(Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!)
After months of really complicated, pretty desserts, it was nice to have a simple recipe. I really cooked and baked myself out over the holidays, and I was dreading the thought of making more sweet things.
So, scones. I’m sure that’s the proper word for them, but I just call them biscuits. And I have to admit that I already had a biscuit recipe that I love, so this was going to be a hard sell – but you can never have too many biscuits, so I gave it a shot.
I made them to go with a roasted chicken for dinner. They took about 20 minutes, and half of that was getting my oven preheated.
The fat in them is grated butter, so I put two tablespoons of butter into the freezer early in the day. When it was time to start, I sifted the flour, baking powder, and salt together, then rubbed in the grated butter. The texture I was going for was "Coarse beach sand", and it was easy to get there without melting the grated butter. Then I added half a cup of milk to finish the dough.
After they were mixed, I patted them out on a cutting board, folded them over a few times for layers, then cut them out. The first few I patted too flat, and they didn’t rise much, but the later ones I did better on.
Then bake for 10 minutes. I brushed the tops with more melted butter to brown them:
They were good – they’re certainly more biscuit-looking then my recipe. I’d probably make them if I wanted to impress a dinner guest or something – but if I just want a quick biscuit to cover in butter and jelly for breakfast, I’ll stick with my old recipe.
