The Efx3 Recipe Collection

We don’t have US-style biscuits in the UK; closest thing is savoury scones. I made soup a few days back, veggies with barley and lentils, and had some left over and decided I’d like to make American biscuits to go with it. Found a promising recipe, tried it, and they came out fantastic.

Ingredients:

2.5 cups all-purpose flour

2.5tsp baking powder

0.5tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup milk

1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 205C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Method:

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. I used self-raising flour so only added 2 level teaspoons of baking powder.

Cut or rub in the butter (I used salted, either works) until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. The butter has to be very cold for this, and if you’re rubbing it in, your hands must be cold too.

Add the milk and the beaten egg and stir either with a metal spoon or a knife until the mix is sticky, moist and lumpy.

Knead the mixture only enough to bind it. If you knead it too much the biscuits won’t rise as well.

Roll it out to around half an inch thick and cut with a cup/glass/cookie-cutter into circles. Try not to twist the cutter – this pinches the edges together and you’ll get flatter biscuits.

Brush the tops with a little milk and pop them in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick comes out  clean.

Nom!

This is a recipe for fairly easy homemade bread,  I didn’t write the original recipe(that can be found here) but I have altered it to my tastes.

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This recipe is for very yummy pumpkin and spice drop cookies, they are very easy to make and taste quite good, they might be too “spicy” for younger children but they are a hit around my house. This cookie is very soft and moist, almost like pumpkin bread or muffin in bite size form(and easier to make) they look like brown blobs but they taste like harvest time. It’s the cookie on the right

1 cup shorting(I used part butter for flavor)

2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 cups Pumpkin Puree

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups flour

1/2 cup whole wheat/graham flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon EACH Nutmeg, Cinnamon, and Clove

Cream together the sugar, shortning and egg.

Add in the pumpkin and vanilla extract.

Sift together the flours, baking soda and spices.

Gradually add the flour/spice mix to the wet ingredients.

Chill for at least 1 hour

Drop by rounded teaspoon full onto lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake at 400f for 8 to 10 minutes (I found 10 to be just right)

Makes about 6 Dozen cookies.

These are very tasty pumpkins and spice cookies that you can roll out and cut into cute fall shapes then decorate as you like, I did fall leaves and acorns here but last week I made some that were Jack-O-Lanterns. This cookie is firm almost like thick sweet pie crust(but moister) they have a good flavor to them and don’t really need the frosting if you wish to leave that off.

1 cup butter(it is safe to use half shorting if you want them to have a longer shelf life)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tablespoon Orange Zest OR 1 Teaspoon Orange Extract

1/2 cup packed pumpkin puree

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2  1/4 cups regular flour

1/4 cup whole wheat/graham flour

1/2 teaspoon each Ginger, Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Clove

Prep time: 1 hour

First Cream together the butter, sugar and orange zest/extract.

Then add the pumpkin, egg yolk and vanilla.

Sift together the flours and the spices.

Carefully mix the flour/spice into the wet ingredients.

Chill the dough for 30 Minutes.

Roll out on a well floured surface and cut into desired shapes, place slightly apart on lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake at 375f  for 10 minutes. Makes about 2  1/2 dozen cookies.

Let them cool, and frost with Simple Icing. (1 cup confectioners sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1Tblsp milk)

I can’t take credit for this one, but I can confirm that it works very well. It’ll make enough for two medium-large pizzas, depending on how thick or thin you like your crust. You can also use one half and freeze the other.  Be sure to take off all your rings and have a small dish of flour ready for the kneading process because it’s a little messy at first and your hands will be covered in dough and flour.

Ingredients

1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1 1/3 cups warm water
3 1/2 – 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (unbleached bread flour or all purpose will be fine)
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs salt
1 tbs sugar (optional, I didn’t use it and had no complaints)

Preparation Time: 10 minutes to mix, approximately 90 minutes for dough to rise.

Cooking Time: Bake dough for 7-15 minutes (depending on thickness of crust and if you’re using a stone or a metal baking pan) or until edges are beginning to brown at 450 F

Method

1: Combine the yeast (and sugar if using) in the warm water, stirring gently to dissolve the yeast. Let stand for 5 minutes.

2: In large bowl combine all other ingredients, adding yeast mixture once it’s ready.

3: Mix. Mix. Mix. Use your hands if you like.

4: Take dough out of the bowl and place dough on a heavily floured surface. I found the recipe makes a sticky dough and added probably another 1/3 to 1/2 cup of flour during the kneading process. It should be slightly tacky but not sticky. Adjust your flour accordingly. More flour = dryer dough.  Knead for 10 minutes .

5: Lightly grease a bowl with olive oil and put dough in, covering lightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for 90 minutes or until it’s doubled in size. If you put it somewhere warm it’ll be quicker. I turned the oven on for 5 minutes then put the metal bowl over the vent to heat it up a little. Removed the bowl from heat after 10 minutes and waited another hour.

6:Once risen, punch the dough down and cut in half.

7: Make pizza as desired.