On lazy nights, when I (Kate) want something fresh and warm but don’t have the energy to make it, biscuits are the answer. I can get them in the oven in less than ten minutes, leaving just enough time to put on a little music and scramble eggs to go with them. Or slice some cheese and fruit and arrange them on a plate for the table. Or sit in the living room by the fire and smell them baking. Biscuits are one of life’s great gifts.
This perfect biscuit recipe just fell in my lap. I was newly married and wanted biscuits (my whole life, I’ve understood the beauty of biscuits). Diann, Sam’s mom, had a recipe I thought I’d try. And after trying it, I never wanted another.
Biscuits
Makes 8 to 10 biscuits
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ cup shortening
⅔ cup milk
Whisk or sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and cream of tartar. Blend in the shortening with a fork, pastry blender, or your clean fingers until the shortening is about the size of peas. Add the milk and stir with a rubber spatula until mostly combined. Then, use your hand to knead the rest of the dough a few times until it’s come together.
Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Roll the dough out 1/2-inch thick (I roll it onto a plastic sheet or wax paper so the counter will be easier to clean). Then cut the dough into circles with the rim of a glass or a 2 1/2-inch cutter, and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet so the edges stay firm and defined. Sometimes we bake them in a square cake pan, where they’ll bake into each other and have soft edges. The people at America’s Test Kitchen think they rise higher if you put them in the pan bottom side up. I don’t know whether it’s true, but that’s the way I do it now. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the oven kisses them with a little gold on top. They’re wonderful eaten with jam or honey. I love them the second day with a slice of cheese inside, but to do that I have to make 1 1/2 times the recipe, otherwise we don’t have any left.
