For some reason I've been seeing a number of recipes lately that seem to include the use of a can of biscuits. Maybe it's because Fall is here and so there are more stews and “comfort” foods being made to accompany the change in seasons.
Truthfully I used to use these a lot myself. Especially when my children were younger. It was an easy to way to get a quick batch of biscuits into the oven to have with dinner. They also made great donuts when coated with cinnamon sugar and fried. Or rolled out they made a quick and seemingly tasty crust or wrap for something. They even made great snacks when cut into bite size pieces, rolled in melted butter, and sprinkled with parmesan.
Now I shudder to think about eating that and I'm horrified at the thought of all of those chemicals that I fed my children. For those who can and do eat gluten, if you're still eating this type of whack-and-bake product it's truly not a good choice.
Let's start with the Nutrition Facts:
This label demonstrates one of my biggest issues with how the label works.
It doesn't tell the truth. Right there on the label we see “Trans Fat 0g.” That leads us to believe that there are no trans fats. And since we've all pretty much learned that trans fats are bad for you we think we're doing a good thing by avoiding them. But are we really?
Not here.
Because when we skip down to the Ingredients List we find the following:
Enriched Flour Bleached (wheat flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Water, Soybean and Palm Oil, Baking Powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda), Dextrose. Contains 2% or less of: Hydrogenated Palm Oil, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Sugar, Salt, Vital Wheat Gluten, Mono and Diglycerides, Xanthan Gum, Propylene Glycol Alginate, Yellow 5, TBHQ and Citric Acid (preservatives), Butter, Red 40, Color Added, Natural and Artificial Flavor.
Near the bottom we see Hydrogenated Palm Oil and Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil. ANYTHING that is hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated IS a trans fat. So how do manufacturers get away with this? Isn't that lying? Not according to the standards used for nutrition fact reporting which allow them to say there are no trans fats if there is less than 0.5g per serving.
What is a serving? It's what the label says it is. A portion is what you serve yourself. Regardless of how many biscuits you eat, even if you just eat one you are still getting trans fats. Guaranteed. Because it's in the ingredients.
And that doesn't even begin to address all of the other nutritionally damaging ingredients found in this product.
Enriched flour is nutritionally deficient. Notice all of the ingredients after “wheat flour” in the parenthesis? Those are mostly B vitamins with some iron that are put back into the flour by Federal mandate. But the flour is still missing all of the other ingredients which are stripped out in processing. And then it's bleached. Enriched anything is not a healthy choice.
The dextrose is probably from corn and mostly likely genetically modified corn at that. The soybeans are probably also genetically modified. GMO foods are simply not a good choice for health. The citric acid is possibly also sourced from corn and therefore likely to be GMO as well.
Artificial colors, yellow 5 and red 40. While it may not look like a colored item this canned biscuit product does have artificial colors. TBHQ, Propylene gycol alginate, artificial flavor, there's a huge array of chemicals in this product and it's not something that anyone should be consuming.
Sadly we often think that convenience foods are, well, convenient. We don't realize that in order for them to be shelf-stable and ready to go it means lots of chemicals and not a lot of nutrition.
For those who can eat gluten and who want biscuits to go with their meal it's still possible to have them. And although it takes a little more work, it's truly not that much effort and the results are far better (and much better for you) than a chemical concoction from a can.
Soaked Flour Biscuits
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour
1 cup organic whole milk
1 tablespoon raw unfiltered vinegar
Mix vinegar and milk together and let sit 5 minutes until milk curdles slightly
Add to wheat and oat mixture, combining thoroughly
Let sit 8 hours to soak
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup organic, unsalted butter, cut into slices
Preheat oven to 450 F
Sprinkle baking powder, salt, and baking soda over the flour mixture
Add butter and gently work butter into mixture to fully incorporate
Don't over-mix the dough or your biscuits will be tough
Roll dough out on a lightly floured board to about 1″ thickness
Cut biscuits out with a glass that has been dipped in flour (so it doesn't stick)
Place on baking tray
Bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown