Flaky Baking Powder Biscuits

Name: Flaky Baking Powder Biscuits
Yield: 12 Biscuits
Ingredients: 2 cups sifted whole wheat flour; 3 tsp low-sodium baking powder; 1/2 tsp sea salt; 1/3 cup unrefined corn germ oil; 2/3 cup fresh milk

Zach
3 days ago
2 min read

This recipe is one from when I was growing up. My mother's sepia-tinted and water spotted copy of "The Deaf Smith Country Cookbook", published in 1973 in Deaf Smith County, Texas (Ford, Marjorie Winn), was on the counter regularly. It sat close to the breadboard in our kitchen, maybe just a large cutting board, but I was smaller then, too. I did not know when I was young, but the rest of the title is "natural foods for family kitchens", not what I thought of as a country cookbook.

This biscuit recipe is simple, quick, teaches a useful recipe phrase ("cleans the bowl"), and is even 100% whole wheat! Use them as a versatile base for saucy meals (Chicken thighs and biscuits with peas/carrots, anyone?) or a filling replacement for a processed snack. They taste exceptional fresh and warm or reheated, releasing a gentle puff of steam when split.

It is copied verbatim, (excepting a literal pointed hand hand drawing at the first step) so my notes are included first:

You must sift the whole wheat flour. If you do not have a sifter, as I didn't, place the flour in a wire mesh strainer and tap with heel of hand to sift. This helps separate the largest germ, which can be used in something else but should be cooked first. (Flour is raw, never use it without cooking thoroughly -- more on this coming soon)
Do not over-mix the dough. Mixing it with (exceptionally clean, dried, and floured) hands--works best, although the directions would lead you to believe it should be stirred with something.
The biscuits have to touch each other or they will not cook properly. This is the same when growing peppers, but that is another story.
I swap corn oil for olive oil, if you have it, or avocado oil. Use what you have.
We only ever had one style biscuit cutter--it could have been the same one my whole life--but we never used it for this recipe. Instead, we would use a slender glass with a mouth smaller than the size of a ball jar mouth, but larger than the circumference of a golf ball.
If you don't have a cookie sheet, these can be made in any oven safe vessel. Glass will bake them differently, so will large pans with high lips. To conserve oven space so that something else can be cooked at the same time, I sometimes use a round metal pie dish.
Try using fresh herbs, like rosemary, that will complement olive oil
Loosely place biscuits in a kitchen towel-lined bowl when mostly cool.
I have never used fresh milk

on to the recipe...