Stealthy Mom: Butter Biscuit Bake-Off

Butter Biscuits

Several months ago, I emailed Clabber Girl Corporation to thank them for offering a non-GMO baking powder. Rumford is non GMO and aluminum-free. The company sent me a generous sample of the Reduced Sodium version to try. (The sample arrived just before the heat wave, so it was a while before I could go anywhere near the oven. )

Would reduced sodium baking powder get the same results? To find out, I baked up two batches of Butter Biscuits using both versions of the baking powder.

To make the trial as fair as possible, I mixed both at the same time and baked them at the same time. First, the low sodium were arranged on the left side of the baking sheet and the regular on the right, then I reversed them for the next sheet. (That way the only variable was the baking powder. They were rolled the same thickness at the same time, baked at the same time at the same temperature and any inconsistencies within the oven were controlled.)

Here is my Butter Biscuit recipe, adapted from the Tea Biscuits recipe in the Five Roses: A Guide to Good Cooking book:

2 cups unbleached flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt or lite salt
1/3 cup cold butter
1 cup cold milk

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter in until the mixture is crumbly like corn meal. Pour in the cold milk all at once and stir until a dough forms. (I gently take the dough and knead it two or three times on the table. You don't want the heat of your hands to soften the butter, so be careful with this step.)

Roll the dough into a rectangle between half to three-quaters of an inch thick. Cut the dough lengthwise, then widthwise, to make squares. It does not matter how large they are, as long as they are fairly even. Gently round the corners of the biscuit squares with your fingers.

Place the biscuits on an un-greased baking sheet, and bake for 11-14 minutes, until golden on the tops and bottom.