Biscuits or Dumplings

It's kinda like one of my universal fallbacks, I use this basic starting point for many of my recipes. It is such an easy place to begin that you should just write in down and put it up on the fridge. You can use this for the Pizza crust as seen below, or you can use it as a basis for wieners in a blanket, or the shortcake in Strawberry shortcake. They are great for biscuits to go with soup and stew or for breakfast as biscuits & gravy and they are equally as awesome as the dumplings in Chicken and Dumplings.

These can be made as a drop biscuit, rolled and cut, or spread out and baked as a small cake. They can even be cooked in a frying pan as pan bread. The secret to keeping them tender is to work the dough as little as possible. The more you work the dough, the tougher they get. My grandma was well known in the family for the toughness of her biscuits, they tasted great, when they were warm from the oven, but after they cooled down they were suitable for use as hockey pucks. My grandma was a pretty good cook overall, but she had certain recipes that I always wondered about! My grandfather was fond of saying that his kids all learned to cook in self defense! Make some up and enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 cups Flour
1Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup Milk

Directions:

preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In medium mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, and salt, mix with fork to evenly blend dry ingredients.

Add oil and milk, mix quickly until liquid is absorbed, then by hand until there a good dough is formed. Don't worry, it should seem a little lumpy.

Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with floured cutter, place on ungreased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, check with toothpick. They should be lightly browned on top when they are done and golden on the bottom.

Variations:

Drop Style-
To make drop biscuits, up milk to 1 cup, and drop onto baking sheet at the size you wish. The bigger they are the longer they need to bake. Average is 20 minutes.

For Shortcake-
Add 1 Tbsp granulated sugar to either drop or rolled style recipe. Cook as directed.

Garlic & Cheddar-
Add 1 tsp garlic powder, and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese to drop recipe. Cook as directed for Drop Style

Dumplings-
Make rolled recipe and drop by tablespoon into boiling gravy or stew , cook for 15-20 minutes.

EAT IT!!!

After thoughts:

When making these for company, you can brush them with butter before baking to even the color or brush when finished backing to add a little pizzaz.

Once you master this recipe, you can use it for just about anything. It's a simple baking powder recipe. Don't be afraid to experiment with it to go with whatever you're making.