Orange Marmalade Biscuits

A short-form recipe that assumes the cook already knows a plain baking-powder biscuit dough. The only real trick is splitting the doubled rounds while they are hot enough for the marmalade to soften rather than sit in a cold lump.

• The dough it assumesA standard rolled baking-powder biscuit: roughly 2 cups flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 4 tablespoons fat cut in, and about 2/3 cup milk. Handle it as little as possible and pat rather than knead.
• Oven temperatureThe recipe says only "bake." Biscuits of this kind want a hot oven: something in the region of 450F for about 10 minutes, until the tops are pale gold.
• Why two roundsStacking two thin rounds gives a built-in seam: they rise as one taller biscuit and can be pulled apart along the join, which is presumably why the rounds are doubled rather than cut thick.
• Cutter size"Small rounds" probably means something in the region of 1 1/2 to 2 inches, so each finished biscuit is a two-bite affair. A quarter-inch dough cut this small bakes fast; watch the bottoms.
• Work hotThe instruction to spread "quickly" matters. Split and fill within a minute or two of leaving the oven so the marmalade loosens and glazes the crumb. Cooled biscuits tear and the filling stays stiff.
• The marmaladeA thin layer only, as the recipe says. A bitter Seville-style marmalade would balance the plain dough, though the recipe specifies nothing beyond "orange marmalade." If the peel is in long shreds, chop it or the biscuits will not close.
• Yield and servingA batch from 2 cups of flour gives roughly 18 to 20 filled biscuits at this size. Serve at once, warm, with tea or coffee; they do not keep well once filled.