Q&A for How to Make Basic Biscuits

If you're allowed to use the oven by yourself, sure. If not, just ask a parent/guardian to do this with you.

Have you read the instructions carefully? Did you add the proper ingredients in the order indicated in the instruction? Do you measure the ingredients in appropriate devices. Do not be tempted to add liquid, it is likely to be too much and there are few remedies for overly wet mixes. I have tried adding a teaspoon of the same liquid at a time until the mix looks right. However, first verify that you have added the prescribed ingredients asked for in the instructions. Secondly, verify you have stirred the ingredients as the recipe indicates.

It almost doubles the recipe. This should make 18-24 cookies depending on size and thickness.

Yes. However, it may change the consistency of the biscuits by making them firmer and chewy.

Sugar/butter is about 100gm to a cup, so it is is around 1/2 cup. And 175gm plain flour is around 1 and 3/8 cups.

The simple answer is that yes, it is fine to use salted butter in baking. That being said, there is a reason that bakers – myself included – and just about all other cooks use unsalted butter as their kitchen staple instead of salted. Salt serves two roles in butter, acting as a preservative and as a flavoring agent.

After 15 minutes, keep checking the biscuits with a toothpick or any thin stick. If the dough doesn't stick to the toothpick, then it's cooked already and time to turn off the heat. And if the dough sticks still, then cook it for longer. Don't overcook though, it will harden the biscuit.

It is caster sugar. This is also known as castor sugar, superfine sugar, or even baker’s sugar. This is not to be confused with another sugar you may have used, which also has a few different names: powdered sugar, also known as icing sugar or confectioners sugar. So its i totally okay, even best, to use caster sugar here.

It depends on the size of your biscuit. Though it might make 10-12 biscuits of a medium size. If you make smaller portions, then it would make around 15-18 biscuits.

Temperature and the time your biscuits need depend on your oven. I would try the temperature of the recipe and check on the biscuits from time to time to see how long they need in the oven.

That doesn't make a big difference. You can use the normal recipe and replace the butter with non-dairy butter.

Caster sugar is a lot finer but it can be used here.

Just adding the ginger would not automatically make it a gingerbread. Ginger works with other spices to flavor breads. You could add powdered ginger to a bread mix to see what happens. I predict the flavoring would not be enough without adding sugar or other spices.

This recipe should 12-16-ish cookies, depending on size and thickness that you make them.

Nothing too bad, it’ll just be a little saltier, so don’t add any extra salt.

If you want to add a fruit flavor to biscuits, you could add some syrup. However, if it is very sweet, you may reduce the other sugar (or honey, etc.) by a quarter of a cup. Also, the syrup might add too much liquid, so again you might reduce any other liquids called for, such as milk, orange juice or maple syrup.

Olive oil is a quick trick to try if you have run out of eggs or any other egg substitutes and are in a bit of a pinch! Olive oil is useful as an egg replacement for cookies, and especially if you are only short one egg for the full recipe. You can pop one quarter cup olive oil into your recipe, stir, and it'll work well.

Refined sugar helps cookies spread during baking, allowing for their crisp texture. Because of this critical function, bakers can't simply replace sugar with a different sweetener. However, in many recipes, you can decrease the amount of sugar by one third without affecting the quality of the product.

Yes. While caster sugar and granulated sugar are not exactly the same, they can be swapped 1:1 in baking recipes. Caster sugar is slightly finer and dissolves more easily, but this doesn't affect most baking recipes if swapped with granulated sugar.

Yes, you can if your lactose intolerant or vegan or just simply don't like dairy.

Yes, you can do so and it will enrich your cookie, giving more flavour. However, be careful with the measurements or your cookies could end up dry if you add too much cinnamon or a bit spicy if you add too much ginger.

You can easily add a few drops of food colouring to change it up and make it a different colour, but don't add too much or the dough will get too wet. Try using food colouring gel when adding to biscuits, so as to control the consistency of the dough.

Yes, adding a few drop 2-5 drop will add flavor. Add about 3 drops of vanilla to your biscuit dough and it will be tasty.

No, avoid doing that because it will cause the batter to become too wet and soggy. If you add too much water, when the biscuits bake, they would spread out and have an unappealing consistency.

Yes, this recipe can be doubled. To double it, simply multiply the amount of all the ingredients times two. When baking, make sure to bake it in double batches, baking one batch and then the other.

Yes. You can substitute and replace any sugar in a recipe for another. Substitute dry ingredients for another dry or a wet ingredient with another wet. For metric conversions: Dry ingredients are listed as mg and wet ingredients are listed as ml. A great diabetic sugar to use is coconut sugar.

If you want your biscuits to rise in the oven, then add a pink of baking soda. However, only a small pinch, as if you add too much then they will expand too much and may even burst.

Yes, markets usually have butter in two varieties: salted and unsalted.

You can do whatever you want to your biscuits. We like to put cheese on our biscuits. You can make different types of butter for them too, such as honey or garlic butter.

Yes, they can. Cover them with plastic wrap or store them in airtight container to freeze up to 3 months. Keep in the mind the quality of the biscuits will change the longer they stay frozen, so it is recommended to let them freeze no more than a month.