Episode 2 - Flaky Biscuits from Microwave Cooking for One

In this mini-episode, I make Flaky Biscuits with a recipe from the book Microwave Cooking for One.  While making biscuits, I talk about the science of flaky, golden brown biscuits.

This recipe called for some specialized equipment in order to achieve a golden brown exterior.  I found my Corning Microwave Browning Skillet on ebay, but I have seen them at thrift stores and yard sales.  The Microwave Cooking for One website talks at length about the Browning Skillet: https://www.microwavecookingforone.com/Charts/Browner.html

The technological advantage that Corning's Microwave Browning Skillet has over other microwave cooking vessels is its heat conductive coating on the bottom.  Pictures of my browning skillet can be seen below.  The grey area on the bottom is the special coating to help promote browning.

 

The skillet did promote browning; although, the browning was uneven and the quality was not nearly as high as I could have achieved in the oven.  At least the biscuits were flaky.

On the mess scale, this recipe was not terrible.  Aside from a few measuring cups, I only dirtied one bowl, a microplaner, the countertop, a fork, 3 mise-en-place bowls, a biscuit cutter, and the Browning Skillet.  Definitely less of a mess than last week.

Vegan "Buttermilk" Biscuits

 

Ingredients

1 cup soy milk (or almond milk), chilled

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

2 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons vegan margarine, chilled

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine soy milk and apple cider vinegar and allow to sit for five minutes.  The soy milk will separate and begin to clump.  It actually ends up looking and tasting a bit like buttermilk.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Using a spoon or your fingers, quickly rub margarine into the dry ingredients until the mixture begins to look like crumbs.  (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.)  Pour in the soy milk/vinegar mixture.  Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Dump dough on to a heavily floured surface and dust the top of the dough with flour.  Gently fold the dough over itself five or six times.  Roll out to about ¾” - 1” thick.  Cut dough into 2” circles using a cutter (or the lip of a water glass).

Place biscuits on a greased of lined baking sheet so that they just touch.

Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. Biscuits from the second batch may be a little malformed after they’re baked, but they’ll still taste good.

Bake until biscuits are light gold on top, about 15 to 20 minutes. 

The recipe makes 9-12 biscuits.

This recipe is based on Alton Brown's Southern Biscuit Recipe from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/southern-biscuits-recipe/index.html