How to Make a Simple Biscuit

Introduction

During much long ocean expenditure journey in Europe, there was an increasing need for nutritious food that is easy to be carried and stored over a long period. The first solution was brought live food to the ship. But this solution is not efficient because it takes up more ship space, especially on a small ship.

Thanks to the creation of the baking process, people in the early era were able to make the first type of baked biscuit out of flour as a way of reliable food source for a long journey.

Nowadays, biscuits can appear in a wide range of sizes, styles, and shapes. But generally, they can be divided into two categories: American biscuits and European biscuits.

Now you may wonder: How to distinguish American biscuits from European biscuits? The answer is very straightforward.

The American biscuit is typically soft and is shaped like a scone; whereas European biscuits preserve the tradition with drier and crunchy cover.
Below is the list of the most popular types of biscuit

Rich Tea

Rich tea is one of the most popular types of sweet biscuit that you will often see in the market. The ingredients usually include sugar, wheat flour, malt extract, and vegetable oil.

They came from Yorkshire, England in the 17th century as a light snack for the noble class between full-course meals.

Bourbons

Contrasting to its name, Bourbons biscuit does not contain any alcohol in it. The biscuit is made in a sandwich style which comprises two layers of dark chocolate–flavoured biscuits and a layer of filling cream in between.

The bourbon biscuit often comes with many holes on the surface, which let steam escape during the baking process.

Jam rings

Just like its name, this particular biscuit has a ring in the middle that is filled with sweet jam. It is very common to serve this biscuit with tea.

Hobnobs

Hobnobs is commercial biscuit name from the UK. They are usually produced from jumbo oats and rolled oats. The people often dunks or sips the Hobnobs biscuit into coffee or milk to soften the biscuit before eating. This makes the biscuit release more favors during consumption.

Shortbread

Shortbread is a traditional Scottish biscuit which ingredients often consists of one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three parts oat flour. Unlike other biscuits, Shortbread is cooked at a low baking temperature to avoid browning. That is why Shortbread often appears with white color on the outside. Before the biscuit cools down, a layer of sugar sprinkle also is applied to the cover.

Now you will agree that:

All the famous types of biscuits usually are made from the mixture of flour, sugar, milk, and salt. And they all must go through a baking process before becoming the final product. That is why it is important to choose the oven for the baking.

Before getting to make other signature biscuits, this guide will first show you the fundamentals of how to make the most simple biscuit. Then from there, you can continue to explore different styles of biscuits.

Step by step to make the most simple biscuit

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat the oven

Set the temperature of the oven to 475ºF (246ºC). A high baking temperature can save you some cooking time. Now you have the perfect time to work on other processes while waiting for the oven to heat up.

Make use of baking sheet

If you often find yourself in the situation that your baked food often sticks to the pan, using a baking sheet is a good solution. A baking sheet will not alter your biscuit in any way.

Mix all the dry ingredients

Use a large bowl and put together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder. Mix them slowly and steadily until they are blended well into each other.

Add in wet ingredients.

Pour the oil into another separate bowl, then pour the milk on top of the oil. Do not try to blend these two ingredients. Just let them be and pour them into the bowl of dry ingredients.

Form a dough

To combine the wet and dry ingredients, you can use a mixing utensil to make sure they are well-blended.
Put the dough to a floured surface and remember to knead once or twice to create a dough ball. Stop the blending process when you can feel the dry ingredients contain enough moist and sticky texture. If you try to mix too much wet and dry ingredients, the biscuits will lose their softness and flaky texture.

Roll the dough into a flat shape

Use the rolling tool and roll out your dough mixture into a flat shape. You can decide the thickness of your dough.

Cut out biscuits

To cut out the biscuits, use a round cookie cutter to cut a perfect circle out of the flatten dough shape. Make sure to cover the biscuit with a few sprinkles of flour to make them less sticky.

Cover the baking pan with your baking sheets and lay the biscuits on nicely. Make sure to leave enough space among all the biscuits to evenly cook them.

You can utilize the leftovers from the cutout dough by making them into a ball of dough and flatten them again. Then repeat this process.

Bake the biscuits in the oven

Bake the biscuits until they show light brown color. This process takes roughly 10 minutes with the preheated oven. Make sure always to check the oven just to be safe. Turn the biscuits halfway through baking time to ensure they are cooked evenly on both sides.

Serving the best homemade biscuit

After taking the biscuits out from the oven, let them cool down for about 5 minutes. Enjoy the best of your freshly homemade biscuits. As a small health tip, biscuits contains high sugar and flour, that is why it is recommended to serve no more than three biscuits per tea or coffee snack. They will add extra harmonic flavor to your tea and coffee consumption.