by Emily Nolan
Mixing biscuit dough
Biscuits are a lot like pie pastry in that too much handling will toughen the dough, and the biscuit won’t be as delicate. Because you don’t want to overmix your biscuit dough, working efficiently when making biscuits is important. Two basic steps are involved with mixing biscuit dough:
1.Cut the fat into the flour so that it resembles coarse crumbs.
Cutting-in is a mixing method in which solid fat is incorporated into dry ingredients, resulting in a coarse texture. Do this by using a pastry blender, a fork, or two knifes. See the section on pastry blenders in Chapter 3 for tips on cutting fats into flour mixtures.
2.Add the liquid ingredients to the flour mixture.
Mix these with a fork until they have just come together and the dough leaves the sides of the bowl. It’s okay if your biscuits are still damp.
That’s all the mixing your biscuit dough needs. Any more mixing, and you’ll get tough biscuits.
The rise of the biscuit
Biscuits come from the French words meaning “twice cooked” (bis cuit) and are a far cry from the light fluffy treats we’re familiar with today. They began as dry, hard crackers — the hard tack that sailors took with them on long sea voyages because the biscuits would last a long time without spoiling. Later, shortening was added to the recipe, but the biscuits were still hard because cooks mixed the batter for a long time. Ultimately, with the invention of baking powder, biscuits began their rise, and soon tender and fluffy became the norm for the biscuit.
Forming your biscuits
There is an art to a well-formed biscuit. Working with the dough too much will make your biscuits less tender. Steam is a powerful leavener for biscuits, so it’s okay if your biscuits are a bit moist when you roll them out. Don’t overflour the dough to make it easier to handle. Just pat out the dough, cut it with a cookie cutter, then place the biscuit on a baking sheet.
1.Turn your biscuit dough out onto a floured surface and either gently roll out the dough with a rolling pin or pat it out with your hands into a circle about 1/2 inch thick.
2.Use a 2-inch round cookie cutter to cut out your biscuits.
You can also flour the rim of a drinking glass and use this instead of a cookie cutter. The key is the thickness of the dough.
3.Gather the scraps, pat the dough out again, and cut a few more biscuits.
Try not to roll out the dough any more than absolutely necessary because overhandling the dough results in tougher biscuits.
If you want biscuits with soft sides, place them in the pan so their sides are touching. If you want them to have crusty sides, place them about an inch apart on the baking sheet.
Storing your biscuits
Biscuits are really best when eaten hot — fresh out of the oven. However, you can make them a day ahead if you need to, but not much more in advance than that. Store your biscuits in an airtight container when they’ve cooled completely.
You can also make the biscuits, cut them out, and refrigerate them for up to 2 hours before baking, so that you can serve them piping hot without doing everything at the last minute.
Buttermilk Biscuits
The buttermilk gives these biscuits incredible tenderness. They are easy to make — the perfect biscuit for beginners. White Lily is the most popular brand of Southern flour, but if you can’t find it, you can use all-purpose flour.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 10 to 12 minutes
Yield: About 16 biscuits
2 cups White Lily brand soft white flour or cake or all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch of sugar
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 6 pieces
3/4 cup buttermilk
1Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until the texture resembles coarse meal. Add the buttermilk and mix until just moistened.
3Pat out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until it is about 1/2-inch thick. Cut the dough into 2-inch circles (use a drinking glass or cookie cutter). Gather up the scraps and pat them out again. Place biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet.
4Bake until just light brown, for 10 to 12 minutes. Serve hot.
Per serving: Calories 100 (From Fat 41); Fat 5g (Saturated 3g); Cholesterol 12mg; Sodium 249mg; Carbohydrate 13g (Dietary Fiber 0g); Protein 2g.
Cheese Biscuits
Handle the dough as little as possible and barely stir in the buttermilk. Trust me on this. The dough will be lumpy, but it’ll work itself out in the oven and you’ll have delicious, tender biscuits.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 16 minutes
Yield: About 12 biscuits
2 cups White Lily brand soft white flour, cake flour, or all-purpose flour
1 to 2 cloves garlic, crushed (optional)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/4 cups grated extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 1/2 ounces)
1 cup chilled buttermilk
1Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly butter two 9-inch cake pans.
2Combine the flour, garlic (if desired), sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pepper in medium bowl to blend. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the Cheddar and Parmesan cheese and toss to coat well.
3Gradually mix in the buttermilk and stir just to moisten the dough.
4Drop the dough by 1/4-cupfuls (or use a 2-inch ice cream scooper) onto the prepared pans (6 for each pan); they will be touching.
5Bake the biscuits until golden on top, about 16 minutes. Transfer to a platter. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Per serving: Calories 196 (From Fat 101); Fat 11g (Saturated 7g); Cholesterol 32mg; Sodium 311mg; Carbohydrate 17g (Dietary Fiber 0g); Protein 7g.
Chapter 13
Yeast Breads
In This Chapter
Understanding the whats and hows of bread-making
Paying attention to the ingredients that go into bread and knowing the roles they play
Kneading and shaping dough
Getting bread to rise
Recipes in This Chapter
Basic White Buttermilk Bread
Braided Egg Bread
Honey-Oatmeal Bread
Jeff’s Potato Bread
Molly’s Sweet Cardamom Rolls
No-Fail Rolls
Crescent Rolls
Fluffy Dinner Rolls
Sesame-Topped Rolls
Many people get nervous about baking bread from scratch, thinking that you have to have some secret talent to make it rise or come out tasting good. And because bread is so readily available and such a staple for many people, picking up a loaf at a local grocery store or bakery is much easier than making your own from scratch. Although I’m not suggesting that you never pick up another store-bought loaf, I must say that, from all the baking I’ve done over the years, there is nothing better than baking your own bread. Making your own bread is deeply satisfying yet simple. From the relaxing repetition of kneading the dough to the slow, quiet rise to the shaping of the loaves and the heavenly smell of it baking in the oven . . . there’s nothing quite like it.
Bread is not overstated, nor is it decadent. It’s simple and basic and has played a major role in history for thousands of years. With the invention of the bread machine, you can make homemade loaves in no time. But to truly experience the wonderful experience of bread-making, everyone should bake at least one loaf of bread in her life. Try it once using one of t
he recipes in this chapter. I’m sure that the loaf you make won’t be your last.
Understanding the Role of Yeast Bread Ingredients
Whole books have been dedicated to the art of bread-making, and there are hundreds of different techniques and doughs that you can bake. Instead of overwhelming you with too much information, I just want you to know the basics, to lay a good solid foundation upon which you can build your bread-baking knowledge. When you feel comfortable with the mixing, kneading, and rising of basic bread doughs, you can move on to fancier types of loaves and rolls. First, you need to know how all the ingredients work together, in order to have a better understanding about the making of bread.
Yeast
Yeast is the ingredient that makes bread rise. It’s a live plant, which, when dissolved in warm water (no more than 110 degrees) and given something to eat, becomes active. Yeast needs food to stay alive. Generally, the sweetener (usually sugar or honey) added to the dough is the yeast’s initial food. When the bread is kneaded, more sugar is made in the starch from the flour, which sustains the yeast until it finally dies when it’s baked in the oven.
To ensure that your yeast stays fresh for as long as possible, store it in the refrigerator.
Several different types of yeast are available:
Active dry yeast: I like to use active dry yeast because it has a longer shelf life and is easier to store than fresh compressed cake yeast. It’s available in foil packs or jars coded with an expiration date. One package of active dry yeast contains 1 scant tablespoon (scant means “barely”), so if you don’t have yeast in the premeasured packages, measure out 1 level tablespoon and then gently shake back just a little.
Bread machine yeast: Bread machine yeast is designed to dissolve thoroughly when used in conjunction with a bread machine. If you’re baking your bread without the use of a bread machine, don’t use bread machine yeast.
Compressed cake yeast: Compressed cake yeast is fresh yeast; its cells are not dried. Of all the yeasts, it is the powerhouse for rising and making wonderful breads. You can substitute 1 square of fresh compressed cake yeast (available in 0.6-ounce squares) for one 1/4-ounce package of active dry yeast.
Do not use compressed cake yeast without proofing it first. (See the sidebar “Oh yeah? Proof it” for details on this technique.) Because fresh yeast has a considerably shorter shelf life than active dry yeast, you may find that it’s already dead even though the expiration date printed on the wrapper hasn’t passed. Bakery supply stores sell the freshest cake yeast.
If you’re shopping for yeast, you may come across brewer’s yeast, which is available in most health-food stores. This yeast is not for bread-making and should not be substituted for active dry yeast.
Yeast likes to be snug and warm, but not hot. The most common mistake that first-time bread makers make is to kill the yeast by overheating it. One of the first steps in bread-making is to dissolve the yeast in warm water — sometimes a temperature is given (not over 110 degrees). How can you tell if the water temperature is correct? The most accurate way is to use a thermometer. If you don’t have one, you can measure the temperature almost as accurately by feel. Your body temperature is about 98.6 degrees, so if you run the hot water until it’s just slightly warm to the touch, but not uncomfortable, that should be about right.
Oh yeah? Proof it!
Proofing yeast — dissolving it in warm water, sometimes with a little sugar — was once an essential step in baking bread. The foam and distinct odor the yeast produced were “proof” that the yeast was still alive. Because yeast now comes packaged with an expiration date, much of the guesswork is eliminated, but beginning bread bakers may want a sure thing. Feel free to proof your yeast if you want to make sure that it’s alive. If you use fresh cake yeast, you must proof it. Because fresh yeast has the shortest shelf life and the most punch, it’s easy to proof, and finding out right from the start that the yeast is no longer alive will save you a lot of heartache later.
Don’t proof rapid-rise or quick-rise yeast. Because they’re designed to make dough rise faster, the proofing stage can use up a lot of their energy and leave them without enough oomph for the rising stage of the dough.
To proof yeast, follow these steps:
1.Combine 1 tablespoon yeast with 1/4 cup warm water (not over 110 degrees) and 1/2 teaspoon sugar.
2.Stir well to dissolve the yeast and sugar; then let it rest for about 5 minutes or until it becomes bubbly and foamy.
This bubbling foam is proof that the yeast is alive. Proceed with your recipe.
If you decide not to proof your yeast but discover, after many attempts to coax your bread to rise, that the yeast is dead — the dough just lies in the bottom of the bowl, unchanged — don’t despair! You can save your bread by adding new yeast. This time, proof the yeast as just described and then knead it into your dead dough. You’ll probably have to add some additional flour (just a couple of tablespoons) to get the right consistency again. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes and then set it in a warm, cozy place to rise again. This time, it should work.
Flour
Flour is the main ingredient in bread. Flours made from wheat contain proteins that, when liquids are added and the dough is kneaded, form gluten. This gluten gives the dough its elasticity, allows the dough to stretch as it traps the gases released by the yeast, and causes the bread to rise. The different varieties of flour that are made from wheat have different amounts of gluten-making proteins, so it’s good to know a little about your choices for bread-making.
All-purpose enriched white flour: This type of flour is by far the most common, although it isn’t always the best choice for making yeast breads. A mix of hard and soft wheats, this flour has been chemically bleached, which aids in some of the loss of its nutrients and is why it is then enriched with additional vitamins. Because it is all-purpose, it’s a good flour to have around if you want to make a cake, bread, or cookies, although the results may not be as good as if you chose a flour specifically intended for each purpose (cake flour for cakes and bread flour for bread).
Bread flour: Bread flour is protein-rich white flour made from hard wheat. It’s a good choice for bread-making because it’s a gluten-rich flour that makes a good, elastic dough and gives good volume when your bread rises. Loaves made with bread flour are likely to be a bit tastier, lighter, and better risen than those made with all-purpose flour.
Bread flour absorbs more liquid than all-purpose flour, so you may need less flour if your recipe calls for all-purpose flour and you’re using bread flour instead.
Self-rising flour: This flour is all-purpose flour with salt and baking soda mixed in it. I don’t recommend it for yeast breads.
Unbleached white flour: Unbleached flour is a mixture of hard and soft wheats and has not been chemically whitened. It has a slightly higher protein content and contains more nutrients than all-purpose flour, making it a good choice for baking bread.
Whole-wheat flour: Commercial whole-wheat flour is milled to include the flour, bran, and germ of the wheat. If a recipe calls for white flour and you want to use whole wheat, try substituting whole-wheat flour for half the amount of white flour. I’ve had great success substituting half whole-wheat flour for white flour in traditional loaves of bread.
Whole-wheat flour produces a much denser loaf of bread and absorbs more liquid than white flour, so if you’re substituting whole-wheat flour for white flour, add the minimum amount of flour called for in the recipe and then continue to add more slowly to make sure that you don’t toughen the dough.
A final word about flour: Flours (even the same type and brand) can vary in the amounts of moisture they absorb and contain. That’s why you see many bread recipes give a general amount of flour (4 to 6 cups) and leave it up to you to determine how much flour to use that day. Believe it or not, even the weather — whether it’s dry or humid outside — can affect how much flour you use in your bread! So pay more attention to
how your dough looks than to the cup amount of flour you’re adding to your dough. Good dough should have the following characteristics:
It should be smooth and elastic.
It should not stick to the sides of the bowl, nor should it stick to your hands or the countertop.
It should give when it’s kneaded.
It should not be tough.
Don’t pack flour into your measuring cup. Instead, spoon it into the cup to measure it. And always add flour slowly; don’t dump all of it in at once.
Sweeteners
The usual sweeteners you find in bread-making are sugar and honey. Although the sweetener typically doesn’t make the bread sweet like a cake, it does add some flavor and feed the yeast. When the yeast eats the sugar, it begins a fermentation process, which produces the gases that cause the bread to rise. The sweetener also browns during baking, which helps produce a bread with a nice texture and golden-brown crust.
All flour is not created equal
If you’ve eaten biscuits both above and below the Mason-Dixon line, you may have noticed that the texture of the biscuits made in Pennsylvania differs from the texture of the biscuits made in North Carolina. That’s because they’re made with different types of wheat. Hard wheat contains more gluten-forming proteins, making it good for yeast breads. It’s mostly grown in the United States in Montana, the upper Midwest, and the Southwest. Soft wheat has less gluten but more starch, making it a better choice for biscuits, quick breads, and special fine-textured cakes. It’s grown in milder climates in the middle and eastern United States.
