Baking Powder Biscuits

Years ago, when I was a newspaper reporter in Columbus, Indiana, I would often take my breakfast  at Sap's Coffee House, an old-fashioned diner that made everything from scratch -- including biscuits for its signature biscuits and gravy. (I know this because I overhead a food service salesman fail miserably while trying to sell the owner a ready-made biscuit mix.)

Though the place was literally a two-minute walk from my apartment, I only ventured inside after a boyfriend visiting from California, horrified that I used instant coffee at home, insisted we find a place with the real stuff. While both Sap's and the boyfriend are long gone, they did instill a love of good coffee -- and good biscuits.

I make a lot of biscuits -- very easy and quick to prepare, they are my go-to breakfast accompaniment, especially when guests are expected. My friend Bev stopped by on Sunday morning after her spin class, and what better way to undo an hour of intense exercise than to enjoy some hot-from-the-oven biscuits, along with some fresh brewed coffee.

These are typical baking powder biscuits -- flaky, buttery and delicious. It doesn't get any better than this.

I make the dough in a food processor, because it makes quick work of cutting the butter into the dry ingredients. But you can use a pastry blender, two knives, or even your fingertips. Start by putting all the dry ingredients into the food processor or a bowl.

Then, add the cold butter and process.

The mixture will (or should) resemble cornmeal when the butter is incorporated.

This recipe calls for milk, which I interpret as whole milk. Having none, I mixed half and half and skim milk. Worked just fine.

This dough is very easy to work with, and wasn't sticky at all.

Cut the biscuits with a biscuit cutter if you have one. The sharp edges allow the biscuit to rise well in the oven.

A pat of butter (and some jam, if you want) only improve a good thing.

Production notes: I followed this exactly, but substituted unsalted butter for the shortening. And I didn't sift the flour, mostly unnecessary these days (except for angel food cake). I must have made large biscuits, because the recipe yielded nine, not 12, biscuits. I baked these at 400 F.

"Missouri" Dessert

One of the main reasons I blog is that it's a wonderful excuse to bake the interesting and unusual recipes I encounter. And this Missouri Dessert is among the most unusual.  Plus the recipe card has two notes at the top: "Mother" and "very good" which to me is like screaming "bake me now!"

And so I did.

I've only been to Missouri once, back in the days when I was a newspaper reporter at a daily in Indiana and a bunch of us from the paper drove to a journalism conference in St. Louis (after making the essential liquor store stop to stock up for the journey).  I don't recall much of the city except the arch, and our dinner that first night at windowed restaurant atop a tall building that rotated 360 degrees several times during our meal. "I feel like I've been spinning all day," said fellow reporter Lynn Hailey. Still recovering from the car ride (did we really finish a bottle of schnapps along the way?), we all agreed.

Now on to today's dessert.  St. Louis has a famous dessert, Gooey Butter Cake, but I'd never heard of Missouri Dessert. It's quite unusual -- a basic yellow cake, almost reminiscent of cornbread, topped with meringue.  Typical of early 20th century desserts, it's not overly sweet.

It's easy to make (and even easier to eat).  At the beginning, it appears that the cake batter has curdled.  But, if you continue, all will smooth out.

Pour the batter into a pie plate.

Cover the base layer with the whipped egg whites . . .

and carefully spread it so it reaches the edge of the pie plate, completely covering the base.

Bake until the meringue is a lovely golden color.

Missouri dessert has three layers -- the crunchy top, the smooth meringue beneath and the cake layer below.   (It would have had a four texture, if I'd only remembered to sprinkle chopped nuts on top.) Quite a result using only butter, sugar, flour eggs, milk, baking powder and salt.

Below is a photo of Lynn and I in front of the newspaper building, and at bottom is some of the newspaper staff at a holiday party, c. 1979.