Cordelia's Kitchen

Cordelia Elizabeth Carter, circa 1982

I credit my love of baking to the many summers I spent with Gramma Carter. Any one who ever met my grandmother would know a few things about her:

• she had a tongue that could cut like a knife;
• she loved music more than air; and
• she baked biscuits just about every Sunday

I can remember machine-gunning her with questions about the 'olden days' when she was a kid, as she whipped up her tasty biscuits.  My questions never seemed a distraction and she would never stop moving as the mixed and kneaded and rolled.  Besides getting to hear about her own 'Little House on the Prarie' experiences, I was always the first one to get to taste her treats when they emerged from the oven.  I don't ever think she once told me that I could get salmanella from licking the spoon.

Baking biscuits, like playing the piano, was second nature to her. And like many women of her era, and most children of my age, recipes and measurements never seemed important.  Maybe that is why I never tried to make biscuits on my own.  But having tasted hers,  one thing I have always known is that poppin' fresh--no matter how cool--could never compare.

So with winter finally setting in, my thoughts turn to comfort food and the delicious butter biscuits Gramma Carter used to make.

Classic Baking Powder Biscuits

Ingredients:

1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm/5 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour

2 teaspoons (10 ml) (10 gm) (1/3 oz) fresh baking powder
¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1½ gm) salt
2 tablespoons (30 gm/1 oz) frozen butter, or a combination of shortening and butter, crumbled
½ cup (120 ml) cold milk (add as needed)
1 tablespoon milk, for glazing the tops of the scones Directions:
1. Preheat oven to very hot 475°F

2. Triple sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. (If your room temperature is very hot refrigerate the sifted ingredients until cold.)

3. Rub the frozen grated/crumbled butter (or combination of fats) into the dry ingredients until it resembles very coarse bread crumbs with some pea-sized pieces if you want flaky scones or until it resembles coarse beach sand if you want tender scones.

4. Add nearly all of the liquid at once into the rubbed-in flour/fat mixture and mix until it just forms a sticky dough (add the remaining liquid if needed). The wetter the dough the lighter the scones (biscuits) will be!

5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, lightly flour the top of the dough. To achieve an even homogeneous crumb to your scones knead very gently about 4 or 5 times (do not press too firmly) the dough until it is smooth. To achieve a layered effect in your scones knead very gently once (do not press too firmly) then fold and turn the kneaded dough about 3 or 4 times until the dough has formed a smooth texture. (Use a floured plastic scraper to help you knead and/or fold and turn the dough if you wish.)

6. Pat or roll out the dough into a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle by about ¾ inch thick (15¼ cm by 10 cm by 2 cm thick). Using a well-floured 2-inch (5 cm) biscuit or deep cookie cutter, stamp out without twisting six 2-inch (5 cm) rounds, gently reform the scraps into another ¾ inch (2 cm) layer and cut two more scones (these two scones will not raise as well as the others since the extra handling will slightly toughen the dough). Or use a well-floured sharp knife to form squares or wedges as you desire.

7. Place the rounds just touching on a baking dish if you wish to have soft-sided scones or place the rounds spaced widely apart on the baking dish if you wish to have crisp-sided scones. Glaze the tops with milk if you want a golden colour on your scones or lightly flour if you want a more traditional look to your scones.

8. Bake in the preheated very hot oven for about 10 minutes (check at 8 minutes since home ovens at these high temperatures are very unreliable) until the scones are well risen and are lightly coloured on the tops. The scones are ready when the sides are set.

9. Immediately place onto cooling rack to stop the cooking process, serve while still warm.