Easiest Baking Soda Biscuits | Vintage Kitchen

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Light and flaky biscuits are a beautiful thing, especially freshly baked and gleaming with melty butter sandwiched inside. This quick and easy recipe is full of feathery soft layers and a tender golden brown crust. The perfect accompaniment to almost any meal!

Making biscuits with baking soda

Baking soda biscuits are a quick and easy staple that pretty much every home cook knew how to make a few generations ago. They are a perfect personal-sized snack that you could whip up at a moments notice, when say you had some unexpected company drop by!

Unlike bread which takes a few hours to make. Baking soda biscuits are ready in less than a half hour! That is a pretty amazing time savings!

To make really good biscuits there are a few simple tricks

• Don’t overwork the dough – An overworked dough means a tough biscuit and we want ours to be tender and melt-in-your-mouth! So, mix them until the dough just comes together.
• Pat the dough out with your hands – To flatten the dough out before cutting it into biscuits, no need to get out the rolling pin. Gently pat and press the dough out with your hands.
• Brush the top with butter – As soon as your biscuits come out of the oven, just rub a little bit of butter on each golden top. This will leave each biscuit moist, soft, and tender.

Why use baking soda in biscuits

Baking soda will make the dough rise more quickly than a dough made with yeast. Baking soda is activated by acidity and heat. So, it is activated when first mixed into a batter and then again when it hits the heat in the oven.

Cream of Tartar in your biscuits

Cream of tartar is added along with baking soda to make baking powder. Since cream of tartar is acidic it reacts with the baking soda when it is moistened and mixed in the batter.

This reaction will create carbon dioxide gas which will puff up and leaven the baked goods. Much like when you mixed vinegar (acid) and baking soda to create volcanoes as a child!

Cream of tartar also acts as a stabilizer in your baked goods.

While most biscuit recipes call for baking powder. Baking soda biscuits, when made with a combination of soda and cream of tartar, will achieve the same result!

Uses for baking soda biscuits

Biscuits are absolutely perfect warm and freshly baked, with a slathering of butter or maybe a dollop of fruit preserves inside. Biscuits can be a versatile addition to favourite recipes as well.

Savoury

My favourite savoury way to use this biscuit dough, or most other biscuit recipes, is to use it in place of pie dough on top of a chicken pot pie.

• Press and cut out your biscuits in single serving sizes.
• Arrange the biscuits on top of your pot pie filling.
• Bake the pot pie in the oven according to the recipe.
• When serving the pot pie, you can portion out one biscuit per person

Sweet

Using biscuits to make a rustic strawberry shortcake. This “recipe” was a staple at my grandmother’s house growing up, when strawberry season came around!

To make this delicious, rustic, dessert.

• You will need to prepare a mixture of roughly chopped strawberries, water, and sugar.

My grandmother placed the strawberries in a shallow container, covered them with water, and then sprinkled over a few teaspoons of sugar. Mix to dissolve the sugar.

The shallow dish is important so you can cover the berries without needing too much water. You need just enough sugar to make a sweetened sauce from the berry juice.

• Leave this mixture in the fridge for the berries to give off their juice and mix into the water and sugar mixture. This can be done the day before.

To assemble the individual strawberry shortcakes

• Slice the biscuit in half
• Place one half on a plate and spoon over a good helping of the berries and juice.
• Place a generous dollop of whipped cream.
• Place the other half of the biscuit on top.
• Apply another helping of the strawberry mixture.
• Finish it off with a dollop of whipped cream on top.

This is a super delicious and easy dessert that we always looked forward to as children!

Alternatives for baking soda biscuits

Just like scones, you can add an array of mix-ins to give your biscuits a unique flavour.

One of my favourite additions is shredded cheddar cheese! This is especially delicious if you are using the biscuits for a pot pie topper!

Some other delightful additions for the biscuits are

• fresh or dried fruits, like blueberries or raisins
• chocolate chips, especially nice in a dessert
• warm spices like cinnamon or cardamom
• savoury dried herbs like oregano and rosemary.
• seeds like poppy are especially nice if you add lemon flavouring!

Ingredients for Baking soda Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour 120 g

½ teaspoons baking soda 2.5 ml

1 teaspoon cream of tartar 5 ml

½ teaspoon salt 2.5 ml

½ cup milk 125 ml

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cream of tartar, and salt.
2. Stir the baking soda into the milk.
3. Add it to the flour mixture.
4. Mix with your hands until the dough just comes together.
5. Preheat the oven to 400 ºF (200 ºC).
6. On a lightly floured surface, pat the dough out with your fingers until it is about ½-in. (2 cm) thick.
7. Cut into circles with a biscuit cutter, large cookie cutter, or an upside-down cup.
8. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden.
9. Remove, cool slightly, serve warm!

Looking to have that classic vintage tea party or picnic? These recipes would be perfect! The Best Vintage Vanilla Cake, The Best Old-Fashioned Raspberry Mini Tarts, The Best Vintage Carrot Cookies, Vintage thimble or thumbprint cookies

If you loved this biscuit recipe you might want to try some other simple delicious biscuit recipes! Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Biscuits, Rich and Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

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