Oh the joys of harvest and fresh local vegetables. After the excess of candy and treats, some simple hearty vegetable soup is what the day requires!
As always I have extra sour cream and since I have a large pot of cabbage and bean soup – what any soup needs is a nice freshly baked biscuit. And I love sour cream biscuits. Simple and easy to make – and helps get rid of that sour cream sitting in my fridge. I posted another version of sour cream biscuits that uses vegetable shortening. These use lard – and lard makes the best biscuits. Yes rendered pig fat is a a culinary blessing!
(I will post my cabbage and bean recipe soon – my other soup recipes are: Prime Rib, Turkey)
Ingredients
4 cup white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon salt (or less if desired)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup Lard (at room temperature!)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1/4 cup milk
parchment paper
Preheat oven to 350°F
Mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly in a bowl.
In a separate bowl mix the sour cream with the egg until blended.
Place lard in large bowl, and cut with knife into small cubes. Now dump in the dry ingredients!
Use a pastry cutter to blend the shortening into the flour mixture until the mixtures has a course pea-sized texture.
Add the sour cream and cut mixture until it is course crumbs.
Using clean dry hands knead dough 6 to 8 strokes; if dough is too dry and not binding together, slowly add a bit of milk a teaspoon at a time. The mixture should just bind together without being too dry or too moist!
All of the above should be done fairly quickly to avoid over-working the flour and activating the gluten! (which would make the biscuits tough…)
Roll out dough 1/4 inch thick. Lightly dust with flour if it is sticking to the rolling pin. Fold in half, and then fold in half again.
(Yes that would now be a quarter – but this is cooking not math class!)
Now roll out once more to about 1/2 inch thick and cut biscuits (no bigger than 2 inches wide!)
Place biscuits on parchment paper in a cookie sheet. The biscuits should just be touching each other – this will make them puff upwards more than then expand sideways!
Brush the top with any left-over milk to make the tops brown evenly.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (until desired golden brown on top)
Let cool a few minutes – and then enjoy!
These biscuits are not only excellent with soup but also really tasty with butter and your favourite jam.
