Beaten Biscuits

Have no fear, that's not the sound of me beating an erstwhile partner with a baylna (that's the mixed girl Trini Hindi for rolling pin. Can't guarantee the spelling as I only grew up hearing the word on Mastana Bahar, the local variety show, where you could win the CHANCE of the jackpot by getting the hindi word for the item of the week, and THEN get to 'pick a pan' for the chance at the big money prize, with the risk of ending up with 1. a dirty sock, 2. a meagre £25 or 3. the BIG MONEY prize)

Enough side stepping, this post is actually about Southern Beaten Biscuits, which are a baking powder bread requiring hard pounding with a hammer for about 40 minutes, or for those of us in the modern world a quick whirl in the food processor. The ones I made had a hard crunchy outside and a dense but soft interior (somewhat reminiscent of rock cakes, posted about by http://www.aspoonfulofsugar.net/blog/. Rock cakes are a Trinidadian sweet bun but also with a hard crunchy exterior and a rather dense and often rather hard interior, studded sparingly with glace cherries or candied peel. They are sold by street vendors from glass cases, no photos available, I didn't want to be mistaken for a tourist on my last trip home, even for you guys. Rock cakes are best consumed with a very large glass of juice, and plenty of time on your hands as they require slow careful chewing. They are however, cheap, sweet and filling) . The beaten biscuits were good with soup but abit crunchy for anything else. Anyone authentically Southern have any advice on the correct texture?

Southern Beaten Biscuits
3.5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup white fat
1 cup milk

Add dry ingredients to processor, process. Add shortening process till blended. Add milk with machine running till dough forms a soft ball which is soft but not sticky. Add more milk if too dry. Process till forms a ball and then continue for 2 minutes. Should be elastic and silky. Pinch of golf ball size balls, roll into ball, flatten to .5 inch and bake for 25 min at 400F.