H.F.F. 6.7: T Time

 

The Challenge: T Time. Make a dish suited to tea time. Or tee time. All foods that make terrible "t" puns are in play.
 

The Recipe: Extra Soda Biscuits from Breakfast, Dinner, and Tea Viewed Classically, Poetically, and Practically, under the "Tea Biscuits and Cakes" heading.

Extra Soda Biscuits--Another rule for soda biscuits is as follows: To one quart of flour add five teaspoonsful of cream of tartar, two of soda, a little salt, and a piece of butter the size of an egg. Sift both cream of tartar and soda with the flour, rub the butter in well, and mix with sufficient sweet milk to make a soft dough. Roll it out and cut it into cakes about an inch thick, bake in a quick oven and they will puff up to twice their original size.

 

The Date/Year and Region: 1860, New York

How Did You Make It: Half-scale (which made 7 biscuits, and served 4 for tea). I started with 2 cups of flour, to which I added the 2.5 tsp cream of tartar, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt. After mixing the dry ingredients, I cut in the butter (estimated half the size of an egg, no idea the actual measure), then added 2% milk until the flour was all worked in. I then rolled out the dough on a floured counter, cut out the biscuits, and baked them at 400F for about 15 minutes.

 

Time to Complete: <30 minutes including baking time.

Total Cost: Ingredients on hand.

How Successful Was It?: I thought the biscuits tasted fine and had a reasonable crumb, though they didn't fully double in height. One of my companions found the texture a bit tough, and advised handling the dough more delicately (which I will endeavor to do).

How Accurate Is It?: Fairly. I used a modern kitchen, but didn't substitute any of the ingredients. The salt quantity and baking time/temperature were guesses based on the instructions, which appear to have worked out. I did get to serve them in an 1857 building, which was lovely.

Extra Soda Biscuits.