That was the nicest thing about this whole activity from a planning point of view is that the biscuits, though simple and fast, were delicious!
Our activities, at just one hour long, are simply not long enough to allow 16 girls to bake any sort of yeast bread, no matter how fast of a recipe. So the "bake bread for the sacrament" type activities have always seemed stressful and undoable to me.
This was my compromise. Let the girls cook a bread based food, and talk about the sacrament during the baking time. It worked out great (thanks to how quickly biscuits bake) and everyone got to be the cook. Even better, all the girls enjoyed the experience so much they were clamoring for all the details so they could bake bread at home.
I didn't do recipe cards because... 2 ingredients. But I should have because there are also details like how much time to bake it and the oven temperature that would be necessary to recreate the baking at home.
I have a kitchen scale (from Amazon.com, the Ozeri brand). It cost less than $20, I use it ALL THE TIME for anything with flour because it just is quick and easy and measures so accurately. So when I say the recipe is a 1:1 ratio... this really works best if you have a scale. Because 6 ounces of flour is not really easy to measure any other way.
Our ratio: 6 ounces of King Arthur brand self rising flour (I splurged on the "good" flour, and I do think it made a difference)
6 ounces of heavy whipping cream (just liquid, poured from the container, not whipped)
Mix together, first with fork, then dump it out and work the dough together. Roll it out, cut it with a biscuit cutter, place on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes, till golden. Watch the first batch as oven temperatures/cooking times WILL vary! :)
Another mistake I made: I brought my scales and we measured 6 ounces of flour, BUT... do the girls have scales at home? No, they don't. So.... how much is 6 ounces of flour? It's approximately 1 and 1/3 cup.
I really like the scale better, but I know not everyone has one, so I wanted to include that info. I also wanted to include, the recipe is great because you can make it bigger or smaller quite easily. 2 ounces of self rising flour, 2 ounces of cream for just four biscuits. Or 10 ounces of self rising flour and 10 ounces of cream for about 12 biscuits. So simple!
We baked at the church. In addition to the cream and flour I brought butter, strawberry jam, and honey. I also asked the girls to bring aprons and rolling pins. I brought my kitchen scale, mixing bowls, sturdy forks (for mixing with), freezer paper and masking tape (to create a clean work surface for each girl on the church tables), parchment paper to line the baking trays (the girls could write their names on it in pencil, and it kept very clear whose biscuits were whose-- and ALL the girls were very much wanting THEIR biscuits, so that was important), paper plates, and a few biscuit cutters (we used the cups at the church as acceptable biscuit cutters since I don't have multiple biscuit cutters in the same size).
That's one thing about cooking activities: they take a lot of stuff. They also take a lot of leaders, to help set up, to supervise, to get things in and out of the oven while the other leader is teaching, to help clean up. I wouldn't try this for 16 girls with less than 3 leaders!
I'm going to just copy and paste the activity/lesson plan I used below.
2 Ingredient Biscuits
A simple cooking class and a gospel lesson
For the simple cooking class (16 girls)
If we can, use the part of the YW room that connects to the kitchen. Give the spiritual lesson while the biscuits are baking. (Leader stay in kitchen to keep an eye on the biscuits!)
1. Divide girls into pairs/partners, pairing girls who know a lot with girls who don’t know much
2. For each pair (supplies and ingredients)
- 6 oz (measured by scale) King Arthur self rising flour
- 6 oz heavy whipping cream (measured by measuring cup)
- large square of freezer paper taped to table (clean work surface and easier clean up)
- small square of parchment paper (with the girls names on it in pencil)
- biscuit cutter (cups???)
- fork to mix biscuit dough
- extra bowl with flour for dipping hands/biscuit cutters
- bowl to mix dough
3. Tools/supplies to share
- scale
- rolling pin
- baking sheets
=> Start oven heating at 6:45 at 450 degrees.
=> Set up 5 long tables in gym
1 table has scales, flour, cream, rolling pins to share
4 tables are work tables with freezer paper work stations, biscuit cutters, fork, mixing bowl
Cooking class instructions:
A 1:1 recipe (you can make it larger or smaller as needed, just keep the amount of ingredients the same.) 1 part self rising flour, 1 part cream.
If you try this recipe at home (and i hope you will!) please remember that self rising flour is not the same as regular flour. It is regular flour with other ingredients mixed in (show on the bag the words, and extra ingredients).
Measure VERY carefully. It works best if you measure with exactness. In some kinds of cooking you can estimate, or be artistic… but in baking, when you are combining flour and liquid, you have to be precise.
Mix as much as you can with the fork in the bowl. The dump it out on your paper. Use a little flour on your hands and press the dough together, trying to mix all the flour in.
Roll/pat out your dough till it is 3/4 inch thick. Try to keep it even… no thin or fat edges or middles.
Push the biscuit cutter in some extra flour, then straight down and straight up from your dough. The biscuits will rise better if you don’t twist the cutter.
Squeeze your left over dough together and re-roll it. Cut it again. Your last small bit of dough will be a lumpy biscuit! :)
As the biscuits are baking:
Our biscuits tonight had just two ingredients… what were they? (self rising flour and cream)
I know something that we do every Sunday that takes just two ingredients: bread and water. Do you know what it is? (the sacrament)
As you will soon see, our flour and cream become something much more when they are mixed together and baked. Much more delicious. Much more nourishing.
If the sacrament was JUST bread and water, it would not be that exciting or important. But because it is an ordinance, the bread and water, blessed by priesthood power, become much more. Here is part of the sacrament prayer: “we ask thee …. to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it.” The sacrament is to bless our SOUL. We put the bread in our mouth and it goes down to our stomach, but it is not food for our body. It is supposed to be nourishment and a blessing to our SOUL. How can this happen?
While our biscuits bake, let’s talk about how the sacrament can go from being a tiny snack of one bite of bread and one sip of water and become instead something beautiful for our soul.
In our Faith in God book on page 3, it says “When I take the sacrament, I renew my [baptismal] covenant to take upon me the name of Jesus Christ, to always remember Him and to obey his commandments. When I do this, I can feel the Holy Ghost guiding me.”
Here is the beginning part. Do you see that “r” word in the first line? What is it? (renew). What does “renew” mean? It means, “make new” it means “begin again.” It means that baptism was our first promise to Christ to walk in his ways, but each week, we make that promise and that choice again. As we do so we acknowledge that we have not perfectly kept all the commandments. We accept that we need to repent, and that through Christ we can have forgiveness for our sins. We become clean again as we promise to walk in his way and do our best for the coming week.
Then there is another “r” word… remember. We promise to always remember him. This means we always remember our promise to him, and keep his commandments. It means we always remember that he loves us and wants us to make the right choice. It means we let our actions show that we remember him. How can we show, with our actions, that we remember Christ? (keep the commandments, serve others, be kind, etc.)
Just as when we are baptized, we receive a special gift if we make and keep our covenant. What is that gift? (the Holy Ghost). What does the Holy Ghost do? (guides, protects and comforts us).
Understanding these things, thinking about these things, is what allows the sacrament to sanctify our souls. Thinking of Christ and his love for us always nourishes our soul.
Now, let’s let the biscuits nourish our bodies! Let’s have a prayer first, and then we will eat!
To bring from home:
- apron
- 8 forks
- 8 bowls to mix in
- 4 small bowls for extra flour (1 per table)
- 8 biscuit cutters
- 2 rolling pins
- 2 scales
- 3 cream
- 2 bags self rising flour
- freezer paper
- pencils
- masking tape
- parchment paper
- 4 large baking sheets with rims (2 large pizza pans, new rectangular pan, stoneware pan)
- strawberry jam (3 jars)
- butter
- honey
- liquid measuring cup
- faith in god books
- paper plates
