• Sourdough Bisquits

    From Daniel@21:1/5 to All on Sat Mar 12 14:01:42 2022
    I saw this recipe in an issue of epoch times newpaper. Yes I still get
    paper deliveries. I haven't tried the recipe yet since I don't have the
    starter yet. Went to the site and here is the entire article plus link.

    There was also an article in 2020 that actually went through the entire
    process of creating your own starter and it was literally a meditation
    for me, reading it. If you are interested in that article too, I'll post
    it in a new thread.

    Enjoy.

    The Family Table: 30 Years of Sourdough Biscuits, Made With Love
    Source URL: https://tinyurl.com/mexu8sa6

    Submitted by Jared K. Vawter, Bakersfield, California_

    Sourdough is not an ingredient; it is a relationship. If you care for
    and nurture your sourdough, it will return to you all the love and
    devotion a one-celled organism can give.

    Thirty years ago, I bought a jar of sourdough starter at St. Andrew’s
    Abbey fall festival in Valyermo, California. When I got home, I read the instructions for the care and feeding of sourdough that came with the
    jar. It said it was best to use the starter once a week, but if it
    couldn’t be used, to feed it with whole milk and flour. It seemed I had
    taken on a large responsibility.

    After several weeks baking loaves of bread, I expanded my ambitions
    and began to scour cookbooks for sourdough recipes. That is what we did
    before the internet. In an old Whitten family cookbook, from my wife’s paternal grandparents, I found a recipe for sourdough biscuits that
    looked fairly easy to make. The recipe had instructions like “Bake in a
    hot oven until done,” so some experimentation was required.

    On almost every Saturday morning for 30 years, my family has eaten
    either sourdough biscuits made from that same starter, or sourdough
    pancakes when we needed a change. Over the years, I tweaked and tried
    this and that with the recipe until I came up with a biscuit that had a
    slight crunch of the crust and insides as moist and tender as a
    newborn’s tears. And I would like to invite you into my kitchen and show
    you how to bake some of the best biscuits you ever had.

    I hope this recipe will add enjoyment to your family times around the
    table, where families are made. And please don’t forget to give lots of
    love to your sourdough.

    Sourdough Biscuits

    Makes 8 to 10 biscuits

    2 cups flour
    4 tablespoons cold butter
    2 tablespoons sugar
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    1 tablespoon baking powder
    1/4 teaspoon baking soda
    1 cup sourdough starter
    1/3 cup milk (do not use non-fat) plus 1 tablespoon vinegar, or 1/3 cup buttermilk

    Measure the flour into a large bowl. Cut in the butter. I use a pastry
    cutter, but you can use a fork, spoon, knife, or your fingers to
    incorporate the butter into the flour, building the layers of fat and
    flour that will create the biscuity texture. Cut in the butter until the
    pieces are the size of very small gravel. I squeeze the larger pieces
    together with my fingers.

    Sprinkle in the sugar and salt. When you put in the baking powder and
    soda, sift them through a sieve to remove the lumps. Nobody wants to
    bite into a lump of baking soda. With a large spoon, mix the dry
    ingredients together well.

    Now add the 1 cup starter. At this point, I mix the milk and vinegar
    together and let it sit while I feed the rest of the starter with milk
    and flour and put it back into the refrigerator. This should give the
    milk and vinegar enough time to curdle into buttermilk. I like the tang
    of the vinegar and the increased leavening when mixed with the soda, but regular buttermilk is good also; it gives the biscuits a mellower
    flavor.

    Pour the milk mixture or buttermilk into the flour mixture and stir
    together wet and dry until a crumbly ball forms. Knead the dough in the
    bowl, working the flour into the dough ball until it is all
    incorporated. Do not add any more flour unless it is needed to make the
    dough less sticky. The less flour you use, the better, as it takes away
    from the flavor of the sourdough. As the gluten forms from the kneading,
    the dough becomes less sticky. The dough ball should be firm and smooth.

    Lightly oil a baking sheet. Use vegetable oil and not cooking spray. The
    oil cooks a crispy biscuit bottom.

    On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it is 1/2- to
    3/4-inch high; the taller, the better. Cut out biscuits with a cutter or
    water glass, giving it a slight twist. Place the biscuits on the oiled
    baking sheet, keeping them separated. Roll up what’s left of the dough
    and cut out more biscuits until all the dough is used. Brush the tops
    with butter.

    You can set the biscuits in a warm place to rise until you are ready to
    bake them (they get a little fluffier), or you can put them straight
    into a pre-heated 425-degree-oven for 14 minutes.

    ___________________________

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    loved one?

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    do so?

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