Desserts
Our GrandmaTessie Scharf's Tea Biscuits
Our grandmother was a devoted baker of all sorts of goodies; her tea biscuits were one of our favourites. The following recipe is whatI pulled out of her one morning many years ago as she was baking a fresh batch. While the ingredients amount is not precise, her method was based on adjusting and feeling the dough as she worked with it. These make a lovely base for strawberry jam; our grandmother's Un-cooked Strawberry Jam recipe( under "Preserves").
- 3 to 4 cups flour
- 3 to 4 tsp baking powder
- Pinch baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½" slice off a pound of butter cut into ½ cup of sugar. (if not rich enough, add more butter).
- 2 eggs beaten. Add enough milk to make not quite ½ cup. Add 1 tsp vanilla.
- Mix together dry ingredients in large bowl.
- Work in liquid mixture to flour mixture with fork.
- If not a soft dough, add a little more milk. Should not be as thick as bread dough.
- Place on a pastry board dusted with flour. Roll it or pat it down to about ¾" thickness.
- With an ordinary drinking glass, cut out biscuits.
- Place biscuits on an un-greased pan. (Don't have too much flour on bottom of tea biscuits - should be like pie pastry).
- Bake at 350F until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.