Biscuits

I have been making biscuits for at least twelve years. (TWELVE!! That is half my life!! Anyway.) I'm not quite sure where this recipe originated; I didn't write a note saying where I found this. The thing is, I never felt like the recipe was just quite right. They were too flat or too dense or too crumbly or too salty. I still made them, since they are one of my classics and all, but for some reason I never played around with the recipe much.

Until The Day.

The Day when I did play around with them. The Day that I made my biscuts turn into heaven. The Day I fell in love head over heels with biscuits.

They are fluffy. They are sweet. They are golden. Maybe best of all? They are super duper easy and fast!

I use unrefined coconut oil in these. The coconut oil it is solid up to 76 degrees so it works like shortening but is healthier. The things is, the coconut oil makes it a little bit sweeter than shortening would. If you want them slightly less sweet, mix in a pinch of salt before adding it to the dough. Alternately, you can use a refined coconut oil. You will most likely need to keep your refined coconut oil in the fridge because it tends to liquefy sooner than the unrefined.

You can use these biscuits in sooo many ways. Spread them with berry jam. Have them alongside your favorite curry white bean soup. Spread them with fromage blanc or cream cheese, then top with sliced peaches and drizzle with honey. Poke a hole in the middle and pour in molasses. Add cinnamon and vanilla, then stir in some chopped walnuts to make them scone-like. Eat them covered in a thick cream of mushroom soup. Just devour them plain because they're just that good.

Without further ado, my biscuits.

The Best Biscuits EVER.
2 cups flour (make sure you measure properly! Spoon, don't scoop!)
4 teaspoons baking powder (1 tablespoon, 1 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup solid unrefined coconut oil
2/3 cup buttermilk, soured milk, or milk curdled with vinegar*

Preheat the oven to 450.

Mix the flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt together.

Using a pastry blender, cut in your coconut oil until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Next, rub the mixture between your fingers to more fully incorporate the flour into the oil and to get air into the mixture. Do not rub in for too long or your oil will warm from your body temperature and liquefy, which is not what you want. You want your oil blended in as well as possible to the flour mix while still being solid.

Add the milk and stir just until your dough holds together. Turn it out onto a very lightly floured surface. Knead it gently for 10-12 strokes.  After 10 strokes the dough should look more like a bread dough than a gooey mass. Do not overwork the dough or your biscuits will be tough. Do not underwork the dough or your biscuits will fall apart into chunks.

Divide the dough into 4 or 6 pieces--4 if you want huge biscuits, and 6 if you want large biscuits. Shape each piece into a ball and flatten slightly between your hands. The biscuits should be between 1 1/2 and 2 inches thick.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown. Cool for 15 seconds or until you can touch them without burning your hand and eat them without burning your mouth. Enjoy them. Take a moment to let them melt in your mouth. Realize that the world is good.

I am SURE you will love these as much as I do!! If you make them, let me know! :)


*To curdle the milk: heat the milk in the microwave for long enough to take the edge off the cold, around 20 seconds or so. Stir in 2 teaspoons of white vinegar and let it sit for a few minutes. You should see it get chunky. Don't be alarmed, that is what you want!

(I don't have pictures right now, but next time I make these I'll take pictures and upload them!)

My FAVORITE 100% Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

Have I mentioned that I broke my husband's camera lens? Well, I did. I dropped it while trying to take pictures of food over the summer, which should explain both my lack of posts (because lame pictures are embarrassing these days) and my poor quality in pictures. I decided to post anyway, because really, this recipe is TOO GOOD to not share!!

I adapted this recipe from the 100% Whole Wheat Bread recipe from Fleischmann's Yeast Best-Ever Breads from 1993. It doesn't have a lot of pictures, so I didn't really ever use it much. One day, though, I was fed up with my then current whole wheat bread recipe because the bread was super crumbly and so was not very good for toast or sandwiches. I pulled out this book to see if  I could find a better recipe.

I found one. It was tasty, truly it was. But, me being me, I had to try and improve it. I wanted to see if I could make it even BETTER. And you know what? I did!

This bread is perfect. It's a little dense without being heavy. The crust is super crisp and fabulously browned with a moist, chewy inside. The nuttiness of the wheat is perfectly balanced by the sweetness of honey and molasses.

This recipe makes two delicious loaves. Good luck making them last more than three days!


100% Whole Wheat Bread
8 to 8 1/2 cups whole wheat flour*
1 tablespoon, 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (2 packages + 1 teaspoon)
1 tablespoon ground flax
2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup honey (preferably local)
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I use a blend of canola, olive, and grape seed)
1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee

In a large bowl, mix together 3 1/2 cups of the flour and the next three ingredients. (Do not proof the yeast.)

Combine the wet ingredients and heat until around 120-130 F. It usually takes around a 1 minute and 45 seconds in the microwave, but check with a thermometer. Stir and add to the the dry ingredients.

Beat the mixture well with a wooden spoon for about two minutes. This combines the ingredients and helps to develop the gluten. Add 1 more cup of flour and beat it for two more minutes.  Add in enough flour to make it a soft dough. Usually 3 1/2 cups is just perfect, but you may need a little more if it is super sticky.

Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, around 6-8 minutes. Only add enough extra flour to make the dough not stick to the counter or your hands. You want the dough a little bit sticky because that helps keep the bread moist. You can also knead it a little longer if you need some therapy :)

Place the dough in a greased bowl. Turn it once to make sure it is coated and won't stick to the bowl. Cover with a towel and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in size, around 1 hour. To check if it is doubled, press your fingers into the dough. If the dents stay, it is doubled. If the dough springs back, let it keep rising.

Punch the dough down and divide it in half. Roll each half out into a 12 x 7 inch rectangle. Starting from the short end, roll the dough up tightly. Pinch the seam and the ends shut and place seam down into a greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/4 inch loaf pan. Cover again with the towel and let it rise until doubled again. This time might be faster so check it at 30 minutes, but it might take about an hour. Also, preheat the oven to 375F.

Bake the loaves in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Flip the loaves out of the pans onto a cooling rack. Admire your work. Try and wait at least 5 minutes before cutting off a huge slice and slathering it with butter or peanut butter or jam or just eating it plain.

Once it is cooled, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store. It will usually last a week before starting to go stale if you keep it stored that way and if you don't eat it sooner than that.



*I use fine milled flour. If you use more coarse flour, such as stone ground, it will likely not rise quite as high and will be more dense. It will, however, have a nice texture and flavor.

Another note: you could make this using a stand mixer, but I don't have one so I use a wooden spoon.

If you try this, let me know how it turns out for you!

The next time I'll make this recipe I'll take pictures and post them! :)

cinnamon owl ornaments

Since I am fairly short on money this year and I gave away most of my Christmas ornaments before the move so they wouldn’t break in the truck thing, I have been trying to figure out how to make Christmas beautiful but budget-friendly. Sooooo I turned to pinterest, obviously. I saw a lot of cute cinnamon ornament ideas, but I didn’t like the idea of doing hearts or Christmas trees or stars because, well, I’m not sure. Maybe too cheesy? Maybe too cliché? Whatever my reasons, I decided to make the ornaments following a different trend…owls!!

These are super easy to make, they just take a little bit of time. While most cinnamon ornament recipes use just applesauce and cinnamon, but Martha Stewart, in this tutorial , uses craft glue as well. I decided to

 

to make these, you need:
- 4 ounces of applesauce
- a 4.25 ounces container of cinnamon (a little more than a cup)\
- 4 ounces of craft glue (I used Elmer’s)
- about 2 tablespoons of water

1. mix the cinnamon and applesauce together. You can use a spatula, but I found it more efficient to use my fingers to rub in the applesauce to the cinnamon, the same method you would use to make delish scones. Essentially, just rub the cinnamon and applesauce together between your fingers and thumbs to make sure the ingredients are fully incorporated. It should be crumbly but should form a ball if you clenchhit together in your fist.

2. add the glue! You’ll want to rub it in again. At this pint, the cinnamon mixture gets a spongy texture that makes a weird squish/squeak noise when you rub it. After the glue is added in, add the water too. Work it through until your dough is moist, but still breaks apart into pieces. It will look like this:

3.  Now, cover it with some plastic wrap and let it sit for ONE HOUR. Martha has this step, but I’m not sure why. I suppose you could skip it if you wanted to, though.

4. roll out the dough in between two pieces of plastic wrap. To do this, you’ll have to squish it together SUPER firmly between the sheets. I found the best way was to roll it out super thin then fold the edges into the center and roll it out again. If your dough gets too dry, spray it with some water. If it is too sticky, which is unlikely, sprinkle on some dry cinnamon. You want to get it to 1/4 inch thick then CUT it!! To make the owl shapes, I took an empty can and squished it a bit to make it oval. Cut the ovals overlapping a it to make the little owl ears.

5. This step is VERY IMPORTANT!! Once you cut out all the owls, you need to remember to make the string holes. I did it with a straw, but you can use a skewer instead. You could even use a pencil if you don’t have anything else on hand. The most IMPORTANT thing is, DO IT!! If you don’t you will have a bunch of adorable owl shaped tokens, but not ornaments.

6. Now. You can either let them sit for 24 hours to dry, or, if you are a little more impatient like me, the less long way is to bake these at 200 for 2 hours. It is still long, but a little less long. Make sure the oven rack is in the middle or the top, and flip the owls after 1 hour. after the 2 hours, let them cool all the way and then you can paint them!!

I painted some of mine in a retro 60’s green-purple-blue combo, and I think they are SO cute!!

I did some a little more rustic, using just gold paint and a little bit of glitter glue for accents. I think they are perfect Christmas ornaments!

I did a few with gold glitter covering them and then white paint. The white paint was a little too bold, so I put the gold paint overtop the white on the one on the left. I like it mixed like that : )

FINALLY, I was getting SO TIRED of painting, so I did an impressionist one. I guess I should warn you…if you do lots of detail on your owls, they might take awhile. It took me SEVEN HOURS (!!!) to paint all of these.

7. Finally, find some coordinating string or ribbon and string them up! I haven’t yet, unfortunately, but I have some turquoise embroidery thread for the colored ones and some twine for the gold ones.

Enjoy your cute little owls!! They make great gifts or just keep them for yourself! Have fun! : )

One batch of dough makes 12-15 ornaments. You can see that I painted more than that, but I made more than one batch.