Baking Powder Biscuits

Baking powder biscuits are one of my favorite foods! They're delicious with jelly or honey - I love having them for brunch. So today I'm sharing our recipe for them.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups, 2 tbsp. flour
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 4 1/2 tbsp. Crisco
• 3/4 cup milk

Yield: 6-8 large biscuits

Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Using a pastry blender, cut in shortening until the mixture looks like a course meal (you should still be able to see little clumps of shortening).

Add milk by sprinkling it over the flour mixture tossing it in the bowl until all the milk is incorporated and you have a soft dough. 

Stir the mixture until it forms a ball which follows the fork around the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a floured board or pastry cloth and knead for about 30 seconds. 

Pat or roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a floured biscuit cutter. 

Place 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Brush the tops with milk or melted butter. Bake for 12 minutes at 450º.

Immediately split biscuit and place a pat of butter inside. You can serve them with jelly, honey, or by themselves. Enjoy!

Homemade Rolls

One of my favorite Thanksgiving foods is our homemade rolls.  Unlike some of the other Thanksgiving dishes, we make these at other times too, but we always have them on Thanksgiving.  We use the recipe from the KitchenAid Stand Mixer Manual.

These are so good - I love them in the winter.  You need to have a stand mixer to make these.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 3 tbsp. butter
• 3 packages active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 5-6 cups flour

 Yield: 24 rolls

Place milk, sugar, salt, and butter in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.

Cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in warm water in the mixer bowl. Add the lukewarm milk mixture and 4 1/2 cups flour.

Attach bowl and dough hook to the mixer.  Turn to Speed 2 and beat for about 1 minute. Continue on Speed 2, adding the remaining flour a 1/2 cup at a time.  Mix for about 2 minutes, or until the dough clings to the hook and cleans the sides of the bowl.  Knead on Speed 2 about 2 minutes longer.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, for about 15 minutes.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape as desired.  We rolled the dough into balls and then placed it a sprayed muffin tin. Cover and allow to rise for about 15 minutes.

Bake at 425ºF for 12 minutes - the rolls should be golden brown. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks.

Enjoy!