ANGEL BISCUITS

Mondays are good cooking/baking days for me. One thing I usually bake on Mondays is whatever treat I am taking the next day to Hillcrest Thrift Shop for the other volunteers. This past Monday I spent most of the day in the kitchen. (I did start the day by going to the thrift shop and walking for about 45 minutes inside the store. That is one of the nice things about the new building we moved to. It is so much larger and all on one floor so it works out great to go before the shop opens and walk as close to the outer perimeter inside that I can. I also "weave" around all of the racks in the sports department to add a little extra steps to each go round. I used to count the trips around, but have started just walking for a length of time instead. There is an Ab Lounger for sale and I told Volunteer Bob that they couldn't sell it because I was stopping and doing sets of "situps" on it.) 

While I had some chicken in the slow cooker (check that recipe out tomorrow), I decided to make these Angel Biscuits that I found in Dawn Stoltzfus' A Farmer's Daughter Recipes from a Mennonite Kitchen cookbook. I often see recipes for Angel Biscuits in my Amish cookbooks, but just never have tried them. I even have a recipe that makes a bunch and the dough keeps in the refrigerator for a week and you just take out as much as you like when you want to make some. I haven't made them in a long time and keep thinking I will. But until then....I just decided to try Dawn's recipe. 

One reason I decided to try it was because she states that you can make them ahead and just put in refrigerator until you are ready to bake them later in the day. I liked that idea. I also like the taste. Angel Biscuits are like a cross between a biscuit and a roll...very light tasting. My husband and I ate two each at dinner. They are also great warmed up about 10 seconds in the microwave.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE A PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS RECIPE, CLICK HERE.

ANGEL BISCUITS

1       tablespoon yeast
1/4    cup warm water
1/2    cup salted butter, softened (I use unsalted butter.)
3       tablespoons raw or white sugar
1       cup buttermilk
1/2    teaspoon baking soda
2-3/4 cups flour (I used 1-1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour.)
1        teaspoon salt
1-1/2  teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. if you are going to go on and bake the biscuits.

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

Cream butter and sugar,

add buttermilk, baking soda, and dissolved yeast mixture.

Stir in flour, salt, and baking powder. (I premixed these 
dry ingredients.)

Roll out at least 1 - inch thick and cut into desired size.

(I dropped dough out on a lightly floured surface and

worked a little flour into the dough to make it manageable.

I like thinner biscuits and patted the dough out a little bit more than 1/2 inch thick.)

Take the scraps of dough, work them up just a bit until smooth and cut more.

Continue til you have used most of the dough.

No rising is required.

(Since I was making mine in the morning to bake for dinner, I covered the biscuits with plastic wrap and placed in the refrigerator.

Then I had to let them sit out for 30 minutes before I was ready to bake them to allow them to return to room temperature.

Since the pan was cold, I waited until the 30 minutes was up before preheating the oven.)

Bake for 12-15 minutes on greased baking sheet. (I baked mine 12 minutes, removed them from the oven

and sprayed them with a buttery spray, and then returned them to the oven for 3 more minutes.)

You may add butter to the tops of the biscuits when they come of the oven.

Yields 18 - 20 biscuits. (I only got 12 biscuits so she must use a really small cutter.)