Remember when you were a little kid and had tea parties with imaginary tea and a hundred of your closest stuffed animals friends? Well, get ready to don on your frilly dress and pull out your beautiful tea cups cause we’re about to have a tea party!
In my humble opinion, this is arguably the best homemade biscuit recipe. Lucky for us a good tea biscuit like this is a versatile, hard to resist, and can be used for anything from its typical tea setting to being a welcome addition to soups and stews!
While I am notorious for reckless measurements and just “winging it” this is one recipe that I don’t mess around with. Why would I, when it’s perfect the way it is? It’s important to note that accurate measurements have a lot to do with the fine texture of biscuits. Careless measurements of the flour or liquid and the dough could become too moist or too dry, resulting in dough failing to rise to its proper height and either tasting too ‘bready’ or being too tough.
Hopefully, I didn’t scare you with the above statement. As long as you mind your measurements -you’re golden! If I, a reckless ‘ah just toss that in’ kind of home cook then you can absolutely create perfect biscuits too!
So turn up “Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners and let’s get started!
The Foundation.
Makes: 12 Tea Biscuits Prep: 10 minutes Total Time: 25 minutes Preheat: 425
- 2 cups of flour
- 4 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of Sel Gris or Himalayan Pink Sea Salt
- 3 tablespoons of shortening or butter
- 7/8 to 1 cup of milk**
** 7/8 of a cup is two tablespoons less than one cup. Use one cup for regular tea biscuits and 7/8 of a cup for fancy biscuits.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. The secret to delicate biscuits is a HOT OVEN.
In a large bowl, stir together all dry ingredients. Once combined, make a ‘well’ in the dry mixture, which essentially means pulling back all the dry ingredients to make a definite hole in the bowl. From there add all the wet ingredients into the hole and stir wet and dry together.
Begin to knead the mixture together until you’ve made a big ball of dough.
Lightly spread flour over a counter or other flat surface and roll the dough out until it’s roughly an inch thick.
Note: Not sure if it’s an inch? An inch is roughly the size of the tip of your thumb to the first knuckle on your thumb. Err on the thicker side if you are unsure, thin tea biscuits can get really hard.
Use a jar lid of other cookie cutter and cut shapes out of the dough, combining and re-rolling the dough as necessary until you’ve used the last of the mixture.
Note: Be careful about picking cute cookie cutter shapes, if the shape gets very narrow in some parts you’ll end up with a tough biscuit!
Place cut dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until the biscuits are well risen and the bottom is lightly browned.
Once biscuits are done, place the biscuits in a large bowl lined with a tea towel. Cover biscuits with the tea towel to keep the heat in.
Serve immediately with butter, jam, honey, cream cheese or anything else your heart desires!
For added tea biscuit love try adding any of the following into your Plain Jane biscuits!
Now That’s Cheesy – 1/2 – 3/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese.
Peanut Butter Love – Omit the shortening and add 1/4 cup of peanut butter.
Fruit or Nut – Add 1/2 cup of sugar and 3/4 cup of rasins, dried cranberries or nuts.
So there we have it! A versatile, sure to please little biscuit for any occasion!
Health & Happiness,
Savannah