Kitchen Experiments: Tasty Sweet Biscuits

I made some baking powder biscuits a while back, and forgot to post about it. I even remembered to take photos!

Way back when I was in junior high school, I took home economics. For three years. I’m not sure why I’m so paranoid around kitchens, you’d think I’d have gotten comfortable cooking after three years of classes, but noooooooo. I always preferred the sewing modules to the kitchen ones.

But I do remember some of what I learned all those years ago.

So when I stumbled across a recipe for baking powder biscuits in one of my (numerous) cookbooks, I was pretty excited. One of the things we had done in home ec, waaaaaaay back in the seventh grade, was make fakey cinnamon buns with baking powder biscuits.

You roll out the dough into a rectangle, and then butter it. Which, by the by, is tricky if you don’t keep your butter at room temperature. So I had to microwave mine a little.

Then, you cover the butter with a generous layer of brown sugar*. Follow that up by sprinkling an even layer of cinnamon over the brown sugar, then roll it up like a jelly roll.

I moisten the edge with some milk so that the dough will seal up against itself, otherwise it fall open when you try to pinch the edges together.

I was feeling adventurous, so I made a second batch, using cocoa powder instead of cinnamon. I was hoping that the sweetness of the sugar would be enough to cut the bitter from the unsweetened cocoa.

Once you have your logs of rolled up dough, you need to cut them up into one inch disks. If you use a knife, you run the risk of ruining the pretty swirled effect of the roll. Mrs Strelliof** taught us, all those years ago, to use thread to scissor through the dough. You get clean cuts that way, and it’s kind of fun to use sewing supplies in the kitchen too.

I didn’t take any pictures of the threading of dough-logs, because that would be tricky to do on my own. I did take a picture of these monsters that seem to think I’m baking for them.

From there on out, it’s pretty straight forward. You bake them like regular biscuits on an ungreased pan for ten to twelve minutes. You really have to watch them, because you don’t want all that sugar to burn.

I think maybe I should clean my oven before I decide to take any more in-the-oven shots.

 

 

 

While they are cooling, I like to tilt them onto their sides so the sugar doesn’t glue them to the pan. I advise using a utensil of some sort to do this. Sugar gets pretty gooey in the oven, and when sugar is gooey it is also very burny***.

These guys watched me expectantly the entire time. They obviously thought I was preparing them some fabulous delicacy. THEY THOUGHT WRONG NO SHARESIES.

 

 

They turned out really well, and I was even pleased with the chocolate ones. Once they cooled enough, they were delicious and not bitter at all. While they were still warm, the chocolate was a little bitter. I don’t know why or how that works, but there you have it. That experiment was definitely a success.

 

The light ones on the far side are the cinnamon & brown sugar; the nearer, dark biscuits have the chocolate & brown sugar.

 

 

 

* I always say brown sugar, but I don’t ever actually use brown sugar. I use yellow sugar. I find brown sugar too sharp.

** I probably spelled her name wrong; as I’ve mentioned, it’s been a few years.

*** I burned my finger. It sucked. I tried to take a picture. It sucked too.