Biscuit Baking Day

Biscuits may have been the first convenience food and in the days of the wood fired stoves almost fast food. Biscuits were quick, easy and required few ingredients that they were commonly found on the tables in the south. Moms in the south commonly cooked biscuits up for their families every morning. They would eat them for breakfast and take them in their pails for lunch.

My husbands grandmother would whip a pan of biscuits nearly every day. My husband lived at home with her and I would often stop by and enjoy a biscuit with warm butter. It was very tasty and she would tell me stories of old. Old stories that were stories of her life. Every day for most of her life she would make up some biscuits for her grandma that raised her, for her parents, and her husband and children.

Chill the bowl used to mix the dough as well as the pastry blender to prevent the butter or shortening from warming up.

• Cut the butter into flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Cold bits of butter or fat will melt during baking, creating pockets of steam that give biscuits their flakiness.

• When working with butter, cut it into small pieces, and chill again before adding to dry ingredients.

• Dip the cutter in flour. Cut the biscuits smoothly and cleanly straight down without twisting. Twisting can seal the dough and prevent the rise.

• As Nathalie used to tell me, “Get your hot little hands off that dough.” Handle the dough as little as possible. You don’t want to make the biscuits tough by overworking, and you want the fat to stay cold until the biscuits bake.

• A very hot oven is essential. The steam interacts with the baking powder to create the biscuit’s ideal textures inside and out.

• The perfect biscuit should be golden brown and slightly crisp on the outside, with a light, airy interior. For a flaky, tender biscuit, don’t overwork the dough: gently combine the ingredients until just blended

2 cups White Lily or other Southern all-purpose flour, or cake flour (not self-rising), more for rolling out

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits and chilled

3/4 to 1 cup buttermilk

 

1. Preheat the oven to 500°F. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Pour in the buttermilk, and gently mix until just combined.
2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead lightly, using the heel of your hand to compress and push the dough away from you, then fold it back over itself. Give the dough a small turn and repeat 8 or so times. (It’s not yeast bread; you want to just barely activate the gluten, not overwork it.) Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out 1/2 inch thick. Cut out rounds of dough with a 21/4-inch round cutter dipped in flour; press the cutter straight down without twisting so the biscuits will rise evenly when baked.
3. Place the biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet or in an 8- by 2-inch round cake pan. If the biscuits are baked close together the sides will be moist. If the biscuits are baked further apart, the sides will be crisp.
4. Bake until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool just slightly. Serve warm.
5. variation: If I don’t feel like rolling out biscuits, or just want a different texture, I tweak the recipe by adding more buttermilk to the dough and make drop biscuits: use 3 cups of flour—2 for the dough and 1 cup placed in a bowl to shape the dough into biscuits. Increase the buttermilk to 2 cups. The dough will be very wet and resemble cottage cheese. To form the biscuits into balls, scoop up some dough with a large ice cream scoop; place the dough balls in the bowl with the 1 cup of flour. Working one at a time, roll the balls to coat in flour, then set in an ungreased 8- by 2-inch round cake pan. The baking time will be the same as for cut biscuits