Recipe: Rolled Biscuits

Pulled out the rolling pin this week for a rolled biscuit recipe I've been looking at sideways for a while now. Will they come out flaky and fluffy, or will they fall flat? Rolled biscuits, here I come.

Recipe: Rolled Biscuits
1 3/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tsp. double-acting baking powder
6 Tbsp. chilled butter
3/4 c. milk
Extra flour for dusting

0. Preheat your oven to 450ºF (my oven runs hot & in fairly precise increments of 5º, so I set it to 445ºF).



1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Cut in chilled butter using a fork or a biscuit cutter, until pastry has a clump-free, flaking consistency. Create a cavity in the center of the dough and pour in the milk. Use a fork to stir the liquid into the pastry, turning it around the bowl until it begins to pull away from the sides.

2. Turn the dough on to a floured board and knead quickly -- only 8 to 10 times, so it retains a flaky consistency and doesn't get tough. Roll the dough out in as few strokes as possible. Use a round pastry cutter, a large cookie cutter, or even a floured glass to cut the biscuits into shape, then place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool 2 minutes before serving with butter.

Well, here's how they came out:



Yup, flat as flat can be. I could barely pull apart two halves of the biscuit to put butter inside. Though they worked for my purposes (dipping in soup), I think I'll probably try a different dough next time, because this experiment turned out far from perfect. I was fantasizing about flaky, puffy, southern-style biscuit towers and I got a squished-down version instead. Maybe it's time to seek out a bag of White Lily and see if I can't turn out a batch of these.

Just because it's a frozen burrito doesn't mean you have to sacrifice presentation.

Case in point -- tonight's dinner, at your right (guest starring Miss Dyna Bean).

That's an arrow made out of Sriracha, for the curious. When you run out of salsa, it's an adequate substitute to get the hot chile flavor. It also appears frequently next to sushi rolls, if you think you might have seen it before but are having trouble placing it.


Tonight's dinner also happens to be vegan, and, despite the presence of the Coke over there, it's HFCS-free. I stopped eating the fructose devil about a year and a half ago, and now when I encounter it, the cloying sweetness is such a turn-off that I find I don't want it anymore. (Kind of like being non-dairy -- I have to ask my roommate whether the milk is bad when I'm baking, because I think it all smells icky after having abstained for so long.) This bottle is from a grocery store that carries Mexican Coke in glass, which makes the taste so much better on top of the fact that their version's made with regular old sugar. And sometimes, doesn't everyone want to ditch the healthy routine and drink a damn soda?

Try going without high fructose corn syrup for a few days and then drink a regular Coke and you'll see what I mean about how unpalatable it becomes -- let me know if you give it a try!

Duh: Vegetables are good for you.

Tara Parker-Pope blogs over at The Well, a New York Times blog, and yesterday she posted "The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating", a fairly comprehensive list of foods that aren't incorporated into the average person's daily diet. (Pro tip: Check out the comments for some great recipe ideas and Tara's replies to her readers, some of which betray her closet case of bitchiness.)

Your mom already told you that beets are good for you, and Richard on Top Chef reinforced this idea on the cookin'-with-kiddies episode this season. Cabbage is so delicious, and often overlooked. Also, most people slather cabbage in mayo and think they're doing themselves a favor. Newsflash for these folks: the mayo offsets your attempt at health. TPP is quick to suggest an alternative -- here's a recipe for Asian Slaw with Peanuts from Epicurious. Personally, I'd skip the peanuts and throw on some sesame seeds to substitute the crunch and avoid the overpowering nut flavor, since I dig the taste of cabbage.

For anyone who eats spinach avidly (one of the superfoods that usually makes these top lists), swiss chard is probably a known substitute, especially because it's prepared so similarly. At my favorite farmer's market, the chard is such a pretty sight that one can't help but be tempted by the bright stems, especially in winter when everything else in season is so void of color. Canned pumpkin and frozen blueberries are great tips for high antioxidant foods that can be kept in the cupboard/freezer year-round. I like to substitute purréed pumpkin for the eggs & water portions of the readymade recipe for a boxed chocolate cake -- it makes for a great, fluffy vegan cake when you're short on time -- but don't forget the oil or it won't puff up enough!

Of course, all the aforementioned basically boil down to the following: Eat More Freaking Plants (with apologies to Michael Pollan for butchering his lovely original phrase). To add irony to the eye-roll, what should appear on the RSS this morning but TPP's latest missive: "Lying About Your Vegetables".