Linda's Cookies
“What kind of cookies are these?” my father asked as he tapped the lightly browned baked good against his plate. My little teen-aged heart was crushed.
That hard round cookie-shaped thing he was tapping wasn’t a cookie but my first attempt at making biscuits. My mama had a way with biscuits. I didn’t.
Mama’s hand-formed biscuits would come out like little bits of Southern heaven (mine were like the other place). Every Southern meal had to have some bread in it, you know, or it wasn’t a Southern meal; it was just a snack.
So, in tribute to my mother (and my inspiring daddy), here is my biscuit recipe—the one I use now. Slightly adapted from my friend, the BHG New Cook Book.
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 10-12 mins
Ready In: 20 – 25 mins
Yields: 10 biscuits
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar
¼ cup shortening (or softened butter)
½ cup milk
Note: this method uses a cookie or biscuit cutter. If you are gifted with the mysterious hand-forming method, please feel free to use it.
DIRECTIONS:
- Mix the first three ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Cut in the shortening or butter with a fork or pastry blender.
- Add milk.
- Stir until the dough forms into a ball.
- Turn dough out on a floured surface.
- Knead gently for ten or so strokes.
- Pat down to ½ inch thick.
- Cut dough with a floured cookie or biscuit cutter (at least 2 ½ inch).
- Bake on greased/floured baking sheet or pan in a 450 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until brown.
- Makes 10 biscuits that only appear to be cookies. Slather generously with lots of sweet stuff like honey, molasses, and jam (but not all at once).
There are no cookies in my first novel, The Making of Isaac Hunt, but there is a sweet little old lady. Miss Lucretia Price is so sweet she reminds my protagonist Isaac Hunt of “molasses, sweet peas, sweet corn, and freshly churned sweet butter.” She was really sweet. Read about me and my books at www.LLHargrove.com and 17seeds.com.
