Lonely Lion

For a while now, I’ve wanted to try baking Buttermilk Biscuits. Buttermilk isn’t in our fridge as a rule, so it took a little bit of pre-planning. Saturday was the first attempt.

I used the recipe from Baking Illustrated which was somewhat different than the Good Eats recipe, mostly in how the dough is handled. In BI, they roll it in balls, AB rolled it flat and cut out circles. The thing they both agree on is using very cold butter (I even popped it in the freezer for a few minutes) and handling the dough as little as possible.

Everything turned out well, despite the fact that I got my teaspoons and tablespoons mixed up (it was early in the morning) which led to somewhat salty biscuits. Last night at the grocery store I picked up another carton of buttermilk, and plan on giving it a second go this Saturday.

I’m also thinking about trying a big “rustic” loaf of bread during the day Saturday. The BI recipe is pretty involved. You make a “sponge”, which is a little bit of flour, water, and yeast, and let it sit for five hours. Then you add the rest of the ingredients and let them rise, punch them down, rise again, and then (finally) bake. The entire process is ~ 8 hours. I’m not sure if I have the time on Saturday or not. We shall see.

In related baking news, Camri and my tasting log (written in Rails) is progressing nicely. I’m hoping we’ll have something online before the end of the month.