These bite-sized biscuits come from a mid-1800s recipe (a little beyond the Golden Age of Piracy) but given the simple ingredients, it’s hard to imagine taverns and inns not providing these to patrons. They are not too difficult to make, and one recipe made me at least sixty biscuits (so if you don’t want that many, consider halving the recipe).
Prep time: up to 1 hour to mix and knead dough
Cook time: baking time is 10 minutes in the oven
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- one stick of butter
- 1/2-1cup of milk
Directions
- Cut your stick of butter up into small pieces about 1/4 inch square
- Add the butter squares to the four cups of flour in a large mixing bowl
- Add 1/2 cup of milk and start kneading the mixture.
- Add milk as needed until your dough is smooth, cohesive, and pliable. If you feel like you added too much milk (your dough gets real sticky and soggy), just add some flour in tablespoon increments and keep kneading to get it back in shape. You will have to knead, roll, and fold your dough many times to get it right, so just keep at it and have some patience. I probably watched nearly an hour of Dead Man’s Chest while I worked the dough until I felt it was ready to move on to the next step.
It can take some finesse and time but you want a nice pliable mound of dough.
5. When your dough is set, roll it out to be no thicker than 1/4 inch. Get a good sharp knife and cut the dough into small squares, about 1/2 inch (you can actually cut it into whatever shapes suit your fancy, or even use cookie cutters if you want).
If you don’t have a rolling pin, an empty wine bottle can work as well.
Use a good, sharp knife so the edges are nice and clean. Cookie cutters work well too!
6. Set your oven at 375 degrees. Either use wax paper or grease the bottom of a cooking pan, and pop the biscuits into the oven for 10 minutes. They should still have a white, non-browned appearance when you take them out.
7. Set them out to cool, then enjoy.
Before going in the oven. You can pack them in pretty close.
Ready to serve! I used the knife to carve a small “X” into each one (prior to baking) as a decorative touch.
These are good on their own as a bar snack, but they also go great with dips. Try a spinach/artichoke dip, or a beer cheese dip, or even hummus. For the beer cheese dip, get a couple jars of the Kraft Old English cheese, add a splash of your favorite ale, mix around and microwave for about one minute. Boom! Amazing beer cheese.