Cooking

Happy New Year! We had a quiet holiday season following what was a horrible November. I lost four family members including my grandfather, my father’s father. Towards the end of his life, it was hard especially for everyone taking care of him. I could not go and so sometimes it feels like its unreal.

My grandfather was not stuck in his ways, always willing to learn new things. Especially when it came to animals, he loved his cows and dogs and hated it when people ill-treated animals. One thing I appreciated about him, is that he was proud of me and he let me know. As a child, I was often sick and he took care of me. The family was very important to him, because of him I grew up knowing so many of my extended family. Sometimes I don’t even bother explaining to friends how I am related to my family because it sounds too distant.

The death of my grandfather has nothing to do with my blog today. I don’t even remember seeing him eat madhumbe all his life. One of my failures has been to separate what happens in my personal life and my creative process, which is not even a process at all. It just so happens that what I go through affects my ability to create. I do my best when I am happy, it motivates me and my mind is clear. When I sit down to write it just comes pours out of me, the good and the bad. Thank you for sticking around.

I made madhumbe biscuits. Biscuits and scones have similar recipes but biscuits are not sweet. I decided to make biscuits because madhumbe are not sweet. You can even use these biscuits as a side in savoury meals.

The process is much like when you use wheat flour. I used butter but you can use other vegetable-based fats like margarine and shortening.

These biscuits don’t rise much so you need to make them thick when you roll them out.

I served mine with some strawberry jam for breakfast. It is all up to your preference.

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Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups Madhumbe flour stirred with a whisk first then spooned into measuring cup
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup butter room temperature
• 1 cup buttermilk room temperature

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit- line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Add madhumbe flour, baking powder and salt to a medium bowl, whisk to combine.

3. Add butter to the flour mixture and cut in with a pastry cutter until butter is incorporated, even and resembles coarse crumbs.

   

4. Pour buttermilk to the flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir in buttermilk until dough comes together. Use the back of the spoon to press dough together until you have a nice dough. Then, using your hands, gently roll dough ball around the bowl to shape and gather all the dough/flour on the side of the bowl. The dough will initially seem sticky but will not stay that way.

   
5. Lightly dust a piece of parchment paper and flatten dough slightly with the palm of your hands. Dust with a little bit more flour and cover with another piece of parchment paper.

6. Roll out the out about 1" and use a biscuit cutter to cut out about 6 biscuits.

   

7. Place in the oven – and bake for 18 minutes or until done. It is done when it has a nice golden colour on top and golden colour on the ridges on the sides.