Passionfruit biscuits - Eat Well Recipe - NZ Herald (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to an excellent biscuit? ›

The secret to the best biscuits is using very cold butter and baking powder. We've made a lot of biscuits, but this easy biscuits recipe is the one we turn to the most!

Using too much flour and overworking the dough makes biscuits tough.

As it turns out, adding hard-boiled egg yolks to your biscuit dough is a way to ward off an overworked, tough dough that can be the downfall of a butter-based pastry. When the trick is employed, the pastry shatters and then dissolves in your mouth quickly, tasting like a knob of flaky butter.

But if you chill your pan of biscuits in the fridge before baking, not only will the gluten relax (yielding more tender biscuits), the butter will harden up. And the longer it takes the butter to melt as the biscuits bake, the more chance they have to rise high and maintain their shape. So, chill... and chill.

When flour is "scooped" into the measuring cup directly from the container, it compresses, or becomes packed. This means you will be adding more flour than called for in the recipe.

Yes. While caster sugar and granulated sugar are not exactly the same, they can be swapped 1:1 in baking recipes. Caster sugar is slightly finer and dissolves more easily, but in my experience, this doesn't affect most baking recipes if swapped with granulated sugar.

Shortbread is not usually leavened, and self riding flour contains leavening. This will cause the short bread to rise and spread similar to a sugar cookie, and will make the shortbread more crumbly.

As with the batters above, overmixed biscuit and pie dough will seem heavy—it may also appear overly uniform. If a biscuit or pie dough has warmed too much, it may take on a greasy appearance or tough texture (which will make it hard to roll out or handle).

Be sparing with any flour you put on the work surface to roll your dough too. Too much will dry it out and cause the cookie to crumble (so to speak). If your freshly baked biscuits seem too soft after they're cooled, then they're either under baked, or there is too much liquid in the recipe.

How are ingredients blended in the well method? ›

The well helps in mixing the dough ingredients thoroughly. Once the other ingredients have been added to the center, they are gradually mixed into the flour with the fingertips, working from the inside to the outside of the well.

White wheat in general is around 9-12% protein, while the hard reds are 11-15%. As far as brands of flour, White Lily “all-purpose” flour has been my go-to for biscuit making. It's a soft red winter wheat, and the low protein and low gluten content keep biscuits from becoming too dense.

The two keys to success in making the best biscuits are handling the dough as little as possible as well as using very cold solid fat (butter, shortening, or lard) and cold liquid. When the biscuits hit the oven, the cold liquid will start to evaporate creating steam which will help our biscuits get very tall.

Conclusion: More baking powder makes the biscuit rise more (imagine that!). About 1 tablespoon of baking powder per 2 cups of flour seems to be about the right amount, but even halving or doubling this amount should not ruin your biscuits.

Mixing. The multi-stage mixing method is preferred for its ability to produce consistent doughs which are not fully developed. Blending all dry ingredients to rub or cut the shortening into the flour until fat is fully distributed and pea-sized lumps are visible.