Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: baking powder biscuits

Friday, July 26, 2024

Mrs. Earhart's Biscuits @MaddieDayAuthor #birthday #giveaway

MADDIE DAY here, celebrating another sleuth's birthday!

Two weeks ago I brought you homemade strawberry ice cream, which my grandmother Dorothy enjoyed as part of her eighteenth birthday celebration dinner on July 4, 1918. In my latest historical mystery, an alternate version of Dot is a lady PI in 1926 Boston, working with Amelia Earhart to solve a string of attacks on young immigrant women.

I loved discovering that Amelia's birthday was also in July. Her fictionalized sleuthing adventures in A Case for the Ladies came out of my imagination, but she really did live in Boston in 1926. She was a social worker and teacher at a settlement house, and she also coached the Chinese girls' basketball team, flying only on weekends.

I'm celebrating both sleuth's birthdays this month, here and elsewhere, so I went looking for Amelia's favorite food. I lucked out by finding a recipe in the March 1937 issue of Women's Home Companion Magazine and an interview with Amelia's mother.

(I took a photo of the page, so the quality isn't stellar.) I suppose it was an ad for Royal Baking Powder, but who doesn't love a traditional fluffy biscuit? I thought I'd leave the fried chicken for another time (or another chef), since I'm not a fan of deep frying - especially not in July.

In honor of the famous aviator's birthday - the year of which she never wanted to get specific about, even when she was under thirty - I bring you her mother's biscuits.

Mrs. Earhart's Biscuits

Note: Being me, I substituted whole wheat flour for half of the flour amount, because I like that nutty flavor. And since I don't believe in shortening, I used butter, real butter, and I added an egg. Also being me, I adapted the directions to make them more clear.

Ingredients

(My photo of the ingredients vanished - to where is a mystery!)

2 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder (Royal was the brand back then)

½ teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons butter

1 egg

¾ cup milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 475 degrees F

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; add butter and cut in thoroughly with fork or pastry cutter.

Stir in the egg with a fork, then add milk and mix minimally to make a soft dough. Turn out on floured board and knead lightly until outside looks smooth.

Roll out ½ inch thick.

Fold in thirds and roll again three more times to increase flakiness.

Cut with biscuit cutter and place on baking sheet.

Bake about 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Remove to a rack to cool.

Enjoy a biscuit with your fried chicken or with butter and jam!

Readers: How do you like your biscuits? I'll send one of you an ebook of A Case for the Ladies!

🎂🛬🐔

Murder at the Rusty Anchor is out and available wherever books are sold!

My most recent releases are A Case for the Ladies.

And Deep Fried Death, #12 in the Country Store Mysteries.

And Murder Uncorked, Cece Barton Mystery #1, which released in late October.

Check out all my writing:

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

EASY 7UP SLAB BISCUITS for your BBQ from @CleoCoyle #ButtermilkBiscuitDay

From Cleo Coyle: Why use a carbonated soda like 7 Up in a baking powder biscuit recipe? I'll give you two good reasons in my recipe post below, and they add up to delicious results. Just make sure you've got plenty of fresh butter on hand to melt on these tender, tasty beauties.

Happy National Buttermilk Biscuit Day!

Let the baking begin...

Cleo Coyle writes two
bestselling mystery
series with her husband.
To learn more, click here.

A Recipe Note from Cleo

I know what some of you may be thinking: Why use 7 Up (or any lemon-lime soda) in a baking-powder biscuit recipe?

In my view, there are two reasons:

1 - Carbonation: The soda boosts the lightness and fluffiness of your biscuits' interiors, and...

2 - Flavor: No, the flavor of lemon-lime is not something you will taste in the final product. (I promise, I mean, who wants a lemon-lime baking powder biscuit?) What the 7 Up does is boost the overall flavor by subtly underlining the slight tang of the sour cream. Together these flavors provide complexity, helping your quickly-made boxed-mix biscuits taste more like granny's old-fashioned buttermilk biscuits.

My version of this classic recipe tweaks the classic ingredients, but my biggest change to the common approach is saving you time and mess. I don't turn the dough out onto a board and knead it with my hands, for example, and I don't pre-cut every biscuit and lay each out in the pan. If you're also looking for the best results from the fastest method, you might like this version, too...

What I do is bake the biscuits as a single, square slab, which allows the interiors to bake up all the more higher and fluffier. Then I cut the big slab with a pizza cutter, making heavenly squares. My husband loves these biscuits. I hope you do to, too.

ORDER UP!

To download this recipe in

a free PDF document that

you can print, save,
or share, click here.

Click here for Cleo's
free Recipe PDF.

Cleo's 7 Up Slab Biscuits

My easy slab version of the classic recipe

Golden and crusty on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside, these easy 7 Up Slab Biscuits make a delicious side for summer barbecues. They're great for breakfast, too!

Makes 9 square biscuits using an 8 x 8 baking pan

INGREDIENTS:

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter (unsalted butter is fresher than salted, but you can certainly use salted butter for this recipe, simply reduce the salt by half)

2 cups Bisquick baking mix (lightly pack it into the cup and level it off)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt (again, if using salted butter, reduce by half)

1/2 cup full fat sour cream

1/2 cup 7 Up freshly opened, not diet*

*NOTE: Although 7 UP is classic for this recipe Sprite or another lemon-lime soda will also work for this recipe. Just be sure you're using regular soda and not diet.

DIRECTIONS:

STEP 1: Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Be sure it's well preheated for the best results. While the oven is preheating, drop the cold butter into a nonstick 8 x 8 baking pan and pop it into the oven for about 2 minutes. When the butter is close to melted, pull out the hot pan and let it finish melting outside of the oven (to ensure the butter does not burn). Now measure out 2 tablespoons of the melted butter into a small bowl and set it aside to cool. Meanwhile…

STEP 2: Into a medium size mixing bowl, measure out the Bisquick as described in the ingredients (by lightly packing it into the cup and leveling it off). Get out a butter knife and stir in the salt (use half the amount if using salted butter).

Now add the sour cream and the 2 tablespoons of melted butter that you reserved from step 1. Using your trusty butter knife, "cut" these ingredients into the dry Bisquick. See my photos. The dough should appear crumbly.

STEP 3: Open a new 7 Up for the best carbonation. Pour the 1/2 cup of soda into the bowl and stir it, as shown, using the butter knife until everything is combined.

Now switch to a big spoon or spatula and very vigorously stir this mixture for 20 to 30 seconds. No kidding, count as you stir and you'll notice the dough will begin to stiffen up, forming the gluten that will give your biscuits structure.

When is it ready? When you pull your spoon or rubber spatula away the dough should come with it, feeling elastic like bread or pizza dough (see my photo below). If your dough does not do this, keep vigorously stirring until it does.

STEP 4: For best results, pop your 8 x 8 pan with melted butter back in the oven for one minute (no more) to really warm it up. This will give you the very best rise for your biscuits. Be careful now, the pan will be hot. Pour the stiff dough into the melted butter of your hot pan. Be sure to use all the dough, scraping the bowl well with a rubber spatula.

(Use an oven mitt to hold the pan and...) Quickly flatten out the dough with your spoon or spatula, stretching it to evenly cover the bottom of the pan. The dough does not have to touch the four sides of the pan, but it should be fairly close to them, as shown in my photos.

STEP 5: Immediately place the pan in your well preheated oven. Bake for about 15 to 18 minutes. The edges will be golden brown and crusty, and the top should show touches of light golden browning. The top will also show some cracking.

Cool for 5 minutes in the pan

and

5 minutes out of the pan

before cutting...

Can you see the *heart* in my biscuits?
Yes, folks, I really do cook with love. :)

COOL IN THE PAN for at least 5 full minutes. Why? The insides are still baking in the hot pan so this is an important step.

DE-PANNING: Because of the melted butter base, the biscuit square will slip right out. Remove it like you would a layer of cake by placing a plate over the top of the pan and flipping it. Yes, the bottom of the baked biscuit square will appear golden brown and crusty. But trust me, the inside will be amazingly light and fluffy.

COOL OUT OF THE PAN: Allow the big square to cool for another 5 minutes before cutting. Trust me, those fluffy insides are retaining a lot of heat and will still be hot when you eat them, even after 10 total minutes of cooling.

CUTTING TIPS: For best results, flip the big biscuit right side up again, and you will have an easier time cutting your individual biscuits. Use a pizza cutter for the cleanest, best-looking slices. Then slather on butter, honey, or jam; dip into hot gravy; or split and fill for an amazing biscuit sandwich.

Presentation Note

If you're serving these to guests or your family, you can keep the biscuit slab whole and slice it up right at the table (as shown above). This makes a fun, somewhat more theatrical presentation of your beautiful biscuits. This method also has the advantage of staying hot much longer than individual biscuits so you have time to get the rest of the meal on the table.