Show #411

Recipe By: ©2000 eric villegas

Ingredients:

2 cups gluten-free performance blend flour, or similar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
4 tablespoons lard, chilled
1- 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, chilled for the biscuit glaze, optional
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted "sweet" butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips or a pastry cutter, rub or cut the chilled lard into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 2 or 3 times. Press into a 1-inch thick square. Cut out biscuits with large sharp chef's knife (that has been lightly floured), being sure to push straight down through the dough.

Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch for softer biscuits or with a 1/2 inch spread for crisper biscuits.

For the optional glaze …

Combine the heavy cream and the unsalted butter in a small bowl and using a pasty brush gently glaze the tops of the biscuits.

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

Notes:

Since biscuits cut from a second pass of the dough will not be quite as light as those from the first why on earth do we continually cut them in rounds? If the biscuits are cut into squares there is no reason for a second roll and all the biscuits will be the same size!

A floured knife or pastry cutter gives a cleaner cut to the dough allowing the biscuit to rise higher than a dull cut.

If you prefer a round biscuit use a roung cutter but make sure its well floured and you use an up and down motion when cutting the biscuit. Twisting the cutter can stretch the dough which could inhibit rising.

Temperature on various biscuit recipes vary widely and what i have found out (not surprisingly) is a higher temperature produces a crisper darker biscuit where a lower temperature offers a lighter and softer biscuit.

The biscuit glaze is optional but offers not only an unsurpassed richness and that special butter flavore but also results in a browned glossy top.

Biscuits and Fat …

For all practical culinary purposes there are three common varieties of fats used in biscuits. lard, shortening and butter. Lard is my choice for the best flavor and the best structure. Shortening gives good structure due to is solid form at room temperature but in my experience offers little in terms of flavor. Butter without a doubt gives fine flavor but unfortunatly is short on structure. By all means use whatever fat you are comfortable with but also feel free to combine fats to come up with your own signature biscuit.

How long do I work the dough?

This is a really tough question and the answer is - just enough! After the liquids have been added and using a spatula the dough has massed and come together about 4-6 rolls of the dough folding over each time should be enough to create good texture but not overly tough. If at all possible when rolling out the dough use just enough pressure to mass the dough but try not to overly work it, definately don't use the same type of pressure you would use when kneading bread dough for example. Experience and patience is the key to life as well as good cooking.