Old Fashioned Country Biscuits

For the lightest biscuits, the less you handle the dough, the better. A delicious country classic; like mom used to make!

2 cups GF flour blend, plus 1 T. extra for dusting

1/2 t. salt

4 t. baking powder

1/4 t. baking soda

2 T. butter, chilled and chopped into pieces

2 T. coconut oil, chilled

1 cup buttermilk or sour milk

Preheat oven to 450˚F.

Combine all dry ingredients and whisk together. Add the butter and coconut oil and work into the dry ingredients quickly, using a pastry cutter or fork. Do not allow the fat to melt. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour in the buttermilk. Stir just until the dough forms a soft, moist glob. It should be sticky. But it still needs to have enough body to be able to form a very soft dough that you can cut into loose biscuits. We are not making hockey pucks here!

Plop the ball of dough onto a tea towel that has been dusted with the extra flour. With floured hands, very gently knead the dough 4 or 5 times and gently pat down  into a mound that is about 1 1/2 inches thick. Again, do not overwork the dough!

Cut biscuits with a floured drinking glass or 2.5 to 3 inch biscuit cutter and  arrange them, touching each other, in an unbuttered cake or pie pan.

Bake 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden and flakey (not doughy) when pulled apart. They should read around 205˚F on an instant read

thermometer.

Makes: Eight biscuits.

Notes: For a shortcake biscuit to be used with berries and as dessert, add a

little extra sugar to the recipe and sprinkle extra sugar on top of the

biscuits just before baking.

This recipe is from the cookbook: "The Farmer's Daughter Cooks Gluten Free."

To watch a slide show "tour" of book click this link~

No Bake Country Fruit Tart

An incredibly simple tart that requires no baking. Any fruit may be used, but I made use of our summer harvest from our large peach tree.

Crust

1 cup raw pecans or almonds, finely ground

1 cup almond meal

1 cup pitted dates or dried figs, finely chopped

Pinch of salt

Filling

5 cups of sliced peaches

8-12 ounce jar of good quality peach preserves

8-12 ounces of sour cream

Mix the ground nuts, almond meal, dates or figs, and salt together. Spray GF baking spray onto an 8-9 inch tart or spring form pan. Press the crust mixture into the bottom of the pan and up the sides to create a uniform crust. Place in the refrigerator.

When ready to fill the pie, arrange the sliced peaches into the crust, overfilling it slightly. In a bowl, fold the sour cream into the jar of peach preserves and now pour over the top of the peaches that are arranged in the tart. Refrigerate the tart for 1-2 hours.

Serve with whipped cream.

Makes: Eight slices.

For recipes from my cookbook: "Delicious! The Very Best of Gluten Free and Wheat Free Cooking. It is available at:   

http://www.celiacdiseaseinfo.org