Red Lobster Shares ‘Similar’ Recipe For Cheese-Garlic Biscuits

Dear Laura: I am always impressed at your success in locating recipes that readers request. I am hoping you can obtain one for me. Red Lobster restaurants serve a roll that is like a drop biscuit in texture, with garlic and cheese in the dough. My attempts to create this biscuit at home have not produced the desired results. Could you help, please? I would also be grateful for the same restaurant’s stuffed mushroom recipe. - Janet, Spokane

Dear Janet: So far I’ve had no luck on the stuffed mushroom recipe (Red Lobster does not share it). Perhaps another reader has succeeded in creating a similar recipe and will send it to us at the address at the bottom of this column.

Here are two versions of the biscuits. The first is from Red Lobster’s publicity people. The second is from “Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipes Newsletter,” which attempts to re-create items from restaurants and brand-name food manufacturers. (For 15 complimentary recipes and information on subscribing, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Secret Recipes, P.O. Box 237, Marysville, MI 48040.)

Red Lobster provides the following disclaimer along with its recipe: “Although this recipe is similar to the Cheese-Garlic Biscuits from Red Lobster, it differs slightly because it was developed for individual use and consumer ovens versus the large-quantity recipe developed for the restaurant industry and restaurant ovens.”

Red Lobster’s Cheese-Garlic Biscuits

2 cups Bisquick baking mix

2/3 cup milk

1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (2 ounces)

1/4 cup margarine or butter, melted

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Mix Bisquick, milk and cheese until soft dough forms; beat vigorously 30 seconds. Drop dough by spoonfuls onto ungreased cooking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Mix margarine and garlic powder; brush over warm biscuits before removing from cookie sheet. Serve warm. Yield: 10 to 12 biscuits.

High-altitude directions: At altitudes from 3,500 to 6,500 feet, heat oven to 475 degrees.

Pitzer’s Cheese Biscuits (like Red Lobster’s)

1 cup milk

1/3 cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons sugar (or Equal)

2 cups plus 3 or 4 tablespoons self-rising flour (see note)

4 ounces shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

Nonstick vegetable oil spray

Garlic salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat milk, mayonnaise, sugar, and 2 cups of self-rising flour together with an electric mixer on medium speed, just until moistened. By hand, work in 3 or 4 tablespoons more self-rising flour just until dough is thick enough to drop from spoon and hold its shape. Stir in shredded cheese.

Drop by spoonfuls to form 10 to 12 bumpy little mounds, 1 inch apart, on baking sheet coated with nonstick spray. Spray tops and bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and immediately spray each biscuit with nonstick spray and dust lightly with garlic salt. Serve at once or freeze for use within a few months.

Yield: 10 to 12 biscuits.

Note: If you do not have self-rising flour, add 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt to every 1 cup of regular flour.

Dear Laura: This is in response to your request from Pam in Colville. I found the Really Bran Muffins recipe in the WWP Gazette dated April 1987. Hope this is the recipe Pam is looking for. - M.G.K., Ritzville

Dear M.G.K.: Thanks to you and a couple of other readers who responded to Pam’s request, we now have the recipe and will file it for future reference.

Really Bran Muffins

1-1/4 cups unprocessed bran, divided

1/2 cup boiling water

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup raisins

1/3 cup chopped nuts

1-1/4 cups whole-wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine 1/2 cup of the bran with boiling water; set aside.

Combine egg, brown sugar, oil and vanilla in mixing bowl. Stir soda into buttermilk; add with raisins and nuts to brown sugar mixture; stir well.

Combine remaining 3/4 cup bran, whole-wheat flour and salt in large bowl. Add buttermilk mixture plus bran and water; stir just until moistened.

Spoon batter into greased or paper-lined muffin pans. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Yield: About 18 muffins.

Note: Unprocessed bran, although it is not a cereal, is available at many stores in the uncooked cereal section. You may also find it near specialty flours in the baking section.

Dear Laura: Do you have a recipe for a Mississippi Mud Pie? I would like it if possible. Thanks. - B.L.B., Sprague, Wash.

Dear B.L.B.: Make this pie quick and easy with a ready-to-fill chocolate crumb crust, or invest a few more minutes to create your own crust.

Mississippi Mud Pie

Chocolate crumb crust (see note)

12-ounce jar chocolate fudge ice cream topping

2/3 cup chopped pecans

1 quart coffee-flavored ice cream, softened

2 tablespoons Kahlua, optional

2 cups sweetened whipped cream

Spread 1/2 cup fudge topping and 1/3 cup chopped pecans into bottom of crust.

In medium bowl, blend softened ice cream with Kahlua and 1/2 cup whipped cream. Spoon into crust. Freeze 4 hours or more.

Remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving. Top each piece with a generous dollop of whipped cream, chocolate fudge and pecans.

Note: To create chocolate crumb crust, break about 30 (2-1/4-inch) chocolate cookie wafers into blender or food processor; process to form fine crumbs. Combine 1-1/2 cup crumbs with 1/3 cup melted butter or margarine. Press firmly over bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes; let cool on a rack before filling.

, DataTimes MEMO: Have a food question? Looking for a recipe? Laura Carnie, a certified family and consumer scientist and food consultant in Coeur d’Alene, would like to hear from you. Write to Cook’s Notebook, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. As many letters as possible will be answered in this column; sorry, no individual replies.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Laura Carnie The Spokesman-Review