Three Ingredient Biscuits

My husband and I have a little home on an island in the Puget Sound, and recently we headed there for a little vacation.  Because we live on the east coast, there is quite a bit of preparation necessary for this westward trip, including meal-planning and reviewing the inventory of supplies for re-stocking or replacing.  Groundwork is laid for where we'll shop prior to the flight so that the number of stops for pickup/purchase is minimized once we're on the west coast.  Keeping an up-to-date inventory of household items, both food and otherwise, has been a tremendous help.

The good news is that we are pretty good at planning.  The bad news is that even good thinkers occasionally forget.  And guess what we forgot to purchase on this last trip out?  Hint: sweet, white, and granular.  I can't believe it either, but yup, we forgot to buy sugar.  Yikes!

We had planned to have a good friend over for dinner while vacationing.  And all of the needed ingredients for a couple appetizers and a vegetarian dinner were purchased.  The missing sugar was just for the dessert, but I knew we could plate a couple cheeses and fruit if need be.

Even so, I did have self-rising flour, coconut oil, and powdered milk from which to make something.  I decided that I could bake biscuits...slathered with butter and jam...Bingo!  This could be the dessert ticket.  And anyway, I wanted the cheese plate for the appetizer.  I prepared the dough and put it in the refrigerator so that I could bake it when we were ready for dessert.  Nothing better than hot-out-of-the-oven biscuits, right?

Long story short?  Our friend brought dessert!  A flourless chocolate cake and a container of homemade strawberry jam.  Happy, yummy times!  (And there was no mention of the biscuit dough chilling in the refrigerator.)

The following morning,  I made those biscuits... to go with that leftover jam.  Since I had already prepared the dough the day before, I just needed to remove it from the refrigerator, roll it out and slice it into random shapes (kind of like what I did with the Canistrelli cookies).

Notes

1.  It's hard to believe that you can make a delicious bread from scratch with just 3 ingredients.  Hold onto your hats cuz you can...and should!

2.  If you don't have self-rising flour (c'mon now...I've been throwing my support at this staple since forever), you can use all-purpose flour and add baking powder and salt.  See ingredient list below.  And yes, this then becomes Five Ingredient Biscuits...still a good deal :)

3.  I only had powdered milk, so I reconstituted to make what the recipe needed.

4.  The chilled dough rolls out beautifully.  Cutting random shapes is quick and there are no leftover pieces to re-roll.  What's not to like about that?

Three Ingredient Biscuits
(mentor recipe here)

2 cups self-rising flour (OR use 2 cups all-purpose flour plus 1 T. baking powder and 1 tsp. salt)
1/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup milk

Directions

1.  Place the self-rising flour into a bowl (or the all-purpose flour plus additions).
2.  Add the coconut oil and mix with fingers until everything uniformly clumps together when squeezed.
3.  Add milk and mix with a fork until dough just comes together.
4.  Pick up dough and place on a floured surface.  Knead a few times to get it together.
5.  Form into a rectangle (square, circle) an inch thick.
6.  Wrap in saran and chill a few hours or overnight.
7.  When ready to bake, preheat oven to 425º F.
8.  Remove dough from refrigerator, unwrap, and roll out to 1/2 thickness.
9.  Cut into random-sized pieces.

10. Place on a cookie sheet lined with a Silpat, parchment, or greased.
11. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden on the tops.

12. Remove from oven and serve immediately with butter and jam.