Biscuit Flavors Part 2

Bell and Bellia were so excited the morning they woke up in anticipation of their mother’s lesson on how to make flavored biscuits. They woke up, straightened their country style dresses, and squealed with delight.

Heidi Choch set up a clean and organized work station. She got out the biscuit pan, sugar jar, flour pot, mixer, and seasonings. The ingredients were all simple country ingredients. Bell and Bellia stood and listened silently.

“The key to making biscuits and keeping them country style is to make sure things are followed generationally. Don’t go inventing your own new recipes. In our Choch family, there are only two types of flavored biscuits: salt and pepper and sugar.”

The two girls nodded.

“Now, in the Choch family, there is a song for every chore. The song for sugar biscuits goes: Sweet to the taste, you’ll need a base. No new dough, just a bowl. Balls of dough rolled in the bowl. Sugar stuck, no messy muck. Voila, sugar biscuits!”

Heidi then demonstrated by using the same dough recipe she would for plain biscuits and rolling out little balls just the size of a biscuit. She got out her yellow pot and dumped in sugar from the sugar jar. Carefully, she rolled a ball of dough around in circles as grains of sugar stuck. She then shaped the ball into the shape of a biscuit.

“The shaping of the ball into a biscuit already mixes in the sugar perfectly,” she explained.

The girls tried, and found it was actually quite easy. With a swish of her hands, there was a pile of baked sugar biscuits. As if right on cue, the twins’ baby sister, Honey, sneaked into the kitchen.

“Ooo, bis-kits,” she babbled.

“Oh, look, mom! I taught Honey this new trick,” Bellia said giddily. “Honey, no bis-kit until you do your trick.”

“My trick?” Honey asked curiously with her cute face.

“Yes, Honey,” Bellia said as she waved a warm sugar biscuit with her paw. Meanwhile, Bell and Heidi were both very confused.

Honey’s eyes lit up at the sight of a sugar biscuit, and she said squealed, “Bis-kit fo trick.”

“That’s right, Honey,” Bellia encouraged. “On the count of 3: 1, 2, 3!” Bellia threw the sugar biscuit in an arching trajectory, landing perfectly in Honey’s outstretched hands. Honey caught the biscuit, bit the top, and sighed, “Mmmm, bis-kit.”

Heidi, quite impressed, questioned, “How did you get her to learn that?”

Bellia explained, “Oh, we all know Honey loves biscuits. It was just a matter of how bored I was sometimes. I wanted her to catch it in her mouth, but she wasn’t good at that. We improvised.”

Honey, perking up at the mention of ‘wasn’t good’, wailed. “Me not good?” she said between sniffles.

Bell, a more responsible sister, criticized, “Now look what you’ve done to poor Honey. Here, another biscuit.” Honey, soothed by a biscuit, wobbled away into the living room.

“You two sure do know your baby sister. Your father spoils her. Now, onto the salt and pepper biscuits. That is a harder method. As you are making the dough, make sure you add in and mix the salt and pepper together.” Heidi motioned.

“Here’s the lovely song for salt and pepper biscuits: Salt and pepper mixed together. In the dough, here we go. Mix, mix, mix, voila dough for biscuits.”

Heidi demonstrated by setting up a pot of flour and water. She then poured in water, and added in salt and pepper as she was stirring.

“Nice and gently; no dumping of the spices.” Bell and Bellia watched in awe. Their mother’s dough was nothing like the one they had made the other day with clumps of spice everywhere and horrible consistency. This dough was smooth, with the bits of seasoning evenly mixed in.

As if reading their minds, Heidi chuckled and commented, “I was thinking the exact same thing when I was learning. My mother’s dough was perfect in every way. You can ask your aunt Teri. Even a city girl like her was impressed with the complexity of this.”

The daughters and their mother shaped the biscuits, and baked. This time was much more proper than the daughters’ previous attempt yesterday. Their biscuits never had that same smell of warm goodness come from the oven. Together, they cleaned up the place orderly. Bell washed the tools at the sink, while her mother put away the ingredients and dried tools.

Bellia carefully took out batch after batch of biscuit, organizing them into their respective baskets.

“Well, I guess we’re about done,” Bell said, as she washed the final ladle spoon.

“Not so fast, girls,” Heidi cheekily mentioned. “We forgot the final step: tasting.”

“Mmm,” they all sighed as they went for their favorites. Bell loved a good old fashioned country style sugar biscuit, while Bellia and her mother always went for savory.