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Baking Powder Biscuit II
2 cups bread flour 5 teaspoons baking powder 2 tablespoons butter 1 cup milk 1/2 teaspoon salt Mix and bake as Baking Powder Biscuit I.
A bare-bones formula that leans on the preceding recipe for its method. The proportions are workable, but two of them need adjusting for modern ingredients.
- Cut the baking powderFive teaspoons to two cups of flour is well above the modern ratio of roughly 1 to 1.5 teaspoons per cup. Period powders were single-acting and brands varied; with today's product use 3 teaspoons for 2 cups, or the biscuits may taste metallic and bitter.
- Bread flourThe high-protein flour gives a chewier, sturdier biscuit than most people expect. All-purpose flour produces the tender crumb modern bakers associate with a baking powder biscuit; substitute cup for cup if that is what you want.
- The missing methodThe recipe simply refers back to Biscuit I, which is not reproduced here. The standard period procedure is to sift the dry ingredients together, cut in the cold butter until it resembles coarse meal, add the milk, and handle the dough as little as possible. Overworking is what makes a biscuit tough.
- OvenThe recipe gives no oven direction. For a modern equivalent, bake in a hot oven, about 450F, for twelve to fifteen minutes for a half-inch-thick round.
- Butter quantityTwo tablespoons to two cups of flour is a lean biscuit by current standards, nothing like a rich Southern biscuit. It will be dry the next day; these are meant to be eaten hot.
- MilkSweet whole milk, not buttermilk -- the leavening here is all baking powder, with no acid to neutralize. Add it gradually; flour absorbency varies and you may not need the full cup.
- YieldAbout a dozen two-inch biscuits.