Simmer Till Done

Now there’s a sexy name for a post, eh? Flour Sack Friday.

What’s next? Sad Sack Saturday?

The above bag is not vintage – it’s full of flour and I bought it just a few days ago at Dillon’s.

I don’t know if I adore Hudson Cream flour more for their happiness-inducing cow illustration or its magical, feather-light pastry powers. The flour is produced by Stafford County Flour Mills in tiny Hudson, Kansas, where it’s been milled for over 100 years.

Hudson Cream apparently has a web site, which I naively hoped they wouldn’t have. I was kind of hoping the miller’s golden-haired daughter was still passing out hand-printed leaflets in town in her white eyelet dress.

Anyway, it’s delightful:

“…how does a cow symbolize flour? In the early 1900s when the mill was built, many people owned their own cows for milking and it was commonly believed that the Jersey cow produced the best milk and cream. The mill’s founder chose the Jersey cow and the word “cream” to symbolize the white richness, smooth texture, and high quality of the flour.”

These people are serious about their flour. I love them.

I’ve always wanted to collect vintage flour sacks. It’s one of my most frequent searches on eBay: “flour sack,” “vintage flour sack,” “kansas flour sack,” and, of course, “old flour bakery kansas sack crazy collector woman.”

Ideally, they are from old mills that no longer exist. Like this one.

Let me extend my apologies right now. I’m sorry, mill – and town, and townspeople, and mill workers, and the good folks who drive the delivery truck. But I need that gorgeous sack.

Here in funky, college-town Lawrence, I am not country-kitchen girl. But I am obsessed-by-flour girl, and when I get my hands on an old flour sack, I want to find a stale sprinkling at the bottom. I want to hear the creaky bin roll across the mill floor, and I want to inhale the hot, windy air around the Kansas wheat.

If I don’t smell the burnt flour at the bottom of the oven, if I don’t hear Marge unlocking the back door to the donut bakery at sunrise…well, that sack’s just not old enough.

I can’t always get the bakery treasures I want. But here’s a few tiny ones for you; a very, very good thing to make with your own flour. Enjoy.

Cream Cheese Biscuits

I love biscuits, and will make them out of whatever is within reach. In a freak occurrence, I had very little butter in the house, and reached for cream cheese.

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3⁄4 tsp salt
3 oz cream cheese
2 oz butter
2/3 cup milk (or plain yogurt)

In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt ingredients. Using a fork, knife or pastry cutter, cut in cream cheese and butter.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in milk (or yogurt). Mix to form a rough ball of dough.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until dough just comes together.

Pat out to desired thickness (I like them fewer and taller – 3/4″ thick or so) and cut into rounds. Brush with milk or melted butter.

Bake on cookie sheet 10-12 minutes at 425, until lightly browned top and bottom.

Tags: baking, biscuits, cream cheese, flour, flour sacks, Heartland Mills, Hudson Cream, Kansas, vintage flour sacks