I know you must be thinking, Biscuits again??? And by that I mean baking powder, or tea-biscuits, not British Cookies. Not scones either. Biscuits.  Buttermilk Biscuits. Light as air.  Flakey. Fluffy. 

In my opinion, you can never have too many recipes for biscuits.  And when you are living with an empty next small batch recipes for things like this come in all too handy! 

 I confess, I am a biscuit lover. I can never get enough of them, and I love to try new recipes.  I also like to make the recipes I have more in fitting with a small household like ours. 

I have always loved Buttermilk Biscuits most of all.  I love the slight tang that buttermilk adds and I love the way they always rise high and beautiful in a hot oven. 

 Buttermilk always makes for a beautiful crumb. You really can't beat it when it comes to making perfect biscuits. 

I know I could bake whole recipes of these, but I have to be honest here. I just don't personally think that baked goods which have been frozen have the same flavour as fresh baked goods. Especially things like biscuits.

The longer you have them in the freezer the more they deteriorate and the larger the chance of them picking up other flavours. If you do freeze these, or any biscuit for that matter, make sure they are really well wrapped, airtight. 

And make sure that you plan on using them within at the very most 3 months. I would not keep them longer.  One exception to frozen goodies is cookies. I am quite fond of frozen cookies.

I used to think if I froze the extra cookies I would be safe from eating them.  I would be better able to ration myself.

Turns out frozen baked cookies, or even unbaked for that matter taste just as good as they do thawed or fresh out of the oven. Yes I am the Cookie Monster.

 It is much, much better for me if I make smaller batches of things and then use them up pronto.  That way I don't have a lot of temptation hanging around in my freezer. 

I think you will find that these are gorgeous baking powder biscuits. Back home they also call them tea biscuits.

 Look at that tender crumb.  These are so so very flaky and delicious. 

I did a search to see if I could find out why in Canada they sometimes call them Tea Biscuits. I couldn't find any answers. I can only surmise that they are meant to be enjoyed with tea???  If you know, enlighten me, please! I have an inquiring mind.

 These are biscuits that practically melt in your mouth. See that high rise?  That comes from a light touch and not twisting the biscuit cutter. 

Twisting the cutter when you are cutting out biscuits seals the edges. Your biscuits will not rise and high and they will be lopsided. True dat!

 Cold butter is best. You don't want your butter softening before it goes into the oven. You want it to start melting as soon as the heat of the oven hits it, so that lots of little airy pockets are created. 

You also want to use cold buttermilk for the same reason.  It also creates a beautiful tender crumb. And who doesn't love that! Also the closer your biscuits are to each other on the pan (without actually touching) forces the biscuits to rise higher. Another Biscuit fact.

 

Quick & Easy Buttermilk Biscuits for Two

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Yield: Makes 4 biscuits

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 10 Mincook time: 15 Mintotal time: 25 Min

Six ingredients, one bowl, half an hour. That is all you need to create four perfect, soft and flakey tea biscuits from scratch.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (140g) all purpose (plain) flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder (not soda)
• 1 1/2 tsp caster sugar (granulated sugar)
• pinch salt
• 4 TBS cold butter
• 1/2 cup (120ml) buttermilk

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 225*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Line a very small baking tray with some baking paper.  Set aside.
2. Sift the flour into a bowl along with the baking powder. Stir in the salt and sugar. Drop in the butter. Cut it into the flour mixture using a pastry blender, or two round bladed knives, until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.  Stir in the buttermilk slowly wih a fork, until you have a moist dough which clings together.
3. Tip out onto a lightly floured board and knead gently a few times. Pat out to a 1 inch thick square, six by six.
4. Using a 3 inch cutter and a sharp up and down motion (do NOT twist) stamp out four biscuits. If you have much in the way of scraps, and there shouldn't  be much, you can repat and stamp. (Re-pat biscuits will not be picture perfect.)
5. Place onto the baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes until golden brown.
6. Serve warm, split and spread with your favourite toppings.

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It is such a miserable wet and rainy day today.Oh how I am longing for a cool, crisp autumn day with lots of pretty leaf colour and acorns beneath my feet. I think today we are expecting a lot of rain. That means sloshing not crunching. 

This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again! 

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 Once baked they are coated with melted butter. They are then rolled in a spiced sugar to give them a lovely crunchy coating.

Again the spices are nutmeg and cinnamon.  Very nice I have to say.

I chose to fill them with a cream cheese frosting.  You don't need a filling that is overly sweet when you have all that sugar on the outsides.

You want something which is rich and luxurious, but not too sugary. This fits the bill perfectly.

I used my whoopie pie pan to bake these.  I have to say I am not always very happy with the way they come out using this pan.

I always end up having to trim the edges. They look alright, but not quite as they would just baked on parchment paper on a baking sheet.

I ended up having to bake these twice.  I was much happier with my first set of photos. I thought I had taken them off the camera onto my photo editing program.

I am pretty sure I had, because I then deleted them from off my camera card. So today when I went to edit them, uh oh  . . .  no photos.

And so I had to bake them all over again today! Not a hardship really. These are so good. In fact they are amazingly delicious! 

And so today I now have more to give them away. I don't think my next door neighbour will mind.  She is usually the recipient of my baked things.

 

I can tell you nobody has ever complained! They are always very happy when I bring them a treat.

They say joy shared is doubled.  I have to say that baking shared is joy shared. Its a simple thing and means a lot to people to know you care enough to share with them little treats like these.

Anyways, I do hope that you will bake these and then enjoy them.  They really are very good. Scrumdiddlyumptious I have to say.

Scrumpdiddlyumptious and incredibly moreish!  Trust me. Have I ever lied before? 👍👍👍
 

Apple Cider Donut Whoopie Pies

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Yield: 12 Pies

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 15 Mincook time: 25 Mintotal time: 40 Min

Tis the season for all things apple and spice! These are truly lush despite my poor photography!

Ingredients

For the cakes:

• 2 cups (480ml) sweet apple cider or cloudy apple juice
• 2 cups (280g) all purpose (plain) flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• pinch each powdered cloves and ginger
• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/2 cup (120g) butter
• 1 cup (200g) soft light brown sugar packed
• 1 large free range egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup (120ml) buttermilk

For the cream cheese filling:

• 2 1/2 TBS butter, at room temperature
• 4 TBS full fat cream cheese, at room temperature
• few drops vanilla
• 1 cup (130g)  sifted icing sugar to give you the right consistency

You will also need:

• 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
• 1 TBS ground cinnamon
• 1 TBS ground nutmeg
• 4 TBS melted butter

Instructions

1. You will need to reduce the apple juice before beginning.  Put it into a very large beaker and cook it on high in the microwave for 15 minutes until it reduces to 1/2 cup (120ml). (Alternately you can do this in a saucepan on the stove, boiling it for abou 10 minutes.)  Set aside to cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/gas mark 4. Line two baking sheets with baking paper, or spray two non-stick whoopie pie pans really well with baking spray.  Set aside.
3. Sift the flour, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and salt together in a bowl.
4. Cream the butter and brown sugar together in another bowl until light and well combined.  Beat in the egg ad vanilla.  Mix on low speed with an eletric mixer while alternately adding the buttermilk, flour and reduced apple juice. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
5. Spoon heaping dessert-spoonfuls (about 1/4 cup) of the batter into the holes of your whoopie pie tins or roughly 3 inches apart on your lined baking sheets.
6. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. A toothpick inserted in the centre of one should come out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Mix the granulated sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a bowl. Brush the top of each whoopie pie cake with some melted butter and then roll it in the sugar mixture to coat. Set aside until all are done.
8. Beat all of the icing ingredients together until smooth and creamy.  Sandwich two sugar coated cakes together with some of the icing, spreading it on the flat side of one and topping with the flat side of the other.
9. Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.  You can wrap each one individually in plastic cling film if you wish.

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 Back in the day, I used to go shopping across the American Border a few times a year. By that I don't mean shopping for clothing or stuff like that I mean Grocery shopping.  I have always loved to Grocery shop and I especially loved Grocery shopping in America. 

They had many things that we did not have available to us in Canada. Things like dry Italian Salad Dressing Mix and Dry Ranch Seasoning Mix. Those were things I like to use, not so much for salads, etc, but in other things.

Although to be sure I did make salad dressings with them from time to time. I especially loved the Italian one. You could make it lower fat if you wanted to. I have been dieting and trying to eat low fat for years not that it has done me any good. 

There is no such thing here in the UK, those mises. You can get them from America supply shops from time to time, but they are usually out of stock and if you do find them, they cost an arm and a leg.

 

The mix itself without the buttermilk powder is relatively easy to compose.  It is a pure mix of dried herbs and spices. 

Onion powder and garlic powder. Make sure you don't use salts.  You want the pure powders.  I didn't have any onion powder, so I just blitzed onion flakes in a spice grinder to turn it into powder.

 There is also some dried parsley, dried dillweed, dried chives and yes, onion flakes.  Double the onion blast! There is also ground black pepper and fine sea salt. 

It goes together in a snap. You can add the buttermilk powder, or not as you wish.  I chose to add it. If you add the powder you can keep it for a month in the refrigerator or even longer in the freezer.

 

   

 I have never had a dry America Turkey.  We used to bring the children with us and we would bring back at least four turkeys. (Bringing back 7 would be selfish!)

But we did bring back four.  That would give us one for Christmas, one for Thanksgiving, one for Easter and one for whenever.  Yes, we loved turkey. I still do.

 And I have to say I love this dressing mix.  It is so quick and easy to make and it is delicious. I can see me using it for all sorts. 

Of course the first thing I had to do was to make a salad with it.  I didn't have a lot of salad ingredients in the house, bar lettuce and tomatoes.

But the good thing is, if you know what you are doing, you can make a salad out of just about anything.  I had some courgette/zucchini and I chopped that up.

Then I added some green beans, boccoli, corn, peas and red onion. It was tres yummy.  Tres yummy indeed!

 

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Homemade Ranch Seasoning Mix

Yield: 1 cup

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 5 Mintotal time: 5 Min

This is such an easy make and if anything I think it is even better than the store brand!

Ingredients

• 2 TBS dried parsley leaves
• 2 tsp dried dill weed
• 2 tsp garlic powder (not salt)
• 2 tsp onion powder (not salt)
• 2 tsp dried onion flakes
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp dried chives
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/3 cup (42g) buttermilk powder (see note)

Instructions

1. Measure all of the ingredients into a bowl and whisk together until thorougly combined. (You can pulse it in a spice grinder or food processor if you want a finer mix. I like it as it is.)
2. Store in an airtight container in a dark place for up to a year. If you have used the buttermilk powder, you will have to keep it in the refrigerator. It will keep one month.
3. 3 TBS of this seasoning (with buttermilk powder) is the equivalent of 1 package of storebought ranch seasoning mix.

notes:

Using Buttermilk Powder: If you want to make a mix that is identical to the packaged mix, do use the buttermilk powder. If you want to turn the seasoning into ranch dressing, you can add fresh buttermilk. To Make Ranch Dressing: Combine 1 TBS of the mix (including buttermilk powder) plus 1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk and 1/3 cup (76g) whole fat mayonnaise.

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 I do cook and serve both of those things on occasion, but only in small amounts.  The recipe on the Betty Crocker site serves 8 people. We are only two.

I decided to adapt the recipe to a size that feeds only two people. Not only that, I created a delicious sauce of my own rather than use bottled marinara sauce. Not that there is not great bottled marinara sauce out there, but its so simple to make your own so why not!

 I also created some tasty cheesy garlic bread to serve on the side using the stale end of a loaf of bread.  It already had a crust on it, so why not!  (My father loves to make toast with the heel of the loaf. He calls it crispy toast.) 

I simply spread it with softened butter and sprinkled it with Italian Garlic Seasoning. I also added a layer of grated mozzarella and Parmesan, prior to baking it in a hot oven for about 5 to 8 minutes.

 My mother always cooked to please my father.  He had very simple tastes. He was never fond of casseroles and he insisted he only liked his food seasoned with salt and pepper because that is what his mother used. B O R I N G

She did used to make what she called "Italian Spaghetti." It was usually on the menu at least once a week. My father liked Italian Spaghetti.

Her idea of Italian Spaghetti involved browning a pound of cheap ground beef in a skillet. (Ugh!)  Then she would add a can of Catelli spaghetti sauce, (double ugh!!) and heat it through.

This would be served on what was undoubtedly over-cooked spaghetti noodles. In rerospect, I don't think the cook time was ever paid attention to or followed.  Those were the times we were living in.

We had never been to Italy. We didn't even know any Italians. Our expectations were low.  It was considered quite edible by the majority of the family and when you added some smelly sock cheese from the green plastic tube, it was considered downright exotic! 

I could never abide my spaghetti with meat sauce. I liked it with tomato sauce alright, but mom never paid for quality ground beef and so it was always quite fatty and filled with things like gristle, etc.

 If even a morsel of that touched my teeth I was off to the gagging races.  I have a very strong gag reflex.  At the end of dinner my plate would be filled with little pieces of hamburger. 

I was an expert at routing out ground beef.  From anything.  Even macaroni. I would get it out of the holes. It would all end up lined up on my plate, which would annoy my father to no end. He considered it wasteful.

 Anyways, after a time, my mom decided that rather than force me to eat what I simply couldn't stand, she would save me some of the sauce aside without any meat in it. For years that is how I enjoyed my spaghetti.

I am always very grateful for a mother who went to great length to please all of us as best as she could. As an adult I learned how very good spaghetti with meat sauce,  or Spaghetti Bolognese, could be.  Especially if you used a quality ground beef.

With a sauce made from scratch, not out of a tin.  And with real grated Parmesan Cheese, not smelly sock from a green plastic tube. 

We are relatively spoiled in these modern times.  Some of the best ingredients and foods in the world are readily available to us. We really shouldn't take any of it for granted.  All  of us are only one ecological disaster away from hunger. We should never forget that.

 Anyways, this Spaghetti Pizza doesn't have a meat sauce. It has a simple stir-together flavour filled sauce that goes together in a flash.  You can pronounce all of its ingredients as well.

The spaghetti is perfectly cooked al dente and then tossed together with three cheeses and some egg and milk before it is poured into a small rimmed baking sheet.

 

This gets baked for a short time and then it gets topped with the sauce, more cheese and some pepperoni, until being baked again.  Not for too long, jus long enough to get everything bubbling and the cheese melted. 

You do get a few crispy bits of spaghetti around the edges. I don't mind that in the least. I rather like the crispy bits.

 I could not resist cutting it into wedges. I have to say this was quite, quite QUITE delicious! If you wanted to add a meat sauce or crumbled cooked sausage or beef you certainly could instead of just having a tomato sauce.

I thought that it was just right as it was, with the cheese and a few slices of spicy pepperoni on top. Not something I eat very often, but I do like pepperoni on things like this and we can get really good Italian pepperoni over here in the UK.

 I did add a delicious green salad on the side as a nod to healthy eating. It was filled with cucumber, broccoli, edamame, peas, grated courgettes,beans and spinach, with a healthy sprinkling of toasted pumpkin seeds.
  

It was a ready salad, M&S.  Their salads are always nice.

I am not always a hedonist.  Sometimes I can actually eat something which is good for me, and today, aside from the cheesy garlic bread, I did.

Spaghetti Pizza for Two

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Yield: 2

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 10 Mincook time: 35 Mintotal time: 45 Min

A scaled down version of a delicious old family favourite. It boasts a flavour filled spaghetti base topped with a rich sauce, three cheeses and pepperoni.

Ingredients

For the Spaghetti:

• 4 ounces (115g) uncooked spaghetti
• 1/4 cup (60ml) whole milk
• 1 small free range egg
• 1/4 sp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 cup (35g) grated mozarella cheese
• 1/4 cup (30g) grated strong cheddar cheese
• 2 TBS finely grated Parmesan cheese

For the sauce:

• 1 cup (240ml) tomato sauce (passata)
• 1 TBS Tomato puree (tomato paste)
• 1/4 tsp each salt and black pepper
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp dried basil
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp fennel seed, crushed
• pinch ground cloves

You will also need for topping:

• 1/4 cup (35g) grated mozarella cheese
• 1/4 cup (30g) grated strong cheddar cheese
• 2 TBS finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 8 thin slices of pepperoni

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6.  Butter a rimmed baking sheet, approximately 7 by 9 inches in size.  Set aside.
2. Cook the spaghetti in a pot of lightly salted boiling water to al dente according to the package directions.  Drain well and rinse with cold water to cool down. Cool the saucepan down with cold water and drain well.  Beat the egg, milk, seasonings and cheeses for the spaghetti base together in the saucepan.  Add the spaghetti and toss together to combine.  Pour this mixture into the prepared baking tin, spreading it out evenly.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
4. While it is baking whisk together all of your sauce ingredients. Tase and adjust seasoning as desired.  Remove the pan from the oven and spread this sauce evenly over top of the spaghetti.
5. Mix together the cheeses for the topping. Sprinkle evenly over top of the spaghetti and sauce.  Place the pepperoni slices on top.
6. Bake for an additional 20 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and everything is heated through.  Serve immediately.

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This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com 

Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!! 

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