From Page to Plate: A Year With Martha
Day 1: Baking Soda Biscuits
If you follow me on Instagram (and let’s be real, you probably don’t because not very many people do), you know that I’ve just kicked off a fun new challenge for this year: baking my way through the full Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. They say blogs are dead, and maybe they’re right, but for me, this seemed like the perfect place to log this experience.
In full disclosure, yes, I was definitely inspired by the Julie/Julia project/movie. Furthermore, I didn’t really plan this out very well. In fact, my only bit of forethought was hoping that I don’t get the harshness from Martha that Julie Powell got from Julia Child. Am I hoping to get the attention of the one and only great Martha Stewart? No. Mostly because I’d say something absolutely stupid - like the time I met Jamie Lee Curtis and just stared at her or the eight times I met Joey McIntyre and said something so pointless and embarrassing that I don’t even remember. Even better, there was the time I saw him in my hotel parking lot and just said “Wait a god damn minute!” And so he did….and it was weird. So, no, let’s not involve Martha. Let’s just keep this between us.
Like most of my little challenges, I just like to see if I can do things sometimes. Like the time in 2018 I wanted to see if I could run a half-marathon once a month or the time in 2019 I wanted to make myself go out and learn something new once a month. Both of those turned into great experiences not only because I found out that yes, I could do those things, but I got to enjoy those milestones with so many other people. My husband and I went all over the US running those half-marathons and my friends accompanied me to all kinds of fun different classes learning new skills (ballroom dancing, aerial silks, ax-throwing, hot yoga…it really was amazing). This time, I feel like it’s going to be just me and that’s okay. Alone in my kitchen with some music playing as loud as possible is exactly what I need sometimes. Although, my kitchen is known to be frequented by my favorite little helpers, so you never know who might turn up.
In full disclosure, I will not be sharing any recipes from Martha’s book here. There are plenty of recipes for you on this (very outdated - I’ll work on it) blog, so ripping off Martha isn’t needed (or legal). If something looks good, grab the book. And if it doesn’t, well, that’s probably my fault, so grab the book anyway and give it a try yourself. I’m sure it will be great!
To kick off the project, I made Baking Soda Biscuits, which were delicious. Martha’s biscuit recipe is a bit different than mine. Turns out, I like hers better. Although if you need one, mine is good and you can find it here.
My biggest problem with biscuits has always been that I make them entirely too small. Even when I KNEW I was making them too small, I’d keep patting that dough down and making them too small. Now, why was I doing this? For years?? Just to make crappy biscuits? Maybe. I don’t know. Anyway, something about biscuit-making clicked when I made these and I realized that I needed to stop scrimping on the dough and make these suckers big. When the recipe says a one-inch thickness, it means one-inch thickness. Not sure why I struggled with that.
If you know anything about baking (and maybe even if you don’t….), you’ll know these aren’t perfect. They honestly look pretty sketch. But they tasted like perfection, especially with my homemade jam - and that’s really what it’s all about. I also used them to make breakfast sandwiches, which my family absolutely loved. I’m sure Martha would have more than a few improvements to offer, but hey, it’s all practice.