Scone or Biscuit?

Well I've just gotten back from the USA, having spent 3 fantastic weeks out there with some of my favourite people in the world. Whilst there I tasted some amazing baked goods and took photo's of most of the food I ate. One thing I found really delicious were american biscuits-

-seen here at the top right, served with breakfast.


Not to be confused with the UK variety of course, which include classics such as bourbon and digestive, these American biscuits share more in common with a scone, regard...

See on the right the delightful bourbon (great as a chocolate cheesecake base) and on the left the American biscuit (not so great as the bourbon in doing that job). 

I was watching Ina Garten on her show Barefoot Contessa , which is broadcast here in the UK on the foodnetwork (channel 49 on freeview) and she was making chive biscuits which she served with two types of soup. They looked like savoury scones but had a lighter, more buttery texture. This matched what I experienced when I ate them in the US myself! 

Here is her recipe.

Chive Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups (10oz) of plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 stick (4oz) cold, unsalted butter, diced

3/4 cup (180ml) of half and half... this is basically very thin cream that they use in coffee in the states. Make it by mixing half milk and half cream.

1/2 cup of chopped fresh chives

1 egg mixed with a splash of milk, for an egg wash.

Ina basically put the dry ingredients, along with the butter, into an electric mixer with the paddle attachment and mixed until the butter became "pea-sized" lumps. Then she mixed in the half and half and chives until the dough came together. She turned it out onto a board, kneaded it briefly, and rolled it to a thickness of 2cm. She dusted a round cutter and cut out about 6 biscuits. Then they were placed onto a lined baking sheet, the tops brushed with the egg glaze, and baked in an oven preheated to 200C (400F) for 20-22 minutes.

Now compare that to the scone recipe I made for the second series of The Great British Bake-off.

Scones

500g strong bread flour

80g butter

80g caster sugar

2 eggs

25g baking powder

240ml milk

Place flour and baking powder in a bowl.

Work in butter and sugar with hands.

Gradually add whisked egg and milk.

Roll out and cut into rounds.

Cook at 230°C for 15 mins

As you can see the recipe was very basic.  I tweaked it here and there, the oven temp. for example was too hot for a fan oven otherwise it produced good scones... or so I thought (dissapointing! Bah I even watched this video to get the method just right).

Anyway, it would appear that American biscuits contain more butter than scones and no eggs in the dough.  This does affect the  finished taste and texture, and perhaps I should make my next audition piece based around a biscuit so I can show them that my attempts at scone type things have gotten better, I'm not bitter.

On the subject of the British Bake-off, I started to watch the first episode and am very happy to see someone from my group of auditions made it through to the final 12, despite her bake-off cake going sad in the middle, she was a lovely person and I wish her luck.

Alchemaic Baking

I was watching the food network last night and on the show 'kid in a candy store' I saw a baked good I have never experience before, a Gooey Butter Cake.

Essentially it is a sponge cake baked with a cheesecake on top of it. Not too dissimilar from a black bottomed cupcake, which I sadly still cannot make properly - take a look...

 


The cake on the left is a genuine black bottomed cupcake from the Hummingbird Bakery in London (well worth a visit if you are ever in town). See how the cheesecake filling is actually inside the cupcake and the frosting is on top. Nothing like my own attempt where the cheesecake formed a cracked lid to the sponge cake beneath. The key is to have a runny cake batter and thick cheesecake mix that sinks into the cake. One day I'll manage this and it'll become my signature cupcake.


Anyway a slice of gooey butter cake looks like this...

I think I'll give these a go next, Paula Deen has a basic recipe for a vanilla type. Apparently vanilla is the only true flavour. I do hate though how the recipe calls for a packet of yellow cake mix... I wonder if just making a plain vanilla sponge will suffice as a replacement?

The show was explaining how a bakery in St Louis (the home of this treat) was mixing around with flavours and different combinations. So at it's heart, this is a very alcemaic baked good as long as you make the flavour of the topping compliment that of the base... rhubarb and custard, mint and chocolate, matcha and anko (maybe scrap that last combo).