Biscuits

The biscuit recipe is adapted (heavily) from ‘Mike’s Baking Powder Biscuits’ in Dining on a Dime.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

To start, mix or sift

• 2C flour
• 2½t baking powder
• 1T cornstarch
• ¼–½t salt (I don’t usually measure)

Then add ⅓C oil, and mix again.

Finally add 1C of your favorite milk substitute. Mix. We like rice milk or unflavored, unsweetened almond milk the best; coconut milk is usually too sweet, and we don’t like the taste with soy milk.

The dough should now be a bit sticky, but not still soupy. Add some flour or milk to correct the consistency as needed.

Knead briefly (about 5 times) on a floured surface, working flour in to absorb any remaining stickiness.

Roll out to a rectangle about 5–10mm thick. Cut into biscuit-sized squares with a pizza cutter. Place on a pizza stone (or a cookie sheet) and bake at 400°F for 18 minutes.

Gravy

The gravy recipe is adapted from a standard white sauce recipe in a standard cookbook (I think maybe Better Homes and Gardens?).

I usually make the gravy while the biscuits are baking. If you start heating the sauce with about 15 minutes left on the biscuit timer, they’ll come out at about the same time.

First, prepare spice blend. I originally just used pepper, then added some cumin; then worked through a variety of blends. My current best blend (as of 1 Nov. 2015) is this:

• ⅛ t. grains of paradise
• ∼6 coriander seeds
• ⅛ t. mustard seed
• Dash white pepper
• Dash garlic powder
• ⅛ t. Mexican oregano

Amounts are approximate — I didn’t really measure, but they should capture the rough proportions.

Then cut 2–4 baby bella mushrooms (looking have about ½C of chopped mushrooms). You can use cellos (white mushrooms), but I think the baby bellas have much better taste.

Lightly cover the bottom of a saucepan in oil, and heat oil and spices.

Once they are heated, add 2½T flour and some salt, followed by 1¼C milk substitute.

Stir regularly until it starts to thicken.

Add mushrooms and continue stirring and heating.

When gravy is thick, remove from heat.

All done

When the biscuits are done, put them in a bowl. Serve with coffee (and perhaps orange juice).