On Food and Cooking

Quickbreads: Biscuits, Biscotti, Scones
Quickbreads are appropriately named in two
ways: they are quick to prepare, being
leavened with rapid-acting chemicals and
mixed briefly to minimize gluten
development; and they should be quickly
eaten, because they stale rapidly. Batter
breads are moister, richer, and keep longer (p.
554).
The term biscuit is an ambiguous one. It
comes from the French for “twice-cooked,”
and originally referred to breads and pastries
that were baked until dry and hard. The Italian
hard cookies called biscotti remain true to this
heritage; they’re lean doughs leavened with
baking powder, baked in flattish loaves, then
cut crosswise into thin pieces and rebaked at a
low oven temperature to dry them out. French
biscuits proper, and English biskets, were
long-keeping sweets, small bread-like loaves
made from foamed egg whites, flour, and
sugar. To this day in England, the word is