Fluffy Biscuits

Page 381... Cook's Illustrated's The Best Recipe...I've now made this recipe so many times that the book just falls open to this page. You can also go there if you want the original recipe--this is my adapted version. For one thing, the original makes twice as many, but I find that biscuits are best fresh and so for just me I really don't want to keep that many on hand. These are very quick--20-25 minutes total--and come together easily in the food processor. I often make a little breakfast sandwich with with one of these sausages:

1/3 cup milk

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon corn starch

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1/4" cubes

1 more tablespoon of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix milk and vinegar and let stand a minute or two until slightly coagulated (yes, a little gross). Combine all dry ingredients in a food processor and wiz for a second to combine. Add butter and pulse a few times until combined. Add the milk & vinegar, and pulse a few more times until it just begins to form a ball in the bowl. Scrape out onto a lightly floured surface. Working the dough as little as possible, form into a ball and then flatten to about 3/4". Cut into 6 rounds; you will have to combine scraps to get the last one or two. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush with the melted butter. Bake for 8-10 minutes--be careful, the bottoms can brown quickly.

Best breakfast!

Just add oil, already!

I've held off posting about the now-famous "No-Knead Bread" recipe because everyone must know about and make this by now, right? I think the original recipe was printed in the New York Times around 2006 and it pretty much swept the nation. I have--truly--made this at least once a month ever since (once a month may not sound like a lot, but it's just me here and I don't even eat that much bread, so actually, for me, it's a lot!). Besides being no-knead, it's also super-easy because it only has three ingredients, plus water.

But now, I am ready to go on the record and announce that adding a fourth ingredient makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE! I'm sure this has been noted many times before, and probably even by Jim Lahey, who came up with the recipe in the first place. But for me, this fourth ingredient is new and revolutionary. Truth be told, the original recipe was getting a little boring.

So this is the difference, people: just add some oil! Suddenly you get a noticeably flakier crumb and crust, and if you use butter, well, it's buttery-tasting-er. I kind of want to eat it all the time.

3 cups flour

1+1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon yeast

1/4 - 1/2 cup oil (butter, olive oil, what have you)

warm water, as needed (about 1+1/2 - 2 cups)

Mix everything up until you get a smooth, if somewhat wet dough. (I manage this just fine with a wooden spoon.) Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 12 - 18 hours. Dump out on a floured surface and let rest for 20 minutes or so. Take a (clean!) dish towel and sprinkle with corn meal. Shape the dough into a ball and place on the dish towel. Let rise for another 1+1/2 - 2 hours. Towards the end of the rising time, place a heavy lidded pot (cast iron or dutch oven) in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees. When the dough is done rising, lift up the corners of the dish towel and pour the dough into the pot. Put the lid on. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and let cook for another 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the pot and let cool on a wire rack. Try not to hack into it too soon!

Coconut Bread

This seems like a good thing to make for my mother on Mother's Day. But really, who are we kidding? She lives 1000 miles away...I made this for me! I cut this out of the NY Times a few years ago, but the recipe originates from a Bill's Cafe in Sydney, Australia (sadly, a place I've never visited). I usually eat it toasted, sometimes for breakfast--but plenty of other times of the day as well!

2 eggs
1+1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1+1/2 cup flaked coconut
6 tbsp. melted butter

Heat oven to 350°. Whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix in sugar and coconut. Make a well in the center and pour in egg mixture. Mix until just combined, then stir in melted butter and mix until smooth (but don't overmix). Grease & flour an 8+1/2" x 4" loaf pan and pour in batter. Bake for 1 to 1+1/4 hours, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then finish cooling on a rack.