1/2 cup shortening
2 cup all-purpose flour*
1 tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
Directions
Heat oven to 450F. Cut shortening into flour, sugar, baking powder
and salt with pastry blender until mixture resemble fine crumbs. Stir
in milk until dough leaves side of bowl (dough will be soft and
sticky).
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead lightly ) times. Roll
or pat 1/2 inch thick. Cut with floured 2 1/2-inch round cutter.
Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart for crusty sides,
touching' for soft sides. Bake until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes.
Immediately remove from cookie sheet. 1 dozen biscuits;155 calories
per biscuit.
Blue Cheese Biscuits: Add 3 tb crumbled blue cheese and 1/2 ts Italian
seasoning with the flour.
Buttermilk Biscuits: Decrease baking powder to 2 teaspoons and add
1/4 ts baking soda with the salt. Substitute buttermilk for the milk.
(If buttermilk is thick, it may be necessary to add slightly more
than 3/c cup.)
Cornmeal Biscuits: Substitute 1/2 cup cornmeal for 1/2 cup of the
flour. Sprinkle cornmeal over biscuits before baking.
Drop Biscuits: Increase milk to 1 cup. Drop dough by spoonfuls onto
greased cookie sheet.
Herb Biscuits: Add 3/g ts dried dill weed or rosemary leaves,
crushed, with the salt.
*If using self rising flour, omit baking powder and salt.
Source: Betty Crocker's Cookbook, 6th Edition
Servings: 12 biscuits
Baking Powder Biscuits (Crocker) Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads
The History of Recipes
It is quite possible to track the history of transcribed cooking instructions back into distant history, at least as far as ancient Egypt, and maybe even further. Interesting though that maybe, sadly, these early cook books were just simple hieroglyphic or cunieform instructions for preparing food.
Fascinatingly, the most ancient recipe discovered so far, according to Professor Solomon Katz, is a series of tablets in the Sumerian language which show the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making drinkers feel `exhilarated, wonderful and blissful`. During the time of the Roman Empire a man called Apicius created a few documents which described recipes cooked by wealthy roman citizens. In his scrolls, Apicius describes how the roman meals were split into appetizers, entrees and afters, known in latin as `Gustatio, Primae Mensae and Secundae Mensae`. He also informs us how the cooks of his times were skilled in the use of many different aromatic flavours, including a few that will be familiar to modern cooks for example thyme, mint and dill. Over the following few hundred years, the rich families of Wesstern Europe tried to offer the most exotic meals, and because of this the best chefs and their recipe collections were highly sought after. Even so, it was during the 1800s the formal cooking and cookery books became really popular. The Famous Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Farmer in the US, spent years to collating, trying out, and publishing recipes of the day. Like it or not, the introduction of television brings us celebrity TV chefs and the recipe books that accompanied them. And that pretty much brings us to the present day and the invention of the internet, allowing everyone to access thousands of recipes like those on our site. |
We hope you enjoy this Baking Powder Biscuits (Crocker) recipe.
