It's a show which has been happening on Fridays at 2 pm EDT (11 am PDT) on Facebook during the stay-at-home order. Gesine makes a recipe while her show partner, Jeffrey Hamelman, shows how to make bread, primarily sourdough.
Biscuits have always intimidated me. Fear of making hockey pucks. But after tasting how good they can be when we were on vacation in Georgia before the stay-at-home order, I wanted to try to conquer my fear.
Thank you, Gesine! Your two tips: grating the butter and showing how to combine the butter and flour with a wiper motion really worked! Sablage is the French baking term: when working flour and butter between the fingers so that the butter gathers up the flour (not the opposite).
She also showed how to fold the dough into thirds like a letter, then gently roll out the dough with a rolling pin, then cut, and flip the biscuits over to make a prettier top.
I didn't know that biscuits could be frozen. That was another reason I would not make them, because biscuits are best hot out of the oven. Freezing them and reheating is a good tip.
---Barbara
Baking Powder Biscuits
(from my notes from Gesine Bullock-Prado's Isolation Baking show)
Makes 12 2-inch biscuits
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/8 teaspoons sea salt
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, grated
361 grams all-purpose flour (3 cups)
1 1/8 cups whole milk
Grate the butter, and put it back in the refrigerator until needed. Can be done ahead of time.
Measure out the flour. If using cups, not a scale, be sure to fluff the flour before scooping.
In a mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, sea salt and sugar. Mix together well. Can be done ahead of time.
Measure out the milk. Can be done ahead of time and refrigerated.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
To the dry ingredients, add the cold butter, and combine using the sablage method of rubbing the butter through the flour in a windshield wiper motion, until the butter is evenly distributed, and no big lumps are left. It will look like corn meal.
Add the milk---but save a little bit --- it will be used to brush the tops of the biscuits.
Use a spatula to fold in the milk until the dough comes together. It will be shaggy, and that's okay.
On a lightly floured surface, turn out the dough.
Start to shape it into a rectangle with your hands, fold the dough into thirds like a letter, turn it over, then gently roll it into a rectangle which is 3/4 inch thick.
Dip a 2 inch round cutter in flour and shake off any excess flour.
Cut out the biscuits, starting at one edge, and cutting as close as you can as possible.
Take the scraps from the cutouts and gently reform a rectangle and cut out the remaining biscuits.
Turn the biscuit over before you put them on the baking sheet to make a neater top.
Place them far apart.
Brush with the leftover milk, so they will brown well.
Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
Serve warm.
What you don't use, can be frozen. Rewarm in a hot oven for 5-10 minutes before serving.