Tag Archives: White Lily

March 19, 2010 · 12:51 pm

Cheese Biscuits and a Mission Accomplished – Vote Here

Today was our last lab for quick breads and the students ended the unit with a bang! All the biscuits that were made today were so good! Biscuits are not the easiest bread to make especially for beginners. At first you are not quite sure how the dough should feel and how much to knead it. And then there is always the question of how much flour to add to the dough to keep it from sticking to your hands. I was very impressed when I talked with each group about what they learned. Here are some of their comments

These are so easy to make.
They are better than the drop biscuits that we made from Bisquick.
We have all the ingredients at home.
Why would anyone buy those refrigerated things when you can make these?
You can make these really small , eat two and fool yourself into thinking you are eating more.
I had no idea that I could bake biscuits that tasted so good.
We can save money baking biscuits from scratch.
I want to make these for my mom.

So my mission for this unit is accomplished and we are ready to move on.

You will find the recipe for Basic Biscuits here and to make the Cheese Biscuits make the following changes:

Continue reading →

45 Comments

Filed under Biscuits, Cheese, quick

Tagged as baking, Biscuits, Cheddar Cheese, White Lily

March 5, 2010 · 6:59 pm

Cinnamon-Raisin Biscuits and Vote!

I raved in the previous post about these Buttermilk Biscuits. Southern Living shared four variations of the Buttermilk Biscuits and here is one of them. These Cinnamon-Raisin Biscuits quoting GI Joe ” are vacation good!” Before jumping in the kitchen to prepare them take the time to read the post on Buttermilk biscuits and make the following changes. You’ll have a breakfast hit on your hands.

Continue reading →

52 Comments

Filed under Biscuits, Cinnamon Rolls, quick, Recipes

Tagged as baking, Biscuits, Cinnamon Rolls, cooking, quick breads, White Lily

October 10, 2009 · 1:36 pm

Cheese Biscuits – Quick Bread Lab

Almost perfect!!!

I love teaching!! No, I mean I really LOVE teaching! Today anyway. It makes my day when my students come into the classroom and can’t wait for me to call the roll because they are so eager to get busy with their assignment . There has to be a reason for this other than the fact that they are all starving.

I read something on Monday when I attended the Leonardo DiVinci exhibit that could be the reason for the eagerness . Di Vinci said, ” Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.” Could it be a spark of passion here that has created this excitement? I hope so.

Cheese biscuits are the last of our quick bread labs and we go out with a perfect 10. As you look at the pictures you can see they did great! One group put the cheese in at the wrong time, but recovered very well. They learned from the first time not to add too much flour and surprisingly they were very good . We had a couple of equipment malfunctions. One oven was turned off by mistake and another did not heat properly.

I now feel as if our lab is a small reproduction of ” Top Chef” , because there is so much competition between the groups to be at the top of the post. It is quite comical. You would think that I am giving out money as an award. Competition is good, but I have to think of a way to tone this down before it ruins some friendships.

How do you prepare these little cheesy morsels? Check out Making Biscuits From Scratch and make one little change. Grate 1 1/2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese and add after cutting in the shortening.

Some information about grating cheese:

Use a food processor
Go ahead and grate a lot of it at one time
Freeze what you don’t use

You might ask why not save time and use pre-grated cheese? I am not totally against it but, it is dry and not as flavorful. It is more expensive, too.

Okay I have to get to the gym . I ate more than my usual taste of each biscuit today. They were just sooo good that I could not resist. Hopefully I can STEP some of these calories off before they attach to my body as fat.

Enjoy the Bake-off pictures!

Happy Cooking,

The Teacher Cooks

Very Good

: Almost perfect!!!

: These were great!

: Very Tasty!

: After my Heart!

: Good presentation

: Melt in your mouth good!

: Biscuits were very good!

: You always come up with something unique!

: These were yummy!

: This is quite an interesting presentation!

: Very Good

: These were so good!!

12 Comments

Filed under Biscuits, Brunch, Cheese, Cooking, easy, quick, Recipes

Tagged as baking, Biscuits, Cheddar Cheese, cooking, flour, quick breads, Recipes, tips for baking, White Lily

October 2, 2009 · 5:29 pm

Cinnamon Rolls

Awesome Group Work!

The smell of warm cinnamon rolls permeated the halls of our school today. You can imagine how many visitors I had popping their heads or their bodies into my classroom to find out what we were cooking that smelled so delicious. This was the second time for my chicklets to use biscuit dough. They did very well. You can try these for yourself if you are in the mood for cinnamon rolls and do not have the time to make the yeast roll variety. These can be rolled out and cut in less than 15 minutes. Can’t you just taste them now along with a hot cup of coffee for breakfast? Come on, if you can make biscuit dough you can make these easily.

How do you make these wonderful rolls? Well, if you have mastered my post “Making Biscuits From Scratch” you can do this. After rolling out the dough into a rectangle a little smaller than a 9 x 13 inch pan, spread 1/4 cup granulated sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Here is a photo.

Rolled dough with cinnamon and sugar

Starting on the long side of the dough roll the dough up tightly.
Pinch the dough together when you get to the end.
This dough is very forgiving. If it sticks to the wax paper just take a straight edge spatula and push the dough toward the roll. Pinch holes that you might make together.
The diameter of the roll should be the same from end to end. Push the ends toward the middle to shorten the roll. This should help with the diameter.

Roll dough jellyroll style

Now here is a trick I learned from some cookbook. Use dental floss to cut the dough. Pull off about 10 inches and hold the floss the same way you would when flossing teeth. Place the floss under the dough and pull together quickly to cut. This will keep your rolls nice and round. See the photo.

Place floss under the dough and pull to middle

Cutting through the dough

Place in a 9×13 inch lightly greased pan. Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 – 20 minutes.

Place in pan to bake

When you take them out of the oven ice them with a heaping cup of powdered sugar mixed with just enough milk for the correct consistency. Usually it takes about 1-2 tablespoons. You can flavor with vanilla, lemon, orange, or almond flavoring. Serve hot.

Here is what we cooked up today. You take a look while I head to the gym after tasting 12 of these wonderful little things!!

These were very good!

You are all sweethearts!

These are bakery style!

I love your group effort!

Very Good!

Strawberry icing was fantastic!!!!

Excellent work!

Tasted very good!

Great! Where is the bacon?

Picture Perfect!

What a pan of rolls!!!

Happy cooking,

The Teacher Cooks

42 Comments

Filed under Biscuits, Cinnamon Rolls, Cooking, easy, quick, Recipes

Tagged as baking, Cinnamon Rolls, cooking, flour, Recipes, tips for baking, White Lily

September 17, 2009 · 7:25 pm

BISCUITS Made from Scratch

WOW!

Biscuits made from scratch are in most households a lost art. I teach that skill for many reasons. Homemade biscuits are good, better than canned and frozen ones. They are cheap to make. You can put them together in no time. They are versatile. And most importantly it makes you feel good about yourself when someone says ” You made this? WOW ! I am impressed. ” So today my students were given the task of making homemade biscuits and surprisingly they did very well. This is not the easiest thing to do if you have never handled biscuit dough before. It is hard to judge how much milk to add and how many times to knead the dough. Usually there will be one disaster out the classes , but not today. They all did pretty well. I will have to brag on second block. They were all super.

So how do you put these things together. Really it is quite easy and very quick. It just may take a few times to get the knack of it. My first biscuits were not edible so there is hope!! Always use WHITE LILY self rising flour and CRISCO. I am not advertising for White Lily flour, but this is the only kind that works for me. I use the recipe that is on the package. You cannot go wrong.

2 cups of White Lily self-rising flour
1/4 cup Crisco
2/3 cup – 3/4 cup milk

Using a pastry blender cut shortening in flour

Using a pastry blender cut Crisco into flour until it is about the size of small peas. This makes the biscuits tender and flaky.

Add milk and stir with a fork

Do not add all the milk at once. The amount to humidity in the air will determine the milk you will need. The dough should be stirred with a fork and it should pull away from the sides of the bowl. Pour on wax paper with flour. Sprinkle a little flour on top to keep it from being sticky and put flour on your hands. Knead the dough for 4 to 6 times. The dough should be smooth and spongy. These two things are important when making biscuits : 1. Do not handle the dough too much and 2. Do not add too much flour when kneading. Flatten out with your hands to a thickness of 1/2 inch and cut out with a biscuit cutter or something with an open end that will not trap air and cut smoothly.