October 22, 2020 - 10:19am
Biscuit Flour
I have a biscuit recipe that came from the "Cooking Up a Storm" - 10th Anniversary edition which calls for only two ingredients, 2 1/2 cups of White Lily self-rising flour and 1 1/2 cups heavy cream. It is imperative that one uses the White Lily flour for best results.
I know that you can make a self-rising flour by the addition of baking powder and salt to AP flour. But does anyone know what is so special about White Lily self-rising flour?
If I'm not mistaken, biscuit flour is milled from soft wheat berries? I'd like to query all you home millers as to what brand of soft wheat you prefer to grind when making a self-rising flour for your biscuit recipe. Thank you
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White Lily AP is a soft low protein flour _with other specific charactertistics._
The recipe creator is matching those specific characteristics to the exact ratio of flour to cream. Another brand of flour, with other characteristics, would require additional ingredients and different bakers %.
I'm not saying the recipe creator had W, P/L, in mind, but, he/she knew that other brands of flour would _behave_ differently_ and would need more/different ingredients, and still not match the result.
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Most American amateur bakers seem to think the only charactertics of a flour are protein and whether it is "white" or "whole wheat.""
But there are a few more attributes which are important: W and P/L and others.
Here are two links about White Lily:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/39123/comments-white-lily-flours
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4632/major-wheat-growing-regions-us-reference-maps
More on W, P/L, etc: http://theartisan.net/Flours_One.htm
Hope this helps.
I cannot speak to White Lily flour, but since you ordered a mill why not adapt the recipe to using whole-wheat flour that you milled from Soft White berries?
Here's a photo of my first attempt at biscuits. My objective is to be able to make Biscuits and Gravy, using a "gravy starter" that I canned into pint jars. Obviously, having the bran included means they won't be as fluffy as their white flour counterparts. But, in my case, one of the goals is to become as self-sufficient as possible. Plus, they actually tasted pretty good for a whole-wheat biscuits!
Something to consider.
IMG_20201001_173119_copy_1040x780.jpg
This Southern living article explains and it's true. I've lived and been baking in the south since the 1970's. Flour will help but you'll still need to handle the dough properly "as little as possible".
https://www.southernliving.com/news/reason-southern-biscuits-best