Biscuit advice
I usually try to stick to uncontroversial matters when I write to The Citizen - you know, like climate change, indigenous rights, Trudeau's latest follies, etc. - but must comment on the article in Saturday's paper, "How to make the best batch of biscuits."
The article is credited to Citizen news service but as it jumps right into extolling the virtues of "white lily flour," I have grave doubts that anyone from The Citizen had much to do with this article other than snagging it off the wire service.
For, alas, White Lily - sublime biscuit flour that it is - cannot be had in any stores here in P.G., rarely in Canada or nor even easily online.
White Lily is actually a mix of flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and there are a few brands locally that do similarly. But having spent many an August week in biscuit heaven (southern Ohio) over the past 15 years, I must sadly report that nothing locally is anywhere near the biscuit-flour Whte Lily is.
The article is still useful, though announcing itself -"Here's everything you need to consider" - is also misleading because it neglects to enunciate one of the cardinal rules of tender biscuit-making: go at it gently.
Many folks who are experienced yeast bread makers, but with limited biscuit years, may mix the dough and then automatically begin to enthusiastically bump and thump it around with gleeful animosity and end up with a product useful only as a projectile to hurl at the heads of unwanted guests.
To make a beautiful light biscuit, one must handle the dough more benignly than you would a newborn babe, cuddling it affectionately, softly talking it into taking on the desired shape, rather than acting as if f you were hammering out dents in a fender at an auto body shop. There are vague hints at this issue here and there in the article, but it's overly subtle.
Seriously folks: you need to cultivate tenderness in yourself if you would have your biscuits be likewise.
Oh, and one more quibble: you do not, as the article implies, face the Manichean choice between flaky or fluffy. If you practice diligently (seven years would be a good target time for apprenticeship) you can have your fluff and flake it, too.
Norman Dale
Prince George
