shout with your mouth full: DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ENDEAVOR//and why

today. listen carefully:

oh no! the biscuits even injured my mother!

family was coming over. i wanted to share love through biscuits. and the recipe i referred to looked great! it called for only 3 ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour

16 oz sour cream

1/2 cup whole milk

plus, it was found on a mom blog:

http://momonamission.me/worlds-easiest-sour-cream-biscuits/

plus, it provided evidence:

PLUS, mom blog.

"Mom on a Mission." intoxicating.

where did the recipe go wrong?

ah, wrong question. where did i go wrong?

~~~~~time to reconsider my actions~~~~~

So, why is it that i can play knock-knock with my biscuits?

5 major reasons.

food threads offer a breadth of advice--and demonstrate individuals' amazing desire to help others.

(source of screenshots: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/442520)

1.) using whole wheat flour

this comment immediately resonated: whole wheat flour "can make biscuits heavier."

Although the original recipe called for 4 cups of white flour, i substituted 1 for whole wheat.

i thought, wow, whole wheat flour. so healthy. but it can complicate the baking process.

whole wheat flour is less refined than all-purpose flour; it contains wheat germ and bran, both of which pack vitamin E, iron, fiber, and other nutrients. while vitamins and minerals are generally pluses, "Thing is," writes Smithsonian Magazine's Alastair Bland, whole wheat flour renders "life harder for bakers." Germ and bran (we'll call 'em G&B, for sentimental purposes) despite their nutritive potentials, propose their own pitfalls to baking:

1.) G&B soak up water more readily than refined flours (like all-purpose) do, creating drier products

2.) G&B make the dough heavier and less able to rise, "leading to loaves almost as dense as French cobblestone" (solid simile, Alastair Bland).

of course, baked goods made with whole wheat flour can still turn out airy and flaky; adding more water may help, again to compensate for G&B's drying effect:

"'You really need to hydrate the flour. Only then can you get really beautiful, soft bread.'" ~Dave Miller, whole wheat enthusiast

(source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-makes-whole-grain-bread-so-hard-to-bake-63878/?no-ist)

2.) overworking the dough

(source: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/basic-cooking/overmixing-doughs-batters)

first off, gluten is a protein found in wheat and other grains. when gluten is mixed with water, protein chains form. we'll call these protein chains gluten networks: they provide the elasticity that ultimately holds your ingredients together. stretchy dough illustrates this:

~~~~~though stretchy, my dough is not exemplary~~~~~

gluten networks provide structures in which carbon dioxide gas (CO2) can embed and expand, uplifting the dough. but where does the CO2 come from?

fermentation.

in baking, CO2 is produced as a byproduct of fermentation, or the chemical breakdown of sugars, typically by yeast or bacteria. yeast (a fungi), often used to make bread, chemically "eats" the flour sugars, producing CO2 and alcohol as waste.

overall, fermentation influences texture and taste by producing:

CO2 bubbles. they allow the product to rise, giving it that nice airy quality

alcohol. in the heat, alcohol is baked off--but it leaves behind flavors that color our carbohydrate dreams~~

~~~~~HOWEVER~~~~~

"leavening agents would just be bubbling brews without something to contain them."

(source: https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/bread/bread_science.html)

again, gluten networks provide structure. CO2, as a product of fermentation, is captured in the structure; little pockets of gas become suspended, expand, and some gas even escapes. overall, the dispersion of gas gives bread its airy quality and causes it to rise.

~~~~ON THE OTHER HAND~~~~

overworking/overmixing dough or batter overdevelops the gluten. when this occurs, according to JoePastry.com, the gluten networks TRAP steam (in this case CO2). Although bakers use gluten networks for this very purpose--to trap and provide CO2 with structure--overdeveloped gluten networks trap the gas too tightly, impeding even distribution of CO2 bubbles.

when overdeveloped, gluten networks have grips on CO2 that are just too strong.

When CO2 is detained by gluten, baked goods increase in volume--resulting in dense, tough, rubbery, and tooth-chippin' products.

(source: http://www.joepastry.com/2008/what_is_overmixing/)

AND as The Foodie RD spares audiences of "the organic chemistry details," she highlights that BISCUITS are particularly susceptible to becoming hockey pucks. "Overworking biscuit dough," she writes, "causes not only too much gluten formation, but it also allows the carbon dioxide gas to escape" even BEFORE the biscuits are placed in the oven. here, CO2 potential has been doubly compromised; its ability to provide airiness is severely cut.

(source: http://thefoodierd.blogspot.com/2011/10/food-science-101-over-mixing.html)

watch it again!: do you think i overworked the dough? comment below!

3.) sealing the edges

as you can see, i did somethin' to those edges:

my first instinct was to separate the biscuits on the baking sheet, as i've learned to do with cookies. L.V. Anderson, an associate editor for Slate Magazine, recommends the contrary: "make sure they touch."

"As they rise in the oven, their tops will brown and harden, but their abutting sides will remain soft, feathery, and white—just like the delicious insides."

4.) omitting buttermilk?

Anderson also contends that biscuits made without buttermilk "inevitably result in disks that are shorter, drier, and blander than buttermilk biscuits." She also warns against overworking the dough: "knead it just until it comes together."

(source: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/04/18/buttermilk_biscuit_recipe_infinitely_better_than_baking_powder_biscuits.html)

i think Anderson's argument is extreme; one person's biscuit-making preferences do not apply to everyone. still, i look to experiment with buttermilk in the future.

SO from this