Celebratory Biscuits

Traffic spiked today because Bloggers.com featured my profile (and this blog) as an Editors’ Pick of the Day.

See? Pretty cool.

Honored, humbled, and a little overwhelmed by over 60 friend requests in my e-mail inbox, I reacted in a way hopefully most bloggers would in my situation, dancing for all of five seconds in a pretty embarrassing way before writing up a few reviews (still have a few more to go before the ball drops), tweeting a bunch, and baking celebratory biscuits.

See the wax paper? I only have enough counter space for the baking sheet or work space, so I joined both into one! Voila!

These are not normal biscuits. Get ready to shudder (in glee)! They are mostly healthy and really easy to make. Also, they’re the good kind you can really dig your fingers into and break apart into layers while eating. Forget your days of struggling to peel refrigerated dough from cardboard rolls, darling. They were not worth it. I hope you will agree these are better.

Makes: 6 biscuits

Here’s What You’ll Need:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup fat-free milk
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2.5 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt (optional)
• extra virgin olive oil spray or extra olive oil with a pastry brush
• baking sheet
• mixing bowl with a spoon
• biscuit cutter (optional)

Here’s What You Do:

- Place the flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl, stirring with a spoon as you add the milk and olive oil. A ball of dough will form.

- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

- Cover the baking sheet with aluminum foil or other baking mat. Lightly grease with olive oil. Set aside a work station with wax paper, a pastry rolling board, whatever works best for you with the space you have available.

- Coating your (washed) hands with extra flour, reach into that mixing bowl and take a small ball out, flattening it out into a quarter-inch thick circle. Shape with the biscuit cutter, if desired. Set on the baking sheet. Repeat five more times.

- Lightly spray or brush extra olive oil on the top of each formed circle. Add two more layers of circles on top of the original ones, drizzling with olive oil each time. You will make 18 circles, six biscuits total with three layers apiece.

- Bake for 10-15 minutes until risen and a light golden brown. Serve warm.

Nominate me for anything else and my loved ones’ stomachs will thank you. Also, happy early 2012 – what a fantastic way to begin the new year!

*Lastly, I realize several gluten-free proponents recently followed me on Twitter and this may not be the friendliest post for you to try on your own. Here is a gluten-free biscuit recipe. A close relative was diagnosed with autism from an early age and stuck with a low sugar and gluten-free diet throughout his early to pre-teen development years; I know how difficult it can be to follow. Please feel welcome to share your gluten-free baking tips here too – I am always eager to learn and try out new recipes!