It fascinates me that once upon a time someone worked out that if you pick ears of corn, squish them, keep the powder that’s left, mix it up with butter and water and other things, and put them in the fire, the result would be good to eat.
Basic bread is the simplest thing to make with flour. All you need is flour, water, yeast, and a little bit of fat, salt and sugar.
Yeast – the raising agent Strong flour – bread flour has a high gluten content compared to normal flour which traps the gas made by the yeast and helps the bread to rise
Pastry is a dough made from flour, shortening and water. It’s used as a base or covering in dishes such as pies. It can also be the name for baked dough products like Danish pastries.
Pastry is made by mixing the flour with the fat. A crumbly shortcrust pastry has a ratio of roughly 1 part fat to 2.5 parts flour, with a few spoonfuls of water.
The flaky or puff types of pastry are made in layers, and the fat is not mixed in as thoroughly.
A basic cake is a mixture of flour, butter or margarine, sugar, eggs and maybe fruit.
A sponge cake is made with equal parts of flour, butter, sugar and eggs and makes a runny batter.
Fruit cakes often have twice the amount of flour to butter and sugar, less eggs and the addition of dried fruit. The batter is generally stiffer.
Cakes are normally made with self raising flour, or a mixture of plain flour and baking powder to ensure they rise. Many cakes are made to be light and fluffy.
Biscuits in the US are more like what we in the UK call scones. They are a small soft fluffy cake-like bread leavened with yeast or baking powder. They are often eaten with gravy.
Biscuits in the UK are small, crispy baked goods. In the US these would probably be called cookies. However in the UK a cookie tends to be thought of as a type of biscuit that is large, round and soft or chewy, often with chocolate chips or raisins.
Many UK biscuit recipes are not dissimilar to cake recipes however they generally have a high proportion of flour compared to other ingredients or a low liquid content so that a stiff batter, or dough that can be rolled out is formed.
One way to tell a biscuit from a cake is that biscuits go soft when stale whereas cakes go hard.
I have no idea what cookies do as they never last long enough to see in our house, but I suspect they may he closer to cake than what the English traditionally think of as a biscuit.
Recently I have made biscuits and cookies, and I do a cake every now and again. I’m afraid I rarely make pastry as its so easy to buy ready made. Sometimes I make bread in my bread maker but never just on its own. Life is much easier for us than it was for those first people who squashed up some wheat!
In the United States and Canada, a biscuit is a variety of baked bread with a firm, dry exterior and a soft, crumbly interior. It is made with baking powder as a leavening agent rather than yeast, and at times is called a baking powder biscuit to differentiate it from other types.
Pastry is a dough made from flour, shortening and water. It’s used as a base or covering in dishes such as pies. It can also be the name for baked dough products like Danish pastries.
A basic cake is a mixture of flour, butter or margarine, sugar, eggs and maybe fruit.
Yeast – the raising agent Strong flour – bread flour has a high gluten content compared to normal flour which traps the gas made by the yeast and helps the bread to rise
A sponge cake is made with equal parts of flour, butter, sugar and eggs and makes a runny batter.
It fascinates me that once upon a time someone worked out that if you pick ears of corn, squish them, keep the powder that’s left, mix it up with butter and water and other things, and put them in the fire, the result would be good to eat.
We bought little bakery bread before the 1920s. The small business in town succumbed to a large city bakery that put its products in county-wide grocery stores. It seemed that Sunday visitors expected to see bakery bread on our table, and Mamma would not disappoint them.
Usually, there was a pie pan to collect extras biscuits, especially if homemade sausage or cured ham were in season. Meats or not, nothing tasted better in the early morning than a hot biscuit split open and given a generous helping of fresh butter.
Shortly after we left the city limits, our stomachs started to growl furiously. It was past dinner time, and we were 12 miles from home. There was only one thing to do, eat some light bread. And so we did: the whole loaf.
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My family enjoyed them for every breakfast and almost regularly for dinner and supper. Sometimes we would have corn bread for a special dish, such as turnip greens or stew.
Biscuits: The Important Difference Between Flaky and Fluffy | What’s Eating Dan?
FAQ
Which is healthier bread or biscuits?
What makes a biscuit a biscuit?
Why do Americans call them biscuits?
Why is my bread more like a biscuit?
What is the difference between biscuits and bread?
Biscuits are usually made with baking powder or baking soda, while bread is usually made with yeast. Yeast is a living organism that feeds on sugar and releases carbon dioxide, which causes the dough to rise. Baking powder and baking soda are both chemical leavening agents, which means they produce gas bubbles that cause the dough to rise.
Is there sugar in plain bread?
There is some grams of sugar in one slices of any plain bread. Unless it is written sugar free. There are also different types of sugars like glucose which is mostly found in any wheat flours.
What is the difference between a cake and a biscuit?
The batter is generally stiffer. Cakes are normally made with self raising flour, or a mixture of plain flour and baking powder to ensure they rise. Many cakes are made to be light and fluffy. Biscuits mean different things to different people. Tramadol Online Illinois Biscuits in the US are more like what we in the UK call scones.
Are biscuits more crumbly than bread?
Biscuits, in my experience, tend to be more crumbly (i.e. cannot be successfully sliced), while bread it more bready? This answer is a little misleading. Yes, rolls and biscuits are risen differently but this is not what makes the difference. The difference between them is how the fat is incorporated and how much gluten is formed.