BISCUITS! Scones? S1E2-Signature Bake — The Great Informal Baker

It's biscuit week! I love biscuits. Oh, but wait.

The Brits call biscuits what we call crackers and our biscuits are like their scones. A british scone is flaky, vs. a scone here is dense and heavy. I am truly having a difficult time coming to terms with these definitions. And so, being American and this being my own personal challenge to myself, I decided to make what I very much feel are biscuits, but that any British person would likely call a scone.

Once I decided on my own definition of biscuit, I sought out a classic British Scone recipe. A co-worker of mine recommended this youtube channel, Cupcake Jemma. She's fantastic and these scones/biscuits came out perfectly. Her recipe can be found on her channel, here.

The key to a flaky biscuit is to keep the butter as cold as possible. Just like with a pie crust, you want to handle the butter as little as possible. For pie crusts, I usually use my pastry cutter to cut the butter into small little balls, incorporated throughout the flour mixture. Jemma's technique of using a food processor is even simpler and really effective.

Once you sift all of the dry ingredients together, you just pop them in a food processor and pulse until it resembles a fine breadcrumb like texture.

Then you put the crumby mixture back in your main bowl and make a little well for the liquid. Using a fork you stir until its just combined. Then as Jemma says, get in there with your hands, form a dough ball and gently roll it out onto a well flour… — Then you put the crumby mixture back in your main bowl and make a little well for the liquid. Using a fork you stir until its just combined. Then as Jemma says, get in there with your hands, form a dough ball and gently roll it out onto a well floured work surface.

Cut them out using whatever cutter you like. I used this heart impression one, it was a bit too shallow but I liked the subtle shape popping out of the center of my biscuits.

Voila! These were delicious and I've made them several times since this first attempt. They're a simple breakfast treat on weekends and nice when we have company staying over. The only egg in the recipe is the egg wash that provides a nice sheen. As you can see in my photos mine don't have a sheen. I've since tried a milk wash, which creates a soft sheen-I'm tempted to try coconut oil in the future to see how that turns out.

I plan on attempting a croissant pastry soon, just because I love them and I've never done a pastry like that. I'll try a coconut oil wash on those. So stay tuned!