Most modern biscuits can trace their origins back to either the hardtack ship's biscuit, or the creative art of

the baker:

Ship's biscuit derived: Digestive, rich tea, Abernethy, cracker[citation needed]

Baker's art: Biscuit rose de Reims

Biscuits today can be savoury or sweet, but most are small at around 2 inches (5.1 cm) in diameter, and

flat. The term biscuit also applies tosandwich-type biscuits, wherein a layer of cream or icing is

sandwiched between two biscuits, such as the custard cream. European biscuits tend to be more sugary

in consistency, and often creative in design though higher in calories, whereas the standard British biscuit

is strong and stable (as opposed to crumbly) yet slightly blander (and typically cheaper compared to the

European standard), designed perhaps for the tradition of "dunking" in cups of tea; hence preventing the

collapse of the biscuit and ruining of the beverage.[citation needed]

Dunking a biscuit

Sweet biscuits are commonly eaten as a snack food, and are, in general, made with wheat flour or oats,

and sweetened with sugar or honey. Varieties may contain chocolate, fruit, jam, nuts, or even be used to

sandwich other fillings. There is usually a dedicated section for sweet biscuits in most

European supermarkets.

In Britain, the digestive biscuit and rich tea have a strong cultural identity as the traditional

accompaniment to a cup of tea, and are regularly eaten as such. Many tea drinkers "dunk" their biscuits in

tea, allowing them to absorb liquid and soften slightly before consumption.

A dark chocolate Tim Tam

Savoury biscuits or crackers (such as cream crackers, water biscuits, oatcakes, or crisp breads) are

usually plainer and commonly eaten with cheese following a meal. A large variety of savoury biscuits also

contain additional ingredients for flavour or texture, such as poppy seeds, onion or onion seeds, cheese

(such as cheese melts), and olives. Savoury biscuits also usually have a dedicated section in most

European supermarkets, often in the same aisle as sweet biscuits. The exception to savoury biscuits is

the sweetmeal digestive known as the "Hovis biscuit", which, although slightly sweet, is still classified as a

cheese biscuit.

In general, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders, Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Singaporeans,

and the Irish use the British meaning of "biscuit" for the sweet biscuit. In Canada, the terms biscuit and

cookie are used interchangeably, depending on the region, with biscuits usually referring to hard, sweet

biscuits (i.e. digestives, Nice, Bourbon creams) and cookies for soft baked goods (i.e. chocolate chip

cookies). Two famous Australasian biscuit varieties are the ANZAC biscuit and the Tim Tam. This sense

is at the root of the name of the United States' most prominent maker of cookies and crackers, the

National Biscuit Company, now called Nabisco.

[edit]See also

History

Main article: Biscuit

Although the American English and British English use the same word to refer to two distinctly different

modern edible foods, early hard biscuits (North American: cookies), were derived from or as a storable

version of bread.[3]

Early European settlers in the United States brought with them a simple, easy style of cooking, most often

based on ground wheat and warmed with gravy.[3]

The biscuit emerged as a distinct food type in the early 19th century, before the American Civil War.

Cooks created a cheap to produce addition for their meals that required no yeast, which was expensive

and difficult to store. With no leavening agents except the bitter-tasting pearlash available, beaten

biscuits were laboriously beaten and folded to incorporate air into the dough which expanded when

heated in the oven causing the biscuit to rise. In eating, the advantage of the biscuit over a slice of bread

was that as it was harder, and hence when wiping up gravy it kept its shape and form, creating the

popular meal biscuits and gravy.

Perhaps these southern chefs had an advantage in creating biscuits. Northern American all-purpose

flours, mainly grown in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, are made from the hard spring wheats, that grow in a

cold winter climate. Southern American bleached all-purpose flours, originally grown in

the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee before national food distribution networks, are made from the soft

winter wheat that grows in the warm southern summer. This summer growth results in wheat that has

less protein, which is more suited to the creation of quick breads, as well as cookies, cakes and muffins.[4]

[5]

In 1875, Alexander P. Ashbourne patented the first biscuit cutter. It consisted of a board to roll the biscuits

out on, which was hinged to a metal plate with various biscuit cutter shapes mounted to it.

Pre-shaped ready-to-bake biscuits can be purchased in supermarkets, in the form of small refrigerated

cylindrical segments of dough encased in a cardboard can. These refrigerator biscuits were patented by

Ballard and Ballard in 1931.[3]

[edit]Cooking

Biscuits can be prepared for baking in several ways. The dough can be rolled out flat and cut into rounds,

which expand when baked into flaky-layered cylinders. If extra liquid is added, the dough's texture

changes to resemble stiff pancake batter so that small spoonfuls can be dropped into the baking sheet to

produce "drop biscuits", which are more amorphous in texture and shape.

Large drop biscuits, because of their size and rough exterior texture, are sometimes referred to as "cat

head biscuits". A common variation on basic biscuits is "cheese biscuits", made by adding

grated Cheddar or American cheese to the basic recipe.[6]

Home cooks may use refigerator biscuits for a quicker alternative to rolled or drop biscuits. Refigerator

biscuits can even be cooked over a campfire on a stick.[7]

A sweet biscuit layered or topped with fruit (typically strawberries), juice-based syrup, and cream is

called shortcake. A type of biscuit called an "angel biscuit" contains yeast as well, as do those made with

a sourdough starter. In Canada, both sweet and savory are referred to as "biscuits," "baking powder

biscuits," or "tea biscuits," although "scone" is also starting to be used.[citation needed]

[edit]Usage

Biscuits and gravy

Biscuits are a long-time staple of Southern U.S. cuisine and are often made with buttermilk. They are

traditionally served as a side dish with a meal. As a breakfast item they are often eaten with butter and a

sweet condiment such as molasses, light sugarcane syrup, sorghum syrup,honey, or fruit jam or jelly.

With other meals they are usually eaten with butter or gravy instead of sweet condiments.

However, biscuits and gravy (biscuits covered in country gravy) or biscuits with sausage are usually

served for breakfast, sometimes as the main course.

Biscuits today are ubiquitous throughout the U.S. and feature prominently in many fast

food breakfast sandwiches. The biscuit sandwich burst onto the scene primarily through

the Hardee's chain of restaurants as an answer to the McDonald's Egg McMuffin.[citation needed] Along with the

traditional country ham, Hardee's added sausage, cheese, eggs, steak, and even chicken to the breakfast

bread. In addition, biscuits are commonly found as a side dish at American branches of fried

chicken restaurants such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Church's Chicken,Chicken Express, Popeyes

Chicken & Biscuits, and Bojangles' Famous Chicken n' Biscuits.

Biscuit recipe contains the process to make perfect biscuits which are edible and come in

circular shapes with rich butter taste.

Preparation of biscuits from scratch can be fun and has easy procedure which can be

enjoyed even well in the company of friends which may also lead to some creative dishes.

Biscuits can be replaced with rolls or sliced bread at breakfast, when they are topped with

an assortment of appetizing ingredients. If biscuit recipe is mixed proportionately, biscuits

can come out in proper circular shape which can be of one or two inch thickness and two or

four inches in diameter. Biscuit recipe can either use readymade biscuit mix or even go

with wheat flour or all purpose flour. Biscuits can be a perfect side dish at lunch time or tea

time or even for brunch. Biscuit recipes these days also include jams, butter or jellies.

To make biscuits, all the dry ingredients like flour, sugar, baking powder and if the biscuit

recipe involves butter, it should be used when it is cold. The dough should be handled

soothingly and modestly in order to keep it from hardening. All the items till now must be

constantly stirred with the help of a spoon at the same time should also keep on adding

liquid ingredients.

After adding all the necessary ingredients,

baker can know biscuit dough to be prepared, when the mixture no longer sticks to the

sides of the bowl. Then sprinkle some dry flour on a flat surface and then turn over the

dough to coat. The dough should be kneaded lightly and rapidly to make the dough smooth.

Markets have biscuit cutter in varied shapes according to the user choice. If the baker

decides to use these biscuits cutter, they have to firstly dip it in the flour; the same should

be done even in case of a knife before cutting the dough into any shape. Biscuits should be

cut close together in order to prevent any wastage of dough.

BiscuitsBiscuits are solid browned scab often sweetened made out of flour which are cooked in two

fold process.

Requirement for easy to carry, nourishing and

long lasting food stuff for longer expeditions has let to prologue of baking products from

flour, which was considered a unswerving food source. Earlier, it was considered that most

of the medical issues were related to digestion of food among individuals, daily

consumption of biscuits was said to solve these problems along with providing the

capability to sustain for longer time. With time, biscuits seemed to get softer; attempts

were made to harden them. These days in order to soften these dry and hard biscuits; they

are often dunked in some sort of liquid like milk, tea or coffee.

The name biscuits has evolved from the Latin word “bescuit” which means bis – twice and

coquere – to cook, hence understood as twice cooked, first baked, later on dehydrated out

in a slow oven. Biscuits can also be referred to as cookies which are to some extent

elevated flat cakes. Biscuits can be defined as bread made from dough swayed out and

slash into a specific shape with the help of spoon. Throughout the world, the term biscuits

refer to brittle and crisp bread except in United States, where it means soft bread, and for

baked goods which are hard, they use the term cookie.

At first, biscuits were only cooked after making breads, in the baker’s oven, since they

were considered a cheap product to maintain sustenance among the poor, they by making

them hard, unsweetened and often dry making it necessary to use some sort of brine. With

the increase in supply of produces like sugar, meat and cheese, many areas in the world

tend to come up with their own recipes for biscuits using cheese, buttermilk, sugar etc.

along with varied flavor of chocolate, strawberry

Homemade biscuits are much opted for than the canned biscuits, since they are much

tastier and freshly baked rather than stored goods.

To prepare better homemade biscuits, ingredients have to be taken in measure proportions

and it also requires correct mixing. There are electric mixers available in the bazaar;

however it is preferable to mix the dough with fingertips or any blender. Mixing with hands

prevents over mixture of dough. The time spent to prepare these homemade biscuits

results in getting much tastier biscuits and also spending some quality time with cooking

partners.

Ingredients for homemade biscuits include

flour (any of these all-purpose flour, self rising flour or biscuit mix), baking powder, salt,

shortening or cooking oil, buttermilk or milk according to baker’s choice. Before even

mixing all the ingredients of homemade biscuits, the oven has to be preheated to a fixed

temperature of 450F degrees, and then move to the ingredients.

To start off with the process of making homemade biscuits, all the dry ingredients (flour,

sugar, baking powder and salt) have to be combined and sieved into a bowl. The next step

would be to cut the butter into small crumbs so that they become flour coated crumbs

instead of smooth dough because the butter has to be really cold when put into this

mixture. Then add the liquid ingredients buttermilk or milk and oil at the same time when

the flour is stirred to form dough. The texture of this dough has to be damp, clammy and

lumpy, stir dough until it leaves sides of the bowl.  Now, spread some dry flour onto any flat

surface and put the dough onto the surface and start kneading it gently until it becomes

smooth and comes collectively. After this, the dough has to be rolled out into an half inch

thickness, and the biscuits can be cut out either using a cookie cutter or knife both of them

dipped in flour before slashing the dough. Place the cut biscuits dough onto the baking

sheet and place them in oven for about 10-15 minutes, after wards they can be served hot

with butter.

Biscuit cake recipe can be made from leftovers of biscuits from the can which do not seem

to be getting eaten.

Biscuit cakes are easy to prepare and also

contains delectable tastes. It is very addictive since it does not involve much of baking and

it can be made with an ease by even kids. The main ingredients for biscuit cake recipe will

be chocolate bar, milk, unsalted butter, either homemade leftover biscuits or pack of

biscuits and chocolate nutties.

The procedure for biscuit cake recipe will kick off with greasing any sort of cake tin which

has to be kept aside in the time, ingredients are put together. The chocolate bar has to be

melted with milk, stir the butter in this mixture. This mixture has to be kept aside until it

cools off, but care has to be taken that the mixture should not solidify. Now, the biscuits

have to broken into small parts and mix them along with chocolate nutties and any other

optional items like dry nuts or any chocolate syrup. Take the biscuits mixture and mix it

with the chocolate and milk mix and stir it gently for some time. Now, put the entire

mixture into the greased cake tin. Put this tin aside with the mixture until it chills

approximately for 3 hrs and it has to become firm. Once the cakes become rigid, do away

with it from the tin and slice it into thin wedges and serve it cold.

There are various other procedure for biscuit cake recipe replacing some of the above said

items, like the chocolate nutties can be replaced with golden syrup and also after the

mixture has been placed in the tin, it can be refrigerated, for a couple of hours to set it

properly.

Tags:  Biscuit Cake Recipe

By : Rehana Khambaty

Category : Snacks and refreshments,Cheese, Baked dishes

Servings : 4

Time Taken : 30-45 mins

Rating : Add to Favs

Method

1. Oven Temp: 425 deg F2. Preheat the oven to 425 D. Lightly grease a baking sheet.3. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder.4. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter until it resembles coarse crumbs.5. Stir in the cheese and milk.6. Mix with a fork until the dough comes together and forms a ball.7. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead 5 - 6 times.8. Roll the dough out to a 1 inch thickness.9. Cut with a 2 inch biscuit cutter.10. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until they are a light brown.

Optional: Brush the tops of the biscuits with 2 tbsp melted butter after removing form the oven.

Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder1/2 tsp salt1/2 cup butter

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese2/3 cup milk

Bakewell Biscuits Pvt. Ltd.'s products are manufactured under the most hygienic conditions. Immense caution is exercised in the procurement of raw materials such as wheat, flour, sugar, vegetables, glucose, syrup and malt. Rigid quality standards are ensured at every stage of the production process. Every batch of, Glucose Biscuits, Malt ‘n’ Milk Biscuits, Nice Biscuits, Milk & Honey Biscuits etc. are thoroughly checked by quality experts using the most modern equipment. 

Depending on the flavor, the biscuit is reinforced with additional minerals and vitamins. There is also a dash of added sugar for better taste. The food grade colours and chemicals used in the manufacture of the biscuits are approved by requisite authorities and are of premium grade. 

Quality AssuranceQuality is due importance in our organization. We exercise strict quality standards and carry out production in most hygienic conditions. Stringent quality tests are conducted from procurement of raw materials like wheat, flour, vegetables, malt, syrup to production of biscuits. Besides, depending upon the flavor, biscuits are provided with additional vitamins and minerals to ass rich taste to them.