooked it. We did not eat it of course. It was horrible. I hid the price tag from Mr.Darla in my shame of purchase, and the shameful result.
I have cooked many chickens since on this chicken rack and they were delicious. It’s appropriate for me to say here that I buy my chicken at Whole Foods Market. I buy their pasture raised, organic happy chickens and they are delicious every time. I buy whole chickens there and pay about $12 a chicken, and while that’s still quite a bit for chicken, I have yet to get a bad one. The butchers there are cute and friendly and know how to handle their meat. 😉 They are very happy to them cut into pieces for you. And Even after grilling, these WFM chickens stay really juicy and wonderful.
I feel very fortunate that I can buy delicious food, and I feel very fortunate that I have the ability to choose what I eat. I must tell you though I don’t think I’ll ever buy another $30 chicken and makes me a little sad that they’re even out there, shamelessly priced. And worse, sometimes poor quality. I am not saying that perhaps things might have went wrong in the kitchen, I am a newbie cook and roasted chicken should be easy- it’s not. It’s fracking hard to do right, COME ON! LOOK at that raw chicken!
That chicken just ain’t right.
I have to wonder have you ever bought a $30. chicken? How do you decide how much is too much to pay for the food you want to eat?
Southern Yogurt Biscuits
Well, you know I loves me some biscuits! I grew up in the South and being a good Southern family we ate biscuits a lot! Momma tried but Grandmaw made biscuits everyday. They always seems mysterious and elusive- Imagine my surprise when I found out how easy biscuits are to make! Friends, I’m here to tell you I will never eat a crappy biscuit again. Heidi Swanson’s book, “Super Natural Everyday” convinced me that it can be done easily. Her technique is different than mine, she recommends using a food processor. I tried that. I don’t like using the food processor to make biscuits, it just seems wrong. So I do it by hand. She also uses a combination of flours, whole wheat and spelt. I use nice light southern flour. Her biscuits “seem” healthier than mine- but truth is- biscuits are supposed to be white. I’ve divulged the changes and now I give you my interpretation of Heidi Swanson’s yogurt biscuits.
Southern Yogurt Biscuits
10 1/2 ounces of light southern all-purpose flour (I prefer Martha White’s but it’s not available in Texas so I use whatever’s there)
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 stick of butter
11 ounces of Greek yogurt
Preheat the oven to 450°F put the pan that you intend on baking biscuits on into the oven while preheating.
Put the stick of butter into the freezer while still in its wrapper.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Remove the butter from the freezer carefully cut it in half and then in half again and keep cutting it until you get little cubes of butter. Put the butter cubes in the flour.
Using your hands separate the cubes from one another and coat them with flour. Working quickly pick up each cube and squeeze it between your thumb and forefinger, snap your fingers as if you are making a sound to keep rhythm to music and drop the butter into the flour. Pick up another cube and keep repeating this squeezing of the butter making it flat until you’ve done most of the pieces. Try to handle the butter as little as possible, the more you handle it the more it will start to melt and you do not want the butter to melt until it’s in the oven. This is what makes the layers.
After you squeeze all the butter pieces add the yogurt into the flour and butter mixture. Using a fork toss the yogurt into the flour until it’s mixed pretty well. Lightly flour the countertop. Put the biscuit mix onto the floured countertop.
Press down on the dough ball until it makes a rectangle about 14″ x 7″ may be less. Don’t over handle the dough. Once the dough is all together and not quite so shaggy and it’s pressed flat – using a sharp knife, cut the rectangle into 3 pieces and stack them one on top of another. Now press this stack down into another flat rectangle. Try not to handle too much, it’s not perfect. Biscuits are “rustic”. I like to use my bench scraper to straighten and clean up the sides of the flattened dough as I work.
After you’ve got your 2nd flattened rectangle with your dough cut the dough in thirds and stack the thirds once again on top of another. Once again for the 3rd time press the dough into a rectangle try to use just your fingers- try not to use your entire hand please handle the dough as little as possible working quickly.
Once you have your 3rd rectangle you are ready to cut the biscuits. The best way to keep your biscuits rising properly is to try not to squeeze or smash the sides of the biscuits.
I like to cut the biscuits with a sharp knife instead of with a biscuit cutter because it uses all of the dough in the 1st round of cutting and I don’t have to reshape the dough again.
Cut the dough into equal pieces I try to get 12 or 15, sometimes I cut them really small
Place the biscuits on the hot pan and place in the oven. Bake biscuits for 12 to 18 min. depending on what size you cut them. Definitely begin to check them after 12 min.
Enjoy them hot!
darla cooks 