Not a Can Opener in Sight
10/04/09: Homemade Tomato Soup with Southern Biscuits
Meal Details: For the main course I made homemade tomato soup and for a side I made southern biscuits. I thought we absolutely needed something for dunking, that's how the biscuits came into the picture!
Defining moments: I made biscuits. Wow! They seem like such an everyday sort of thing, but I feel that baking these biscuits was a monumental achievement! I heard about so many black bottom biscuits before, maybe that was why I was scared to death about trying them out.
Recipe sources: The tomato soup recipe came from allrecipes.com and can be viewed here. The biscuit recipe is from the cooking show Good Eats and was specifically chosen because I am part of the Food Network Challenge that is being hosted by the writer of the I Blame My Mother blog. Learn more about this fun challenge by visiting this page. You can view the recipe here. And the YouTube video of the original show here.
What I learned: Let me first discuss the tomato soup. At first I was planning on using Roma tomatoes because I thought their meatiness would make for a velvety soup, but I went with the regular slicing instead. I'm glad I did because I later realized that the soup benefits from all the tomato juice and velvety texture is achieved by way of the roux.
Now on to the biscuits! For those who would like to try out Alton Brown's recipe I highly recommend that you look at both the recipe and the YouTube video, because Alton and his grandmother give very helpful tips in the video that are not included in the written format. The following tips are very important: 1) use 1/2 all-purpose flour and 1/2 cake flour, 2) touch the top of each cut-out-biscuit with your finger to prevent the biscuit from forming a dome while baking, 3) preheat oven to 450 degrees F, not 400 like the recipe states, and 4) have the biscuits touch each other when you place them on the baking sheet, but don't have them too close.
And my tips for the biscuits is such: bake them on the Baker's Secret cookie sheet, the biscuits bake splendidly on it. I tried my first batch in a 13x9 Pyrex pan and they didn't rise as high as those on the Baker's Secret.
I don't know if there is any truth behind it but I think if I let the dough sit for a couple minutes (like 10) I think I will get higher biscuits. I say this because when my first batch was baking in the oven I left my dough sit on the counter for that amount of time. So when the second batch came out of the oven they were twice as high as my first. I will have to test my theory when I bake these again.
Any modifications? Actually, no. Quite amazing for me!
How it tasted? Both were exceptional. My whole family said that the soup is better than Campbell's. That's definitely good to hear. And the biscuits were tender, moist, and delicious. I don't quite remember having biscuits before (yeah, weird huh?) so I don't have anything to compare to. But Annemarie said that they were the best biscuits she has ever had. I'm blushing now.
How about a 2nd time? Yes, for both.
Mmm Mmm Good!
Sorry had to do it!
Meal Details: For the main course I made homemade tomato soup and for a side I made southern biscuits. I thought we absolutely needed something for dunking, that's how the biscuits came into the picture!
Defining moments: I made biscuits. Wow! They seem like such an everyday sort of thing, but I feel that baking these biscuits was a monumental achievement! I heard about so many black bottom biscuits before, maybe that was why I was scared to death about trying them out.
Recipe sources: The tomato soup recipe came from allrecipes.com and can be viewed here. The biscuit recipe is from the cooking show Good Eats and was specifically chosen because I am part of the Food Network Challenge that is being hosted by the writer of the I Blame My Mother blog. Learn more about this fun challenge by visiting this page. You can view the recipe here. And the YouTube video of the original show here.
What I learned: Let me first discuss the tomato soup. At first I was planning on using Roma tomatoes because I thought their meatiness would make for a velvety soup, but I went with the regular slicing instead. I'm glad I did because I later realized that the soup benefits from all the tomato juice and velvety texture is achieved by way of the roux.
Now on to the biscuits! For those who would like to try out Alton Brown's recipe I highly recommend that you look at both the recipe and the YouTube video, because Alton and his grandmother give very helpful tips in the video that are not included in the written format. The following tips are very important: 1) use 1/2 all-purpose flour and 1/2 cake flour, 2) touch the top of each cut-out-biscuit with your finger to prevent the biscuit from forming a dome while baking, 3) preheat oven to 450 degrees F, not 400 like the recipe states, and 4) have the biscuits touch each other when you place them on the baking sheet, but don't have them too close.
And my tips for the biscuits is such: bake them on the Baker's Secret cookie sheet, the biscuits bake splendidly on it. I tried my first batch in a 13x9 Pyrex pan and they didn't rise as high as those on the Baker's Secret.
I don't know if there is any truth behind it but I think if I let the dough sit for a couple minutes (like 10) I think I will get higher biscuits. I say this because when my first batch was baking in the oven I left my dough sit on the counter for that amount of time. So when the second batch came out of the oven they were twice as high as my first. I will have to test my theory when I bake these again.
Any modifications? Actually, no. Quite amazing for me!
How it tasted? Both were exceptional. My whole family said that the soup is better than Campbell's. That's definitely good to hear. And the biscuits were tender, moist, and delicious. I don't quite remember having biscuits before (yeah, weird huh?) so I don't have anything to compare to. But Annemarie said that they were the best biscuits she has ever had. I'm blushing now.
How about a 2nd time? Yes, for both.
Mmm Mmm Good!
Sorry had to do it!
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These are beautiful. I love biscuits and just found a recipe I've been trying to perfect. Thanks for participating in FNCCC. I gave you a shout out today in hopes of getting more traffic :) Can't wait to see what you try next~!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment and shout out, I appreciate both immensely!
ReplyDelete