In this creative hands on baking class the students learned how to bake the old fashioned way. We took my granny's basic biscuit recipe and turned it into cheese biscuits, sundried tomato biscuits, and even scones.
Then we took a Basic Cake recipe and created four different cakes just by adding a few ingredients like chocolate, nuts, apples and lemon.
Basic Cake with Vanilla Frosting
Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Grenache
Apple Spice Cake with Caramel Frosting
Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze
Basic Biscuits Recipe
Makes about 12 biscuits
Granny always said you need a light touch to make a good biscuit.
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup butter (1 stick), cut into small pieces, frozen
1 cup whole milk
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Put the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and stir to just mix. Add the butter and cut it into the flour making little crumbs, a few larger pieces are okay. Add the milk and stir with a fork to moisten the flour. The dough will be sticky.
Flour a work surface and your hands. Scoop the dough out of the bowl and drop it onto the work surface. Knead the dough about 5-6 times and pat the dough into a 9 inch circle or square. Cut the biscuits out according to the size you want. A two inch biscuit will make about 12 biscuits. If you want thicker biscuit, roll out a thicker but smaller circle.
Transfer the biscuits to a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until they are golden on top. Do not overcook, they will be too dry.
Cheddar Cheese Biscuits:
Follow Basic Biscuit recipe
When you add the milk also add
1 tablespoon sugar
1 ½ teaspoons dry mustard
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
Then proceed with the recipe
Create your own: use any hard cheese like Parmesan or Hot Pepper Jack
Sundried Tomato Biscuits
Follow the Basic Biscuit recipe
Substitute buttermilk for the milk
When you add the milk also add:
1/4 cup minced red onion
1 large egg, beaten
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes, oil-packed, drained and finely chopped
Then proceed with the recipe
Scones:
Use the basic biscuit recipe
Add with the dry ingredients:
1/3 cup sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
Substitute buttermilk for the milk
Put the flour, baking powder, soda, sugar and salt into a large bowl, stir to just mix. Proceed with the recipe.
