Good Biscuits

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Here's a post on a different note...

Cooking in Brazil has been a long haul of flops and successes.  I should probably say lots of flops and a few successes.  Someone I know wanted to know about making good biscuits with ingredients found here.  I have made biscuits for a long time but recently Byron has declared that I have finally learned how to do it.  I take that for a compliment although it could be construed as a half compliment!

This past Monday I made an all-American meal for 5 local pastors.  We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, chicken gravy, cole slaw, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, sweet iced tea, and biscuits with butter.  The biscuits were all but eaten during the meal.  After everyone finally seemed full and satisfied and I had refilled the bowls on the table numerous times, someone got the jelly out and then the last of the biscuits disappeared.

One of the pastors said he had an item for the group to consider and bring to a vote - Have lunch at dona Michele's house once every two weeks.  I smiled but left the room quickly!  Oh, we had apple cobbler later in the afternoon for desert.  It was a lot of work and I was very thankful for the help of my dear, favorite husband.  Yes, he's the only one I have.

Good Biscuits

(The original recipe says that all this will make about 30 biscuits.  I never got that many, but maybe I make mine too big.)

8 cups flour with "fermento" (that's cake flour with baking powder, self-rising)

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup gordura vegetal (shortening)

2 1/2 cups milk

1.  Put the gordura vegetal (shortening) and milk in a microwaveable bowl.  My biggest mixing bowl fits in my microwave.  I just put it in the mixing bowl so I don't have to dirty an extra one.  Nuke for about at least a minute or until the shortening is all melted.  If you are afraid of the shortening getting too hot for your plastic mixing bowl use a lower power setting as if you were defrosting something.

2.  Throw in all the other ingredients and only half of the flour.  Use your mixer to mix it up well.

3.  Knead in the rest of the flour until it seems right.

4.  Roll out on floured surface and cut with a good sized glass.  Place on a cookie sheet or big pizza pan and let sit for about 20 minutes.  This would be a good time to fire up the oven and let it get preheated to 375F.

5.  Cook 'em for about 15-20 minutes watching closely so that don't get that chocolate bottom that some people think is funny.

6.  Eat one right away to make sure they are okay.  Hide two for later before you put them out on the table.

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My recipe is roughly based on a recipe called Angel Flake Biscuits on p. 14 of a book I bought at some Walmart in Virginia while on my last furlough.  The name of the book is Mennonite Recipes from the Shenandoah Valley.  I love this book, but like most recipes from American cookbooks I have had to experiment to get it right with the ingredients available to me in N.E. Brazil.

When I have it I like to add a little wheat germ to the mix!

Thanks for stopping by,