Beaten Biscuits
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, combine flour and salt.
Cut in lard until thoroughly mixed.
Add cold water gradually until the dough is very stiff.
Knead the dough on a board until pliable and it makes a popping sound.
Shape and bake
Break off a piece the size of an egg and shape it into a round ball.
Roll the ball to ¾ inch thick using a rolling pin.
Prick the dough with a fork five or six times.
Bake in a well-heated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1 hour.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that the kneaded dough holds together around.
- Lard
- Cut into the flour to add fat, tenderising the biscuit and keeping it short.
- Cold water
- Binds the flour and fat into a stiff dough that can be kneaded.
The step that matters
Knead the dough until it pops. Beating or kneading the very stiff dough develops its gluten and blisters, which gives beaten biscuits their characteristic layered, crisp texture. Stopping early leaves them dense and tough.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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