Inte utan att jag ångrar att jag gav mig in i den här verbala trasselsudden. Jag har förstått att det bara är i U.S.A. och Kanada man använder ordet biscuit, om det som i resten av världen betraktas som scones. Men för att inte göra det för enkelt för oss, så finns det ett otal andra namn på bakverket. Ett bakverk som för övrigt alla tycks ha olika, men mycket bestämda uppfattningar om hur det ska se ut, smaka och tillverkas.
Det var länge se’n jag bakade “biscuits”, men häromsisten plockade jag fram “A Guide to Good Cooking”, en kanadensisk kokbok, utgiven av “Five Roses” (ett varumärke för mjöl). Där finns ett kapitel som heter “Tea Biscuits”, förutom några recept, finns där också goda råd för hur man ska lyckas med sina biscuits:
The secret of a Good Tea Biscuit is in the dough. It should be soft but not sticky. A little kneading improves not only the quality of biscuits but assures tall plump and tender biscuits. A hot oven (450°) is recommended.
Knead with a gentle touch as too much handling will produce tough biscuits.
Perfect Tea Biscuits should be golden brown with a fairly smooth, level top. They should be slightly moist, tender, light and flaky.
Serve immediately after bakin. Reheated biscuits are never as good but they may be wrapped in foil and heated in a hot oven (400°) 10 to 15 minutes.
(Skrivet före mikråvågsungnarnas tid!)
TEA BISCITS
2 cups Five Roses All-purpose Flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup shortening (60g)
1 cup milk
Mix together Five Rose Flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening with 2 knives or pastry blender, until mixture is the consistency of coarse cornmeal. Make a well in the centre of these ingredients; add liquid slowly. When all the liquid has been added, stir dough rather vigorously until it comes freely from the side of the bowl. Turn dough onto lightly floured board and knead lightly for a FEW MINUTES. Roll or pat out to desired thickness — about ½ inch. Cut dough with 2-inch floured biscuit cutter; place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake in hot oven (450°F, 230°C) 12-15 minutes.
Yield 15 - 18 biscuits.
Omvandlingstabell för den som inte äger en amerikansk måttsats.
Biscuit
A biscuit (pronounced /ˈbɪskɨt/) is a baked edible product. The term is used to apply to two distinctly different products in North America and the Commonwealth Nations.
In the United States it relates to a small soft leavened bread, somewhat similar to a scone.
In Commonwealth English, it commonly is used to refer to a small and hard, often sweetened, flour-based product, most akin in American English to a cookie, or sometimes in the case of cheese biscuits, a cracker.
Etymology
The modern-day confusion in the English language around the word biscuit is created by its etymology.
The Middle French word bescuit is derived from the Latin words bis (twice) and coquere (to cook), and, hence, means "twice-cooked. This is because biscuits were originally cooked in a twofold process: first baked, and then dried out in a slow oven. Hence:
Biscotti in Medieval Italian
Biscuit in Modern French
Zwieback in German
Beschuit in Dutch
Bizcocho in Spanish
This term was then adapted into English in the 14th century during the Middle Ages, in the Middle English word bisquite, to represent a hard twice-baked product.
However, the Dutch language from around 1703 had adopted the word koekje, a language diminutive of cake, to have a similar meaning for a similar hard, baked product. This may be related to the Russian or Ukrainian translation, where biscuit has come to mean sponge cake.
The difference between the secondary Dutch word and that of the Latin origin is that, whereas the koekje as a cake rose during baking, the biscuit, which had no rising agent, in general did not, except for the expansion of heated air during the baking process.
When peoples from Europe began to emigrate to the United States, the two words and their "same but different" meanings began to clash. After the American War of Independence against the British, the word cookie became the word of choice to mean a hard, twice-baked product.
Further confusion has been added by the adoption of the word biscuit for a small leaven bread popular in Southern American cooking.
Today, according to American English dictionary Merriam-Webster:
A cookie is a "small flat or slightly raised cake."
A biscuit is "any of various hard or crisp dry baked product" similar to the American English terms cracker or cookie.
A biscuit can also mean "a small quick bread made from dough that has been rolled out and cut or dropped from a spoon."
Today, throughout most of the world, the term biscuit still means a hard, crisp, brittle bread, except in the United States, where it now denotes a softer bread product baked only once. In modern Italian usage, the term biscotto is used to refer to any type of hard twice-baked biscuit.
Fler biscones:
