Just Biscuits, and then some....

Biscuits are a Southern art form.  And when I think about making this simple bread it conjures up visions of warm biscuits oozing with melting butter and honey. When you hear someone mention "country" cooking, this is the very essence of the phrase. Good soul satisfying food, made with love and shared by family and friends. 

Look yummy, don’t they?  If you have never made biscuits but would like to, I am happy to share my recipe with you.  Biscuits are based on a simple recipe; it's what you do with it that makes it yours – plain and simple; with cheese pieces tossed in; rolled up with cinnamon and sugar aka sweet roll style; etc. - so feel free to play :)

JUST BISCUITS
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
(It’s imperative that the oven be at this temp when you put the biscuits in.)
2 cups regular flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar - a smidge more if you like a sweet biscuit
1/3 cup shortening 
3/4 cup milk 

Work the shortening into the dry ingredients by a method known as “cutting” it in. 
You can use a knuckle duster in a downward twisting motion, or

Use the side of the fork - sort of chop the shortening into the flour (this is really hard to describe), or

My preferred method using my stand mixer with its paddle blade; just watch it carefully so as to not over mix it.  (I will explain the sweet potatoes in a minute....)

When the mixture looks like sand with pebbles it’s done. Immediately stir in the milk and toss with a fork just until moistened; careful not to stir too much.

The dough should look a little shaggy. 

Okay, you may notice that the dough is a bit orange.  I can explain. 

I started this post a few weeks ago when I was making regular biscuits, but got sidetracked.  Today I need to make Sweet Potato Biscuits (that recipe follows), and hence the sweet potatoes in the photo above.  As my three year old granddaughter says, “It’s my faaaaavorite.”  They really are. 

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead just a few times.  There should be two hands in the photo, but I needed one to take the picture. Kneading is simply pushing the dough away with the heels of your hands while pulling it around a quarter turn and folding it half up and over pulling it back towards you in a sort of stirring motion (or the Cabbage Patch, it you know that dance - oh my ;). Repeat several times.  That really doesn’t make a lot of sense in writing, but it will hopefully make sense when you actually do it.

Gently pat or roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is about ½ inch thick.

I have used this rolling pin my grandmother gave me for the past forty years. It just keeps getting prettier with age.

You can use a drinking glass, a cookie cutter, whatever in whatever size to cut out the biscuits, just dip the cutter in flour to keep it from sticking.

Side note: When my oldest was three I found a dog bone cookie cutter.  Nowadays you can find them everywhere, but this was the first one I’d ever seen.  We didn’t have a dog, but that was no excuse to not bring it home with me and for fun I used it that night to make a batch of “dog” biscuits which were a big hit with my son.  Fast forward a couple of weeks to our having my husband’s new assistant manager over for dinner.  I made regular round biscuits for the meal, and all was going well until my sweet boy announced that he wanted a dog biscuit instead of “that” one.  Ummmm, it took a little explaining. 

Okay, back to biscuit making…

Now, if you like high fluffy biscuits, the trick is to use a straight down/up motion, no twisting the cutter as this may compress the sides and they won't rise as tall. 

Re-roll and cut out until you have used all the dough.  My favorite biscuit is the last one made up of all the last little scrapes patted together.

I use parchment paper to line my cookie sheet because I tend to scorch biscuits if I  don't, but it is fine to put them on an UNgreased cookie sheet too; just keep a close eye on their little bottoms as they can burn pretty quick. Bless my Hero, he says he likes things on the burned side and it is a good thing because  I tend to get busy and forget until I smell cinders and know that I have done it again.

Oh, and don’t budge the biscuits too close together or they won’t rise properly.

Cool Fact:  If you don’t want to bake all the biscuits right now, put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer until completely frozen. Pop them off the pan and into a freezer bag.  When you want hot biscuits just heat up the oven and bake (frozen) as you would fresh made.  Love this!

Bake at 425 for about 8-10 minutes, then reduce the temp to 350 for another 6 minutes or so, or until they are as dark as you like.

As soon as you pull the biscuits out of the oven, gently rub a bit of butter over the tops.  I do this with all my breads; it tastes wonderful plus keeps the tops soft. 

Coffee and biscuits will be ready soon, and the back door is open.  Come on over and share a few while they are nice and hot. 

Cindy

PS  The promised Sweet Potato Biscuit Recipe

2 cups self-rising flour (see how to make regular flour into self-rising below)
¼ cup sugar
2 Tablespoons shortening like Crisco
3 Tablespoons margarine
1 cup cooked sweet potato / about 2 (I use the sweet center section)
1/3 cup milk

Whisk together the dry ingredients
Cut in the margarine and shortening
Stir milk into the sweet potato
Stir the milk and sweet potato mixture into the flour mixture
Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until well blended
Roll out about ½ inch thick
Complete as with the Just Biscuits above
These are wonderful as ham biscuits.  YUMMMMM

PS (again)
To turn regular flour into self-rising flour whisk together:
2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
¼ teaspoon of baking soda
¼ teaspoon cream of tarter

Enjoy!