How to Make Hardtack or Ship's Biscuits
This biscuit is a forever food that is perfect for storing in your Prepper Pantry
Servings: 9 Biscuits
Equipment
- Baking sheet or baking stone
- Rolling pin
- Pizza cutter or sharp knife
- Fork, chopstick, or clean nail
Ingredients
- 3 cups All-purpose flour (also known as "plain" flour) You can also use bread flour. If you use whole grain flour, you will significantly shorten the shelf life of this hardtack.
- 2 tsp Salt
- 1 cup Water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Put the 3 cups of flour into a large bowl and add the salt. Mix well.
- Make a well in the flour mixture, pour in the water, and begin to mix the flour and water together. The mixture will look very stringy. (See video.)
- Using clean hands, form the mixture into a ball, transfer to a flat surface, and knead for about 1 minute until the ball is smooth in appearance. If while kneading the dough, if it sticks to your surface, dust it with flour.
- After kneading the dough for about 1 minute, use a rolling pin (or the palm of your hand) and flatten the dough to 1/2" thickness.
- Once the dough is rolled out to 1/2" thickness, use the pizza cutter or a sharp knife to cut the dough into thirds lengthwise and crosswise, creating 9 biscuits. Alternatively, you can use a biscuit cutter to make round biscuits.
- Once your biscuits are cut, place them on to the lined baking sheet. Using a fork, chopstick, or clean nail, make indentations in each biscuit. This helps the biscuits to bake thoroughly and dry out completely.
- Place the baking sheet on the middle rack of the oven and bake the biscuits for 30 minutes.
- Remove the biscuits from the oven, leave them on the baking sheet, and allow them to cool completely.
- Once the biscuits have cooled completely, put them back into the oven on the middle rack into a preheated 350°F oven and bake the biscuits for one hour.
- After one hour, turn off the oven and leave the oven door closed with the biscuits inside the oven. Allow the oven to cool down completely. Once the oven has cooled completely, remove the biscuits from the oven and store in a sealed jar. The shelf life of these biscuits is indefinite.
- To reconstitute the biscuits, dip them in a liquid (either hot, warm, or room temperature) and allow them to soften before eating. DO NOT try to bite into the biscuits if they have not been softened. They will be very hard and may cause you to chip a tooth.
Video
Notes
Find this recipe and video at https://marysnest.com/how-to-make-hardtack-or-ships-biscuits/
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