Homemade Biscuits

For our wedding one of my Mom's good friends, Judy made me a cookbook with her favorite recipes in it.  It was one of my favorite gifts because I love to cook.  She is a country girl, so I trust her recipes to be tasty and hearty!  Today I tried her biscuit recipe and believe it is the recipe I will use from now on.  Hope you like them as much as we did.

 Yummy!  I used a little wheat flour and I really liked the texture.

 This is what it should look like after you cut in the shortening

 After you add buttermilk and stir it should look like this.  At this point you can knead it 5-10 times until it comes together in a soft ball of dough

 Lightly flour a surface and roll out the dough

 Looks like this and you are ready to cut!

 

 I used a cup and dipped the rim in flour before hand

 We had eggs and bacon with ours

Butter and apricot jelly and you are all set.

Judy's Biscuits (I followed her recipe, but this is the recipe cut in half and it makes 8 biscuits)
2 1/2 cups flour (I used 1/2 cup wheat flour but know they won't rise as high if you do that)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. quick rising yeast plus 1/4 cup warm water to dissolve the yeast in)
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk mixed with 1 Tbsp vinegar)
1/2 cup shortening

Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Mix dry ingredients.  Cut in shortening (I like to use a pastry cutter).  It should look like little pea sized clumps of shortening mixed with the dry stuff.  Stir in buttermilk and yeast mixture.  Stir until just combined, nou may need to add more flour at this point.  You just want it to come together in a soft dough.  Knead 5-10 times and form a ball.  Flatten it out until it is about 1/2 inch thick and cut your biscuits.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes (on parchment for easy removal).

Enjoy.  I know there are not a lot of tips/details, but you can find easy tips and how-to's online.  I watched a video a while back to learn how to handle biscuit dough, you do not want to over-work it! 

P.S. These are really good reheated on a skillet with a little butter.  If you want a sweet treat add biscoff to them:)

Super Easy Pizza

My favorite pizza dough takes a little time to make and usually makes a pretty messy kitchen.  Pizza was on the menu for Friday night, but I didn't end up making my favorite dough the night before.  I looked in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (I use it a lot), and found a very simple pizza dough that only involves flour, water, yeast, olive oil and garlic salt.  It only takes about 15 minutes to make and 10 minutes to rest and then you can make your pizza, pretty sweet huh?

I did half marinara sauce and half olive oil.

Topped with pepperoni, basil, bell pepper and tomato

I also put artichoke hearts on the olive oil side, and pineapple on the marinara side

It was very good.  The crust wasn't as crispy as we are used to so next time I am going to bake it closer to the bottom of the oven.  When we re-heated the leftovers, the bottom got crispy and delicious.  This is my new go-to crust.  I love how fast it was.  It took me about 15 minutes to mix the ingredients and knead the dough.  I went for a quick run and when I got back the dough was ready to go (the recipe says it only needs to rest 10 minutes).

I like!

I had a bowl of caramel turtle fudge blue bell while Cliff and me watched a movie.

Fast Easy Pizza Dough and Pizza

(From Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

2 3/4-3 1/2 cup flour

1 package active dry yeast

1 1/4 cup warm water

2 Tbsp. Olive oil
1 Tbsp. Honey

1/2 tsp. garlic
1/2 tsp. salt

In a large mixing bowl mix 1 1/4 cup flour, yeast, warm water (don't over-analyze the temp...just warm water), garlic salt, honey and olive oil.  With a mixer, beat on medium-high speed for 3 minutes.  Gradually add more flour and stir with a wooden spoon.  When it is not taking more flour, turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 6-8 minutes.  Cover and let rest for 10 minutes to and hour.  

Baking pizza with your dough:

This dough makes one large pizza.  You can also make two medium pizzas that will have thinner crust, or 5-8 mini pizzas.  Whatever floats your boat.  I made one large pizza to save time.  Top with all your favorite toppings and bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes. 

Can't believe this weekend is over.  Hope everyone is ready for a new week.  Happy Monday and have a good one!  

 We wait in hope for the Lord;
    he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice,
    for we trust in his holy name. 

Psalm 33:20-21

Calzones to Remember

When I was a very picky young eater, my parents made me try something new at one of our favorite pizza places.  It was a pepperoni calzone and I was hooked!  When we go to pizza places now, we never order calzones and I'm not sure why.  My friend Amber made this awesome pizza dough a while back and since then I have been craving homemade dough.  I decided to venture out and make calzones with the dough instead of traditional pizza and we loved them.  Every once in a while I got a bite of pepperoni and cheese and it reminded me of our favorite pizza place we ate at when I was little!  You have got to try this dough, it is good for calzones or pizza.  Being my normal self, I combined two recipes (the one Amber made a while back and one my friend Kristen recommended)!  I believe this will be my go-to recipe now.

 Fresh and hot out of the oven.

 This is what the dough looked like when I pulled it out of the fridge.  When I got home from work (5 hours later), it was soft and ready to roll!

This is what it looks like rolled out (at this point you could do pizza or calzone).  I loaded this sucker with bacon, meatballs, pepperoni, bell pepper, artichoke hearts, basil and mozzarella.

 Fold the dough over and sprinkle cornmeal and Parmesan cheese!

 Bake at 400 for 25 minutes.

 Cut into it and you get this beauty

 Served with pizza sauce-I want more as I type.

 I will definitely be making this again.

 Remember those cookies I mentioned my co-worker was bringing-chocolate chip with a reese's in the middle....I will be making these in the near future they were amazing!

My Modified Dough
3 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
3 cloves chopped garlic
4 cups flour
1 heaping tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 package instant yeast = 2 1/4 tsp
1/8 cup white wine (I used cooking wine)
1 1/2 cup water

Heat oil and Italian seasoning over medium heat.  When that is warm add garlic and stir for about 1 minute.  Add water and white wine and take it off the heat (water should be warm but not too hot: 110 degrees if you want to be exact).  In a large mixing bowl combine flour, salt, sugar and yeast.  With your mixer on add your liquid mixture and beat until combined.  Once combined knead for about 5 minutes (I ended up adding about 1/4 cup flour in the process) and place in a large, well greased bowl.  Place in fridge overnight.  This dough makes 2 pizzas or calzones.  Pull out the dough you need (I did half) and let is sit at room temp. for about 4 hours.  The other dough can stay in the fridge for later.  I would use it within 3 days and you will probably have to push it down a couple times.
Making your calzone:
Preheat oven to 400.  Lightly oil a large cookie sheet and press your dough out onto it.  Start spreading it out with your fingers until it is the thickness you want it (you can use a rolling pin if you want).  Mine was probably about 1/4 in thick and then put toppings on half and fold dough over.  Pinch dough around the sides and poke a few holes on the top.  Bake calzone for about 25.  Enjoy with a side of pizza sauce!
Making your pizza: 
Preheat oven to 450.  Lightly oil a large cookie sheet and press dough out.  Work with it until it is the thickness you want, mine was about 1/4 inch.  Put pizza sauce on top and then all your toppings.  Bake for about 12-16 minutes, time will vary depending on your oven and your preference!
***Just so you know, I think pizza dough is a pretty flexible thing...I modified two recipes and it still worked out.  You don't have to get all fancy if you left out the garlic or white wine I'm sure it would come out (but it sure did taste good like this)!  Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Modified recipes from Crumbly Cookie and Pioneer Woman

This is our Saturday morning breakfast!  Danielle gave a cinnamon rolls a while back so I toasted them up and made some scrambled eggs.

Mighty tasty!

Have a great Saturday everyone.  We are going to the park later and then having dinner with Ben and Danielle.  Oh, I made some banana pudding and I will post that as soon as I taste it...my mouth is watering just thinking about it!