biscuits and gravy

Baked in a muffin tin. Biscuit/scone/muffin, I do not care anymore, I'm tired of trying to classify these things.

This is a very moist dough this time, nearly a batter, impossible to handle as a dough, so spooned wet into prepared muffin cups. This will force them to rise upwards rather than outward, as is their wont without confining edges.  You can see they doubled in height. 

These are without challenge the most delicious biscuits/scones/muffins I have ever eaten. I will tell you what I did, the fortunate experimentation that led to this happy result. Then you too can impress your friends with your nonchalant cavalier mad  biscuit skillz. 

*  One cup A/P flour 

*  One level teaspoon + 1/3 to 1/2 additional baking powder

*  One level teaspoon baking soda

This is a lot of chemical leaven for such a small amount of flour. A bit heavy on the sodium. For that reason you will want to back off from actual salt, which you know is sodium chloride. 

* This time I added about a tablespoon of rubbed sage. I do not know why, other than I also did not know why not. I guess I just did not want my biscuits to be a bare-arse floury-taste'n muff ferf mum lurf furf murm blech ptew biscuits. 

* I also added sugar to expand the profile a little. Very little sugar. 1/2 teaspoon est. The thing is, I would be adding a tiny amount of cider vinegar to the milk for its pH properties, and I wanted something to counteract that foreign tartness. It would be the equivalent of introducing a bit of sweet-and-sour to the biscuit. Now, this does not comport with the herb sage, but I do not care because all that is in such small amount. It will either be intriguingly delicious or it will be abominably gross, but whatever it will be it will not be uninteresting. 

These powders need not be sifted. If you have a whisk handy, give it all a stir. Otherwise, no need to become overwrought with flour that is a bit clumpy. 

*  1/3 to 1/2 stick of butter, that would be 2 oz max.  This is a lot of butter for one cup of flour. Smash it into the flour using just the fingertips, and get it off your fingers as fast as possible so that body heat does not have a chance to melt it. Some savvy bakers rinse their fingers in cold water first to counteract against butter-melting body heat. But I get frostbite just thinking about that and I am insufficiently dedicated to suffer that level of discomfort. Instead, I just start with hard butter and smash it then push it off to coat the smashed particles with flour until all the butter is smashed and coated with flour, or stated another way, all the flour is embutterated. <--- portmanteau 

* Two tablespoons plain yogurt. I had this in the refrigerator and decided to use it here for its softness and for its pH to active the baking soda. This whole baking soda + vinegar grade-school volcano thing that is going on inside these biscuits relies upon the right combination of alkaline and acid in order to react properly. I am not certain that the acid in the yogurt is sufficient once it it diluted with milk so I increase the acid with a tablespoon of cider vinegar. At this point, the flavor profile of these biscuits is expanded in very un-biscuit-like directions, but only moderately so. There is nothing here in sufficient quantity to cause one to go, for instance, "Aha! You put cider vinegar in this, and I do detect the presence of yogurt!" 

About 1/2 cup milk is blended with yogurt and cider vinegar. This is the liquid portion that is added to the dry buttery portion. 

Usually I will add the liquid portion carefully in increments to attain a sticky but workable loose dough without developing the gluten molecule. The thing is, as soon as the flour becomes wet, enzymes within the flour granules are released that immediately begin unlocking molecular connections in a reaction termed autolyse, the gluten molecules then begin to unravel from tightly wound bundles to long threads, and they become available to connect with adjoining strands. This happens over time whether or not the dough is kneaded, but it is greatly advanced by forceful kneading. Therefore, the key to soft light biscuits, apart from using a low-gluten flour to begin with (A/P flour is halfway between low-protein pastry flour and high-protein bread flour) is to handle the dough or batter as little as possible, just enough to bring liquid and dry ingredients together. I said, usually I add in careful increments, but not today. I dumped it all in and mixed with a knife until liquid and dry were joined in a messy shaggy cohesion. I pressed the loose mixture into the cups, squishing out air pockets, so that they would at least hold together without huge disconnected gaps that would cause them to completely fall apart once they were baked. 

The goopy biscuits were brushed with milk. 

Put into the oven at 450℉ / 230℃, to shock them to death, but then the heat cut back immediately to 350℉ / 175℃ to prolong their agony and for slower more reasonable baking. 

The chicken is the roasted chicken frozen from around Thanksgiving, nearly a month ago. Bacon fat and chicken schmaltz is the basis for the roux. Onion and garlic, chicken broth and milk. Seasoned with a small amount of curry and cayenne chile powder.

Still with me?  Say, would you like to see a card I made for my brother? Shhhh. Dont' tell him, it's a secret. His birthday is seven days from now.