Biscut Recipe

[Deby]

I was whining about my pie crust recipe being tough and a friend recommended adding vinegar and an egg to the mix. I haven't tried this for the pie crust, but I was making biscuts and thought I'd try them in that recipe. I ended up with a very light and tasty biscut.

Sift together:

2 cups gluten-free flour (any blend you like)

1 tsp salt

1tsp xanthan gum

4 tsp baking powder.

Cut in:

2/3 cup shortening (butter flavor or a combo of 1/3 cup butter and 1/3 cup lard, or if you are trying to go light, try 1/3 cup cream cheese and 1/3 cup no trans fat shortening. Personally, the butter and lard combo works best but I don't always keep lard on hand, so I use Crisco.)

Whisk together in a bowl: (this will get really foamy so make sure your bowl is large enough, as in, don't use a soup bowl :-) )

1 egg

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp cider vinegar

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix until all is moistened. you may have to add extra liquid. If so, add by the table spoon so as not to get the mix too wet. OR, you can add enough buttermilk to get a thick batter that can be used for drop biscuts or spooned into boiling broth to make dumplings.

Turn out mix onto a floured surface and pat out to 1 inch thickness. Cut with a biscut cutter, or if circles don't matter, cut into squares and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees about 15 to 20 minutes until lightly brown.

You can make these additions for different flavors

Add 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese and 1 tsp garlic powder to the dry mix.

Add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon to the dry mix.

add 1/2 cup dried fruit to to the dry mix and a tsp of vanilla extract to the wet.

You may also brush your unbaked biscuts with an egg white whisked with a tablespoon of water. This will give a hard, shiny brown top. If you make one of the sweet variations of biscut, you can sprinkle coarse sugar on the top of the biscuts to add a real bakery touch. Split the baked biscut in half and fill with sliced strawberries or other fresh fruit and whipped cream for an easy dessert.