SC - Newcomer

[Quicksilver]

WyteRayven at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Ah.....I guess I should weigh the flour next time. That should help. Still,
> the original recipe says "paste" rather than dough...did they use the two
> interchangeably?

The short answer? Yes... more or less. I think it's one of those
situations where Latin roots ended up in English via the Normans, with a
counterpart Teutonic/English word still in use.
 
> >  I think the basic dough is more pasta-like than the soft, damp, sticky
> >  batter you describe, and the instruction to beat it with a rolling pin
> >  is, I suspect, the principle form of leavening, rather than the air you
> >  beat into the egg whites. (IMO beating the egg whites till foamy was
> >  unnecessary.)
> 
> I see. I beat the eggs until they were foamy because that is what the author
> suggested. I didn't know what beating the dough meant. I thought that it
> might be similar to kneading, but my batter was too wet to do that with.

Huh. Karen Hess said that? I'm surprised, because she is a very
experienced Southern cook; she would presumably know about beaten biscuit.
 
> >Have you ever looked at a recipe for beaten biscuits?
> 
> Actually, no, I haven't. I have seen regular biscuits, and drop biscuits, but
> not beaten.
> 
> >  technique involves whacking the dough several hundred times with a
> >  wooden mallet, which not only incorporates air into the dough (the
> >  finished product is satin-shiny and somewhat blistered on the surface),
> >  but also breaks down the gluten, essentially stretching the strands
> >  beyond their limit until the dough is tender, and the final product
> >  brittle like a biscotti.
> 
> My first thought would have been that working the dough that much would cause
> it to be tough, because I think I have seen that listed in pie crust recipes,
> and I *think* bread. But it also makes sense that it would become more tender
> too, because of breaking the gluten strands down. So this recipe is supposed
> to be more cracker like than bread, or cake like?

Well, the cream is a shortening and the sugar is a dough tenderizer, and
those, added to a beaten biscuit dough, would likely give you a fairly
light cookie consistency, possibly somewhat less crisp for a comparative
lack of fat in the recipe. As for breaking the gluten down, you seem to
be grasping the idea; you develop the gluten fully, then keep on going
until the strands are more or less completely degraded. Not unlike if
you continuously stir gelatin as it sets; there's no lasting structural
support. True, in the case of piecrusts and bread, you don't want to
overknead, and they will get tough, but the idea here is to go _beyond_
tough. 

It's possible I'm putting too much emphasis on this beating with the
rolling-pin thing; maybe there's no connection between this recipe and
beaten biscuit or Prince-Bisket, but it's an awfully tempting thought.
 
> > You might look at Cariadoc's adaptation of
> >  Prince-Bisket in the online Miscellany for a comparison; that recipe,
> >  IIRC, sez to beat the dough for an hour. I think you're supposed to get
> >  a very crisp cookie, somewhat hard, but brittle, filled with the nicely
> >  contrasting fruit.
> 
> Will do :) Thank you for your comments. I really appreciate it. I mostly lurk
> on this list, and I learn a lot, but I think that I will learn even more
> through trying these out. I will try this recipe again, with the suggestions
> you make. I think it will turn out better the next time. :)

Most important: don't forget to have fun.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com