Love in a Lunch Box – Oatmeal Bars!

 

Children are excited about getting back to school, making new friends and just the excitement of a new beginning.  Even with all the anticipation, there is still the issue of getting out the door in the mornings.

For a smart start to the school year, bake and freeze breakfast and lunch box treats so you have them on hand for those hectic and busy mornings.

For these oatmeal bars, or most any bar cookies or brownies, they can be easily wrapped individually frozen.  So these are the perfect treat without purchasing pre-made items.  This recipe has oats, honey, and brown sugar.  Real food.  Next time you packaged treats read the label, most are loaded with preservatives and artificial ingredients.

When you bake at home, you know what they are eating in every delicious bite filled with love from your kitchen to their lunch box.

Oatmeal Bars

Makes 16 bars.

2 cups Southern Biscuit® Self-Rising Flour
1 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup old-fashioned or quick oats, divided
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter, melted
1/3 cup honey
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, 1 ½ cup oats, brown sugar, butter, honey, and egg. Reserve ½ cup of flour mixture. Press remainder in an 8x8x2-inch baking dish that has been coated with non-stick cooking spray.

Sprinkle with chips. Stir the remaining 1/3 cup oats into the reserved flour mixture. Sprinkle over the chips. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely and if desired cut and wrap into individual “to-go” servings.

Biscuit Recipe Contest — BISCUIT MONTH CELEBRATION IS COMING SOON!

BISCUIT MONTH CELEBRATION IS COMING SOON!

Midstate Mills Announces Recipe Contest for Biscuit Month!

 Newton, NC (August 1, 2011), Entries for the most original and creative biscuit recipes are being accepted now through September 1 for the 1st Annual BEST SOUTHERN BISCUIT® CONTEST. The winner will receive a gift basket of Southern Biscuit Flour, Tenda-Bake Corn Meal Mix, Tenda-Bake Pancake Mixes and a DVD Cookbook and your recipe will be posted at www.midstatemills.wordpress.com.

The winning recipe will be announced at the Second Annual Southern Biscuit® Day event on the town square in Newton, NC on September 14 at 10:00.  (The winner does not have to be present.)  The Southern Biscuit® Day event is sponsored by Midstate Mills, and includes free biscuits and sausage for each person who comes from 7:00 am to noon.

To enter: 

• Create an original recipe for biscuits using at least 2 cups of Southern Biscuit® Self-Rising Flour, Southern Biscuit® All-Purpose Flour, or Southern Biscuit® Formula L Biscuit Mix.  Recipes will be judged based on originality, texture, flavor, and appearance.
•  Include your name, address and phone number.
• Send your recipe to:  Southern Biscuit Baking Contest, Midstate Mills, Inc., PO 350, Newton, NC  28658, OR to sales@midstatemills.com.  It must be received by September 1.

For more information contact :  Belinda Ellis, Midstate Mills , 865-805-9479,  bebe.ellis@gmail.com

Midstate Mills is the family-owned miller of wheat and corn – North Carolina’s Southern Biscuit Flour and Tenda-Bake Corn Meal, Seasoned Flours, and Pancake Mixes.

Doughnut Biscuits

National Doughnut Day is the First Friday in June, but we say why wait? Our biscuit doughnuts are BAKED not fried, a good reason to have them anytime.

They are fun to make, just start with Southern Biscuit ® Self-Rising Flour, sugar, and cream. Mix and form into “doughnut hole” size balls. The kids will love this project. You pop them in the oven and let them cool enough to handle and let the kids coat them. with a glaze or powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar or sprinkles, the list can go on and on. I love these little bites of hot doughnuts right from the oven.

So since it is National Doughnut Day, we took a look at doughnut history. It seems fried dough is popular in every culture. In the US, National doughnut day started when in 1938 the women in the Salvation Army served doughnuts to soldiers in France during World War 1. If you want to take a deep dive into doughnut history, there is even a book called Glazed America: the History of the Doughnut.

History aside, this is a fun project and they are really, really delicious and better than eating the fried ones!

Doughnut Biscuits

Makes 24 mini-size doughnuts.

2 cups Southern Biscuit® Self-Rising Flour
¼ cup sugar
1 cup cream

Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon cream

Powdered Sugar Topping
½ cup melted butter
½ cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine flour and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir in cream. Dough will be thick. Using a cookie scoop or heaping tablespoon, measure dough and roll into round balls. Place on a baking sheet about 1-inch apart.

Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Coat with either the glaze or powdered sugar toppings.

For glaze: Combine powdered sugar and cream just until you have a thick glaze. Dip biscuits into glaze or brush glaze over biscuits.

For powdered sugar: Dip in butter and then in powdered sugar to coat.

Hot Cross Biscuits

Hot Cross Buns is an Easter favorite.  We made them into biscuits.  The flavors of cinnamon and orange have a come back flavor worth returning to no matter what the date.

These delicious and unique biscuits are topped with a sugar glaze cross or you can simply glaze them.

Makes 8 biscuits

2 cups Southern-Biscuit ® Self-Rising Flour

1/8 cup sugar

¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar

¼ cup (1/2 stick) cold butter

½ cup golden raisins

¼ cup currants

Zest from ½ orange, grated

Zest from ½ lemon, grated

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 large egg, lightly beaten

¾ cup milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

 Glaze

¼ cup confectioners’ sugar

½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 450˚F.  Lightly coat a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

Whisk together flour, sugar and brown sugar.  Cut in butter using your fingertips, two knives, or a pastry cutter.  Stir in raisins, currants, orange zest, lemon zest, and cinnamon.

Make a well in the center and add egg and milk.  Stir until combined.  Turn out onto a lightly floured surface.  Fold three times pressing between folds.  Roll to ½-inch thick. Cut with a 2-inch biscuit cutter.  Place on baking sheet ½-inch apart.

Bake for 12 minutes or until light brown.  Brush with melted butter.

To make glaze:  Combine confectioners sugar and lemon juice until glaze is desired thickness.  Place in a small plastic bag and snip the corner of the bag.  Pipe a cross on the cooled biscuits or simply use to glaze the warm biscuits.

Pimento Cheese Biscuits!

“Here in the South we love our pimento cheese spread so we came up with a biscuit that combines the flavor of pimento cheese and the delight of a biscuit. Serve along-side lunch or dinner, or make small ones for a party appetizer.” ~ By Tendabake

 Ingredients:
• 2 cups  Southern Biscuit Self-Rising Flour
• 2 teaspoons  sugar
• 1 teaspoon  freshly ground coarse black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon  cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup  mayonnaise
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup  sharp Cheddar cheese
• 2 tablespoons  diced pimento

Cooking Instructions:
Heat oven to 450°F. Coat a baking sheet with nonstick spray or line with parchment paper.

Combine flour, sugar, black pepper, and cayenne pepper in a large bowl. Stir in mayonnaise and milk until the flour is moistened. Do not over mix. Stir in the Cheddar cheese and pimento.

Drop by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheet about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

If desired, brush tops with melted butter.

Hog Heaven Pure Lard Biscuits

No one in their right mind would admit to actually eating lard just a few short years ago.  Yet hidden in my memories are the flavors from my grandmother’s kitchen – lard seasoned her green beans, fried chicken, and yes, her biscuits.

Now, lard is cool again.  Books such as the Good Fat Cookbook includes lard, but not trans-fats such as shortening.  Pork fat appears on menus of some great restaurants in the form of pork belly and at Husk in Charleston to make the Pork Butter spread for bread and cornbread.

But as with all ingredients, all lard is not alike, I use lard rendered the old-fashioned way without hydrogenating.  The main ingredient, and therefore most important is the flour. I use Southern Biscuit® Flour milled by Midstate Mills for the very lightest biscuits you can find these days.  There is no substitute to starting with the best flour to make the best biscuits. Then there is buttermilk, I always use whole buttermilk – we are lucky to find it in larger grocery stores.  If you don’t have it combine buttermilk with a few tablespoons of heavy cream.

Then find a great quality country ham, your favorite – I love Benton’s Country Ham in Madisonville, Tennessee.  If you haven’t tried this ultra smoky ham, it is worth it to order it by mail.  It is used all over the country in fine restaurants.

Now you have the makings for a fantastic biscuit slider – worth the effort and delicious.

Hog Heaven Pure Lard Biscuit Sliders

Makes 8 biscuits.

2 cups Southern Biscuit Self-Rising Flour

1/4 cup pork lard

¾ cup full fat buttermilk

Southern Biscuit All-purpose flour

2 tablespoons butter, melted

8 slices cooked country ham

Preheat oven to 450˚F.  Lightly spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

Measure flour into a large bowl.  Cut in lard using a pastry cutter, two knives or your fingertips until the pieces are the size of peas.  Stir in buttermilk.

Dust a counter top lightly with all-purpose flour.  Turn dough onto surface and with floured hands fold the dough and press three times.  Roll dough to ½-inch thick.

Cut using a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter.  Place on baking sheet about ½-inch apart.

Bake for 10 to 14 minutes or until lightly browned.  Brush tops with butter.  Fill with cooked country ham.  Serve with mustard if desired.

Rosemary Olive Oil Biscuits

“Olive oil in a biscuit? Yes, a touch of olive oil with fresh rosemary gives this a biscuits a fresh flavor that you will enjoy with Italian meals. Best of all, these biscuits are much faster to make than the more traditional yeast breads. “

~ By Tendabake

  Ingredients:

• 2 cups  Southern Biscuit Self-Rising Flour
• 1 teaspoon  finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 2/3 cup  milk
• 2 tablespoons  olive oil

Cooking Instructions:
Heat oven to 450°F. Coat a baking sheet with nonstick spray or line with parchment paper.

Combine flour and rosemary in a large bowl. Stir in milk and olive oil until the flour is moistened. Do not over mix.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Shape dough into a ball using floured hands. Handle the dough as little as possible. Press dough to flatten slightly and fold in half. Repeat 3 or 4 times.

Pat or roll dough to ½ inch thickness. Cut with a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter. Place on prepared pan close together but not touching.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and brush the tops with olive oil if desired.