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

The Sally Challenge

Appearances can be deceiving.

On the outside, they look the same. If I hadn't named the images I might not know which is which, but they are different. It's what's inside that counts.

The Sally Lunn from American Woman's Cook Book is much more of a dessert sweet cake - bread while the English Sally Lunn from the Five Roses Flour Cook Book is more of a bread type and a lot less sweet. Neither recipe has a lot of sugar, but the English Sally only has a tablsepoon compared to 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) in the AWC Sally.

The dough for both of the recipes is a bit gloppy.

Texture, when baked, doesn't appear that much different, although the FRF English Sally seems to be a bit less crumbly - more sturdy right after baking.  (Is that even proper English...more sturdy?)  Once cooled, they seem about the same.

My verdict - would I make these again?

Sally Lunn - Yes

You could make drop biscuits with this recipe, but I think the English Sally Lunn would be way to runny for this.  Probably due to the extra eggs. Neither dough can be rolled out.

• It's a simple sweet cake-bread
• It can be served alone or with Jam or Honey.
• It can be whipped up quickly with simple ingredients.
• Perfect any time of day for a snack or for serving to a friend.

English Sally Lunn - Maybe

•     I could make tea biscuits with less effort.
•     I would eat it as a snack (with butter or jam), but I dont think I'd eat it dry with nothing on it.
•     I wouldn't serve it by itself to a friend. It would be part of a meal.
•     Yes, if I wanted a tea biscuit styled bun (that would rise in a muffin tin)
•     Yes, if I wanted a quick no yeast type 'bread'.

That's English Sally to you

It wasn't hard to figure out who Sally is, it appears she's a bit famous - for her buns. Hahah, I guess that's why they are named after her.  Info from the Sally Lunn website says she was a Huguenot refugee who went to Bath in 1680 after fleeing persecution in France. She worked in a bakery and sold the wares in a basket in the streets.

She sounds like quite a woman, I can't imagine what life was like for her in 1680's, but she made it. You go girl!

The site describes Sally Lunn buns as 

part bun, part bread, part cake… A large and generous but very very light bun; a little like brioche/French festival bread

I don't think I've had brioche before so I can't speak to that,  but the two Sally Lunn recipes I've tried do match the rest of description - part bread, part cake, and very light.

I guess I'll have to plan a trip to Bath to really know how similar or different they are, but while I'm waiting on a winning lottery ticket to make that happen, I'll share the second recipe:  English Sally Lunn from A Guide To Good Cooking - Five Roses Flour Cookbook 1938

This recipe differs from the regular Sally Lunn in that it uses butter instead of shortening, which is blended in to the flour like you would when making tea biscuits. It also calls for more eggs, less sugar, and more WORK.

First off you'll need to separate 3 eggs. Beat the egg yolks and add them to 1 cup of milk.

Add 1 teaspoon of salt , 4 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1 tablespoon of sugar to 2 cups of flour. Sift together 3 times (ha! you can, but not my style - I stirred it with a fork)

Add 4 tablespoons of cold butter to the flour mixture.

Blend well with tips of your fingers or with a pastry blender. Once done, put in the fridge to cool while doing the egg whites.

Blend the egg whites until stiff peaks. Should be easy...unless you've packed up your KitchenAid mixer, handheld mixer, and yes...even the whisk.

So...after quite a while using a fork, I switched to the spatula. The noise of the fork against the bowl was quite annoying.  And if I have to do this again, I'd use the spatula, it worked a lot better. Cooling the bowl helped also. The peaks aren't as stiff as they could be, but I'm happy with how well I did by hand.

Add the combined milk and beaten egg yolk to the flour mixture.

Fold the egg whites in to the dough mixture.

The recipe calls for muffin tins, but alas, that is packed also. I used the only tin I haven't packed - the angel food cake pan

 Voila!  Cooling in the pan. Looks wise, it looks exactly the same as the other Sally Lunn.

Cooling on the rack. It is pretty.

English Sally Lunn Recipe
A Guide to Good Cooking - Five Roses Flour Cookbook 1938 (pg 29)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups sifted flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 eggs, separated
• 1 cup milk
• 4 tbsp butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Sift flour with baking powder, salt, and sugar. 
2. Blend flour and butter together with finger tips or pastry blender.
3. Beat egg yolks and add to milk.
4. Beat egg whites to a stiff peak.
5. Add egg yolk and milk mixture to flour mixture.
6. Fold in stiffly whipped egg whites
7. Bake in muffin tin in a moderate oven (400 F) - 30 minutes

Makes 12 muffins.

Sally Lunn Cake Bread fondly remembered

I was hungry, I was bored, and I wanted to bake something easy! And truth be told, I really wanted to try something from one of my cookbooks.

Since I'm moving, most of my kitchen is packed and sitting in storage, not to mention I'm literally eating myself out of house and home! So, what to make? Tea biscuits, perhaps, although I'm down to only cake flour now and debating on purchasing more all-purpose flour...maybe just a small bag!...before I move.

Currently my 'pantry' is the lower shelf of a table in my living room. It was my entry table, near my front door, but I needed the room for moving things out. Alas, the shelves I had for baking supplies are resting inside a storage crate 2 km away.

psSSssst Aren't juice box type wine containers the best! (left of middle in the picture) Sorry, I don't like wine, so this makes an excellent option for needing wine for cooking but not wanting to waste an entire bottle. I've seen smaller 1 cup sizes before too!

Ummm... Did I mention I was hungry?...I chose a Sally Lunn recipe. It's described as not a cake and not bread.. hrmmm. So, I quickly baked a 'not a cake' and then promptly ate most of it before thinking about taking any pictures! *sigh*  My tummy and taste buds were happy campers, though.

I did figure a way to rectify the situation and alleviate the guilt. I will make not one, but two Sally Lunn cake things! One from from the American Woman's cook book...this was the one that caused my shame...and another from the 1938 Five Roses Flour Cook book. The Five Roses one has differing amounts of flour and things and they call it English Sally Lunn, instead of just plain old Sally Lunn, but I'm sure it will be just as good perhaps just a bit different in texture.

I'll have to do a bit of googling on Sally to see who she is and why she has cake bread named after her.