Buttermilk Biscuits

This weekend, I found out three things:
1) biscuits are surprisingly easy to make
2) biscuits are irresistible when they just come out of the oven
3) watching the butter melt in a biscuit makes me happy

I made a batch of buttermilk biscuits for a friend's casual (and I mean this in the truest sense as I wore sweatpants to it) barbecue. The weather in Toronto is finally warming up and it's a great time to meet up with new friends for dinner. All the meat groups and dessert were pretty much taken care of, so I made a small batch of biscuits to bring over.

Buttermilk Biscuits
Recipe adapted from Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook
(Makes about 8-10)

2 cups of Robin Hood® all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar
1/3 teaspoon of salt
1/2 stick of unsalted butter, chilled and cube
1/2 stick of Crisco® all-vegetable shortening, chilled and cube
3/4 cup of buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F), if you have a convection oven like me, go with 160°C (325°F). You can make these by hand or with a mixer, just make sure to powder your hands with flour to prevent the dough from sticking to it.

In your bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt on low until combined. While this is mixing, you can take the butter and vegetable shortening out of the fridge and cut them into tiny cubes shapes. When you're done, add the butter and shortening into the bowl and mix on low speed. The dough should reach a crumbly texture (see photo above) and you can turn off the mixer.

Pour in the buttermilk and mix for about 10 seconds on low. You just want the dough to come together, so don't over mix.

Take the dough out of the bowl and place it on a floured surface. Gently knead the dough two or three times. Then pat the dough out to about 3/4-1 inch thickness and form a loose rectangle shape. The top does not have to be smooth, the more cracks and blisters, the more character your biscuits will have. I love that about biscuits!

Using a 2 inch round cutter (my round cutter is frilly on the other side!), cut out your biscuits. Do not twist the cutter in the dough. Push straight down and then lift. Gather up the dough scraps and form the remaining dough into another rectangle to cut out more biscuits.

The biscuits don't expand to the side as much, so I could have placed more on a tray. But space them out evenly and bake for 15-17 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown and cooked through.

Serve with butter or jam! These biscuits are not salty like the ones you buy at fast-food restaurants, so spread on the butter without guilt!

Disclaimer: A Baked Creation partnered up with Robin Hood®, who celebrated their 30th anniversary of annual Holiday Recipe Collection. They were kind enough to send us a baking package with Robin Hood® all-purpose flour and Crisco® all-vegetable shortening sticks.

Neil's Pancakes

When Pancake Month (February) and Pancake Tuesday (March 8th, 2011) went by, I saw lots of pancakes posts and I developed a serious craving for some. Especially ones with chocolate chips.

So this morning, my brother and I made some following Neil's recipe from the Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook.

My brother was responsible for separating the egg yolks from the egg whites. Let's just say that I gave him an A- for his work. He ended up using one more egg than what the recipe asked for because he accidentally dropped one. That's okay, I did a tweak by using less butter.

The egg whites needed to be whipped to "medium" peaks and folded into the batter.

I added semi-sweet chocolate chips when the batter was in the pan. (Some of my family members didn't want the addition.)

My brother was really good at flipping the pancakes! I am quite impressed with his skills after a few years living at residence. He was even comparing our batter to the one his roommate makes!

These pancakes are very light, fluffy, and very filling. Two per person was the maximum anyone in my household could eat. The recipe estimates about 18-20 three-inch pancakes. We made 15 four-five inch pancakes and ate only eight! It wasn't that we didn't want to eat them!

Which brings to mind a childhood story... when I was in kindergarten, I made the mistake of telling my Dad that I could eat pancakes everyday. Being the crafty one he is, my Dad made me pancakes for breakfast - every single day.

I think I lasted about two weeks before I had to tell him to stop. No more pancakes for breakfast! I don't think I touched a pancake until I started University. Thanks Dad for your lovely life lessons.

Brookies

Two little brookies sitting on a plate...

First and foremost, thank you to Anna Balasi from Hachette Book Group for sending us a review copy of Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook! For those of you who are already drooling over the cover photo, the cookbook is available today in stores and online.

Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook
Written by DeDe Lahman and Neil Kleinberg
Photographs by Michael Harlan Turkell

ISBN 13: 978-0316083379
ISBN 10: 0316083372
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover: 224 pages

While I am very sad that we didn't visit Clinton St. Baking Company the last time we were in New York, we have made it a priority for our next trip. However, if you would like to see some more fabulous photos of their food, here is une-deux senses' breakfast visit during her trip. Scrumptious! And from the look of her photos, it isn't a greasy breakfast joint (yes I'm thinking of Denny's) with oily puddles on the plate.

It was quite the coincidence as I had just gotten the book in the mail when I saw Michelle's blog post appear! Now I really can't wait to try the place out. Howard's also agreed (and he's a meat and potato kind of guy) after looking through the cookbook. Yes!! Just look at some of their acclaims:

This is a beautifully designed book, yes I noticed the copyright and dedication page photos and love them. The introduction begins with "Love & Butter" and if that's not enough, there's a photo of a big pot of melting butter beside it. Here, DeDe chronicles how she met Neil and how their mom-and-pop shop came to be and grew to something bigger.

The cookbook covers biscuits, muffins, scones, eggs, pancakes, soups, sandwiches, fried chicken, sides, condiments, desserts, and drinks. A pretty thorough selection from their restaurant. For those who wonder how I can "read" a cookbook, you just can. Good cookbooks don't just list recipe after recipe. They share stories with the recipes. They include notes and tricks to help you recreate their food. They offer suggestions in which you can make variations of their food that are simple enough that you don't need a new recipe written out for you.

So yes, I read the stories and the sidebars because I like the insight to how their restaurant does things. I like knowing which recipe is a customer's favourite. You can read this cookbook as if you are reading your favourite food blog. Each recipe starts with an introduction before you go into the step-by-steps.

The gorgeous photos by Michael Turkell make breakfast food look appealing for all three meals of the day.

Clinton St. Baking Company is known for their delicious brunch, a cross between breakfast and lunch. Since a "brookie" is a cross between a brownie and a cookie. Is it not fitting that I test this recipe first? I know that the restaurant is more well known for their pancakes, biscuits, and delicious brunch items, but the brookie really stood out to me. I mean, just look at that page:

These brookies come from Ernie Rich (formally at Clinton St. Baking Company and is now an executive pastry chef in his own right). You will have a hard time eating just one!

Brookies
From Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook
(Makes about 18-20)

1 tablespoon of canola oil
1 teaspoon of unsalted butter
2 cups of semisweet chocolate chunks (52-62% cacao)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup of light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt

1. Have all your ingredients ready! I found that having prepared three bowls of ingredients made this all very manageable.
   
   
2. Melt the oil, butter, and 2 cups of the chocolate together in a stainless-steel bowl of a double boiler. The cookbook also suggests that you can use a microwave for 2.5 to 3 minutes (at 1 minute intervals) to melt the mixture. I used the double boiler method - it is such a satisfying feeling of accomplishment when your chocolate is evenly melted! I felt very chef like at the stove. Let the mixture cool.
3. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla together until combined.
   
   
4. Fold the melted chocolate mixture into the egg mixture.
5. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until combined. Please note that I opted out of using my stand mixer for this recipe. I did it all using a rubber spatula to avoid over beating the batter. I've learned that if the batter is over mixed, you still get a cake-like result instead of a brownie texture. Your batter should look like this:
   
   
6. Freeze the batter in a shallow pan (for example, a pie plate) for 6 to 8 minutes until the batter sets and hardens slightly. I left it in for 15 minutes as I washed all the bowls and tools. Here is the chilled batter when I took it out of the freezer:
   
   
7. I would recommend that you stick to their recommended freezer time. The batter became quite frozen near the edges of the bowl and made it harder to scoop. Also, you can preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F) at this time.
   
   
8. Coat 2 cookie sheets with nonstick cookie spray or line your tray with parchment paper. I used two ice cream scoop sizes. I had eight 2 tablespoon brookies on one tray and twelve 1 tablespoon brookies on the other.
   
   
9. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes until the tops look dry and cracked. I found them still quite soft so I baked it for a longer time. I found that you can't really over bake these brookies, they remained very soft and moist inside!
   
   
10. Cool completely for a soft and chewy Brookie. Absolute heaven when they're fresh out of the oven and still great the day after (and that was it, they were all gobbled up).

Looks exactly like the photo in the cookbook. =)

An oh-my-gosh melt-in-your mouth rich and decadent chocolate experience. I love the dry flaky exterior combined with the soft and chewy interior. This brookie encompasses the best textures of brownies and cookies.

PS: Remember in a few posts back I asked about finding better ice-cream scoops? Well, the plastic one I picked up was NO good at all and didn't release the batter. My darling Howard surprised me with metal one. This one did the trick. Not only will it not crack or break when scooping frozen batter, it also did a great job releasing the batter.