Emma Alter
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If you followed the first two weeks of the bread challenge you will know that my daughter Emma and I have vowed not to purchase any bread and rolls for an entire month and we are committed to baking all our own. We had our first hiccup in week number 3.
My son, Hugh and I all cook a lot of Chinese and Thai food, as does Emma, so we made a date to finally try a giant new Asian market that has opened in downtown Toronto. To our delight Hugh brought his girlfriend Becca along and we were ready for a championship shopping expedition for all ingredients Asian. We actually arrived before the 9:00 am store opening, so we took a walk along the shipping channel in the glorious spring sunshine. Once in the store we started with the produce department, moved through the tofu and noodles, through sauces and pickled fruits, bypassed the meat section (3 vegetarians in the crowd), stood amazed by the spices, got a little stalled in the Pocky section and ended up in the baked goods section where they had fabulous looking steamed buns and dumplings. Emma and I smugly said "nope, we bake our own". After spending an astounding hour and a half shopping we filled the car with our many purchases and went back into the store to have a dim sum breakfast.
It was such a beautiful day that we took the groceries to Hugh's house and decided to walk around his up-and-coming neighbourhood and see what new stores have opened. One store I was particularly eager to try was Rowe Farms which sells organic meat from Ontario. Emma is willing to eat meat occasionally if it is local and organic so we bought some lovely looking herbed sausages and some chicken breasts. All the walking made us hungry so we stopped for lunch in a local eatery and washed it down with a pitcher of Ontario ale.
What started as a grocery shopping trip had turned into a day long event so when Emma and I finally arrived home at 4:00 pm we were tired, so we shelved plans for bagel making for another day, hence the hiccup. Next morning, my husband returned from rowing with - gasp! a loaf of bread in his hands. When I admonished him, he wordlessly opened the bread drawer to demonstrate it's emptiness. At least he bought his loaf from the Portuguese bakery down the street for $.99 rather than some artisan bread for $5.50. While he had toast, Emma and I declined to eat the bread, so I had to get busy baking. I remembered a recipe for biscuits that my colleague Jasmin had forwarded to me and I decided to try that. Within 15 minutes I was popping a hot biscuit in my mouth.
These biscuits where incredibly moist and light. I used organic yogurt and half unbleached all-purpose flour and half whole wheat. You could make them entirely whole wheat if you wanted to. I cooked my Rowe Farms sausages purchased the day before and made these sweet little open faced sandwiches, using radishes and cucumbers from the farmer's market. They were delightful to look at and were really delicious.
Yogurt Biscuits
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour or a mixture with whole wheat
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup organic yogurt
1. Heat oven to 375F. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add oil and yogurt and mix well.
2. Place dough on lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth. Roll out to an inch thickness and cut biscuits using a round cookie cutter or a glass. Place biscuits on a greased baking pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Serve hot.
Yields 12 biscuits
Difficulty Level: Easy
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