Norfolks Best Kept Secret Unveiled

As you're aware, we here at the Norfolk Voice love to uncover data and display it in an easy to read format.  With the recent cold spell keeping us indoors more than usual we've been able to spend more time researching facts and figures.  This latest discovery couldn't have come at a better time.  With global warming getting frost warnings what better way is there to spend the day inside - baking!  In the financial meltdown of 2008 the lone stock market share that saw it's value increase was Campbell's Soup.  People love comfort food and we've uncovered a previously thought to have been misplaced special cookbook.

It's not just any cookbook either, it's a "Grannies Cookbook".  You know the kind of woman that you will never see pull out a cook book because after all the years of practice they know the recipes off by heart.  This makes it very difficult to recreate and to pass on to future generations.  We're very fortunate to have discovered this precious tome and will now share a comfort food recipe with you.

Grannies Cheese Biscuit Recipe!

In these flour covered beat up pages we have found the long lost secret to what we would call the best biscuits ever.  One of the main secrets is to keep all of your ingredients cold.

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup pastry flour
1 cup of cold heavy cream
2 tablespoons of white vinegar or lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
2 1/4  teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt

8 ounces of cheese.  your choice. (2 cups grated.)

Stir the vinegar into the cream and put it back in the fridge.  30 minutes is good.

Mix the flours, salt,  soda, powder and sugar in a bowl.  Take the butter from the freezer and use
a cheese grater to grate the butter while dropping it into the flour mixture.  Use your fingers to mix
the butter into the flour but take care not to play with it enough to melt the butter.

Add the cold cream and stir until you have dough.  Sprinkle some flour onto a work surface and transfer the dough to it.  Sprinkle some more flour onto the top of the dough so it doesn't stick to your hands and press it out to a rectangle that's about 1/2 inch thick.  Sprinkle about a quarter of the grated cheese onto the dough.

Now fold the dough over itself like you would a letter.  Press the dough out to the 1/2 inch thick rectangular shape again and add more cheese.  Repeat until you have done this 4 times.  If you have a pizza wheel cutter you can now cut your dough into small squares and place them on an ungreased sheet pan spacing them 1/2 inch apart.  Take the sheet with the biscuits on them and place them in the fridge to keep them cold for about 20 minutes.  This will keep the butter from melting and produce pockets in the dough when baked.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.  When it reaches temperature place the pan in the oven and reduce the heat to 450 degrees.  Bake for 8 minutes and then rotate the pan in the oven.  Bake for another 6-10 minutes until they are a golden brown and they should rise to about 1 1/2 times their original size.

Remove from the oven and let stand for 3 minutes to cool before munching them all up!  Enjoy.

We'll post the sticky buns recipe after we've tested it.