Rule #1: “Do Not Overmix the Biscuit Dough”

posted in: Blog | 14

One of the aspects of Yu Wo’s writing that I really enjoy is her attention to food. Like Prince, I can sit down to a meal and ignore everything around me but the delicious dishes, and like Sun, if I don’t get breakfast, I am liable to faint. I never skip breakfast. The character I am most similar to, however, is Ice. I absolutely love cooking for people in order to take care of them. While I can’t gather ice element to make shaved ice, I know my way around a traditional kitchen, so I put together my own version of Ice’s blueberry biscuits. After a couple of iterations, I think I got a pretty good recipe, so I thought I’d share it with all of you!

This recipe is inspired by the American southern biscuit, which is tall, light, and tender, but also has some characteristics of the British scone (cream, yum). The trick I use when making biscuits is to pretend that I have arthritis, and that my fingers do not move well. That helps me keep from overworking the dough and keeps the biscuits nice and tender. If you don’t have a sharp metal biscuit cutter, I’ve given directions for mini-scones using a sharp knife. I like the biscuit shape better though, because the biscuit-shaped ones rise taller, making a fluffier biscuit. I hope you try out this recipe, and share your thoughts in the comments!

Ice’s Blueberry Biscuits (à la cjfrost)

Ingredients

Blueberry Biscuit Ingredients
  • 2 cups (10 oz or 480 g) all-purpose flour
  • 4 teaspoons (20 ml) baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon (4 ml) salt
  • 1/4 cup (60 ml) butter
  • 2 tablespoons (30 ml) shortening
  • 3/4 cup (175 ml) cream, chilled
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons (30 ml) brown sugar
  • 1 cup (240 ml) fresh blueberries (washed and dried)

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).

A loose (wet) dough

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut butter and shortening into flour mixture with fingertips until it looks like bread crumbs. Toss blueberries with dry mixture. Mix together cream, egg, and brown sugar (in a measuring cup). Make a well in the center of the dry mixture, and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir until the dough comes together. It should be a loose (wet) dough. Do not overmix.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently fold over (knead) the dough 3 to 6 times until it just comes together. Don’t overhandle. Press dough into 1-inch thick round. Cut out round biscuits with a sharp metal biscuit cutter and place on a baking sheet so that they are just touching. Form scrap dough back together into 1-inch thickness, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. Indent the top middle of each biscuit with your thumb.

If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, you can divide the dough into two 1 inch thick rounds and cut each half into 6-8 wedges with a sharp knife. Place wedges on a baking sheet so that they just touch at the corners.

Cut biscuits showing indents

Bake in a 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they are tall and slightly golden on top. Share with your favourite knights.

14 Responses

  1. Willowtm

    Man, that looks YUMMY! *sigh* I wish I weren’t so hopeless a cook so I could make some…Blueberries!!!

  2. CocoFlower

    Waaa they look so yummilicious *O* Thank you for sharing your recipe! Are you planning on sharing some others based on Yu Wo’s mentioned foods?

  3. cjfrost

    Thx everybody! Coco, I might try another recipe soon! What’s your favourite of the dishes that Yu Wo has mentioned?

    • Raylight

      @cjfrost
      Thanks for your hard work, cjfrost!~ I told my friend about it, she says that she wants to try the recipe. We’ll see how it goes, and take pictures when we actually do it~~

      Anything sounds good~ Preferably desserts and pastries though! So that I can bug others to make it for me-*shot*

  4. 15B

    XD Yu Wo really DOES like talking about food in her books! (After reading 1/2 Prince, the next times our family went to a restaurant, we ordered the wontons in chili oil and the little dragon buns!)

    It’s funny. Scones can be prounced either with a long o sound or a short o sound. It can either rhyme with “nom” or “gnome”.

    I’m kind of happy the finished biscuits weren’t shown… Or I’d try to bake them myself sometime sneakily in the middle of the night and end up blowing the house up after sending the flour flying and somehow starting a fire.

    • [PR]amgine

      @Hana
      My guess is the dough was mixed too much, hence not enough air inside, resulting in the hardness or the baking time/temperature needs to be adjusted for your particular oven.

      Don’t give up, cooking is an art. Doing it perfect the first time is a miracle.

  5. MPToki

    Wow!
    They look so yummy, I want to try baking them.
    What kind of cream did you use?

  6. Heather

    They sound yummy! A bit of advice from someone who loves to cook; you can also use a round glass (for water, milk, soda, ect.) as a biscuit cutter too, although you might need to use butter or something to make easier to get the biscuits out of the glass.

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