Preheat oven to 425°
Mix:
2C flour
3t baking powder
1/2t salt
1C grated Parmesan cheese
Cut in:
1/4C lard
Add:
2/3 – 1C yogurt
Mix until a soft ball is formed. On a floured counter, knead 10 to 20 times, adding a bit more flour if sticky. Roll dough 1/2″ thick. Cut with biscuit cutter (or a drinking cup/glass). Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for 9-12 minutes.
Yum yum.
Credit: This recipe is an altered version of “Basic Biscuits” from the More with Less Cookbook (A Mennonite must-have) and the yogurt idea coming from Mark Bittman’s “Yogurt Biscuits” in his How to Cook Everything cookbook.
Story: I remember biscuits for Sunday lunches, and now I think I know why…because they’re so fast, and they help round out a ‘special’ meal. (Although don’t wait for something ‘special’ to bake these delights.) Mom would frequently have something cooking in the oven (on time bake) or crockpot while we were at church Sunday mornings. A one-pot wonder, maybe a roast for sunday, and then would boil some frozen vegetables for something green on the table. For some reason, it seemed special when we had biscuits, and Mom used the original recipe in More with Less.
Superiority of lard: Mom’s biscuits were good, but I don’t quite remember them as fluffy as the ones I’ve made recently with lard. Maybe it’s because it’s been probably 15 years since I’ve last eaten her biscuits. But maybe it’s the lard. The added cheese takes a basic recipe and turns it gourmet. You could use other types of cheese, especially if it’s in small pieces…feta…mmm. Let me know if you have success with other cheeses. I love cheese, but kinda stick to a familiar few.
Back to lard. We have and use lard a lot now. Customers often ask what I use it for.
- Anytime shortening is called for in a recipe, I use lard instead. After all, lard is the original, and shortening was created as a substitute for it. Go back to the original. Pie crusts and now discovered biscuits, are superior with lard.
- In other baking that calls for butter, say cakes and cookies, I use half butter and half lard. Some baked goods pull on the butter for flavor, as well as the fat.
- Some recipes only call for a small amount of butter, eg. pancakes. I’ll often use lard in those cases too. But lard can taste a little different, and it’s not as yummy as butter.
- For sauteing, I never use vegetable oil. I may use lard, or olive oil. Some of that depends on whether I think they’ll be leftovers or not, because when it cools, lard will solidify again and, I’ll be honest, it kinda turns me off when I see my cooled food covered with white fat. But if the food is going to be eaten hot, and eaten all up, then lard it is.
- Frying and high-temp cooking; choose lard. Lard is the best fat to fry in, because it has the highest smoke point (the point where the fat smokes, creating carcinogens.) Things like doughnuts, (haven’t made them yet this winter) homemade potato chips, or homemade tortilla chips made out of corn or flour tortillas; all those are best fried in lard.