Biscuits are lovely because they require no mechanical equipment, can be made in seconds, baked in minutes and fill your cold apartment kitchen with the smell of farmhouse baking. Only one bowl, a baking pan, and a few implements to clean. Biscuits are perfect with dinner, cold for lunch or toasted for breakfast, with savory toppings like creamed chicken or beef stew or layered with sweetened sliced strawberries and whipped cream. Or they can be cut really tiny into little coins with chopped herbs in the batter for appetizers or bread baskets, or not cut at all and used as a crust on a pot-pie. I am providing two variations on biscuits here as well, that call for some non-top ten contenders, once you have mastered the basic biscuit you will surely want to try these variations.
Crepes are the next in line in terms of ease and convenience.
This batter can be made hours in advance, in a blender in a few seconds or in a minute in a bowl with a whisk, and once baked crepes freeze beautifully. Any dish made with crepes can be frozen and put into the oven without defrosting and will not suffer at all. In Italian, crepes are called crespelle, and are spread with spinach or ricotta or meat fillings, rolled and sauced and baked for a few minutes. Again, with the same ingredients, a sauce either thick or thin can be made in minutes, with a few additions can be enriched with grated parmesan, herbs or sauteed onions, stirred into cooked vegetables or poured over a piece of chicken to make it seem like hard work was done. A bechemel sauce is also the perfect vehicle for the cheese part of macaroni and cheese, grated cheddar stirred into the warm sauce and then folded into cooked noodles makes a really cheesy, creamy dish.