Whole Wheat Tea Biscuits

It's hard to beat tender, flaky biscuits for that melt-in-your-mouth goodness.

I was going to make the tea biscuits in the Purity cookbook, but then I came across the whole wheat recipe.

I'm pretty sure I loved the basic Tea Biscuit recipe in the Five Roses Flour cook book, so it seemed like the place to start. How do I know I loved it? Well, glad you asked! On one of the back pages of the book, I wrote ' Tea Biscuits pg 41'. And yup, it is my 30+ yr ago selfs' handwriting.

Tea biscuits are the ultimate in easy quick comfort food. They have been a wonderful breakfast, snack, and dinner food for me over the years. Yum!

I've made my fair share of basic tea biscuits over my lifetime using whatever recipe I came across, but I don't often switch it up flour wise. Until now. Whole wheat tea biscuits just sound a bit healthier and less guilty feeling when smothered in homemade blueberry-cherry jam. I think this means I can have more than one!

One of the great things about tea biscuits is that they can be made fancy using scalloped cutters, or utilitarian little squares cut from a patted down pile of dough, or cut into sticks - perfect for dipping in soups! It's all yummy in my tummy goodness :)

The texture of these biscuits are not quite the same as regular tea biscuits. They are a bit more dense feeling, but they were delicious with just the right amount of sweetness.

I would make these again, for sure :)

Tea Biscuits (basic)
Five Roses Flour Cook Book - 1970? (pg 41)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups Five Roses All Purpose Flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1 cup milk or light cream

Variation: Whole Wheat Tea Biscuits

Use only:

• 1 cup Five Roses All Purpose Flour
• 1 cup Five Roses Whole Wheat Flour

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Cut in shortening with two knives or a pastry blender until mixture is the consistency of coarse cornmeal.
4. Make a well in the center of ingredients and add liquid all at once.
5. Stir batter vigorously until it comes freely from the sides of the bowl.
6. Turn dough onto lightly floured board and knead lightly for a few seconds.
7. Roll or pat out to desired thickness*
8. Cut dough with floured biscuit cutter and place on ungreased baking sheet.
9. Bake in a hot oven.
10. Serve immediately with butter and jam or marmalade.

*Thickness of dough: 1 cm (1/2")
Diameter of biscuit cutter: 5 cm (2")
Pan: cookie sheet
Temperature: 230 C (450 F)
Cooking Time: 12 - 15 minutes
Yield: 15 - 18 biscuits

Baked or Shirred Eggs

I'm running out of options! My choices are not only limited by ingredients, but by what I need to cook or eat with.

I've packed all my dishes except 1 coffee cup and...I have a plastic wine glass for water.  It makes me feel kind of special, like I'm at a wedding :) All my pots and pans are packed away also, leaving me with an angel food cake pan that wouldn't fit nicely in the box with the other pans and a square pyrex baking dish.

So...I have all the fixings for making bread products, a bunch of spices, and a few pans, but I can't live on bread alone. I've already made 2 Sally Lunn cakes (well..technically 3, since I ate one before taking pictures) and the Canadian Cheese Supper Ring...I figure it's time to use up some eggs before next Saturday when I do the 'BIG MOVE'.

While I don't have any custard cups, I do have a bunch of very cute 1/4 cup mason jars that can be heated in the oven. So...Baked or Shirred Eggs it is!

The ingredients are pretty simple; eggs, butter, salt, and pepper.

Since I've packed almost everything that can be used to melt butter, I put 1 teaspoon of butter into each mason jar and let the butter melt in a hot water bath. It works well and actually saves having to clean another dish.

Crack the egg in to the dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and dab with a bit more butter...since the teaspoon of butter previously wasn't enough!

Pop them in to a 350 F oven for approximately 15 minutes.

This recipe comes from the Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic CookBook (1950). There are 6 additional variations for this recipe (cheese, chicken livers (YUCK! Nope, not trying!), pork sausage, roquefort baked eggs, eggs a la suisse, and eggs in mustard sauce) that I'll get around to trying at some point, but sadly...not while in Toronto.

Keeper: Yes Siree :)  The eggs were yummy and what could be better than making eggs that you don't have to babysit.

Baked or Shirred Eggs
Culinary Arts Encyclopedic Cookbook - 1950  (pg 289)



INGREDIENTS

• 6 or 12 eggs
• butter
• salt
• pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt 1 teaspoon of butter in each custard cup.
2. Break 1 or 2 eggs in to each cup.
3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dot with butter.
4. Bake in moderate oven (350 F) until eggs are firm but not hard, approximately 15 minutes.
5. Serve in the cups.