I dated one particular girl in college whose mother made the most unusual biscuits I’ve ever eaten. Now, I was raised a good Southern boy, and trust me I’ve eaten my share of biscuits. In my experience, the average Southern biscuit is about what you see from Bojangle’s: 3 or so inches across and say an inch to an inch and a half thick. Flakiness and tenderness are, ideally, balanced giving something that’s reasonably easy to break open by hand or with a fork for buttering.
But the biscuits in question were the most buttery, most tender, and most uniquely of all flattest biscuits I’ve ever had. I don’t think they rose so much as a millimeter in baking. Fully cooked and ready to eat, they weren’t more than 1/2 an inch thick. Even cutting one open to butter it was a challenge, forget doing it by hand or fork. Usually, I (and everyone else) would just butter the tops or leave them unbuttered (they were plenty fine by themselves).
Any thoughts at all on how she made these? They were not at all heavy, which is what I always think just leaving all the leavening out would result in, but I’m too novice a baker* to believe I even know how to guess about that sort of thing.
I grew up on beaten biscuits, and what the OP describes does not sound like them at all. Beaten biscuits are a lot of things, but tender isn’t really any of them. There’s a small picture of them here (on the left) if that helps.
I don’t think so. Those sound like quite the production, and these were definitely everyday fare, thrown together between a groggy “g’morning” and the first cup of coffee, as I recall. Besides which, the linked page describes lift. The critical element of these biscuits is a total lack of lift.
Anything’s worth a shot. How thick do those turn out?
And I did neglect to mention in the OP, the cuisine in question was local to southeast Georgia. Screven County, to be exact.
Not rolled at all: dough balls pulled off then pressed flat. Where they remained flat.
With the increased tenderness and flakiness, I’d guess she upped the fat quotient a fair bit like you do for a pie crust.
There are a lot of things that can make biscuits not rise much–not using much baking powder, using old baking powder, not mixing the baking powder in well, or over-handling the dough are the most common ones. I’d go with the last one, maybe with some help from a leavening issue, as it sounds like she’s pretty damn rough on her dough.
With the increased tenderness and flakiness, I’d guess she upped the fat quotient a fair bit like you do for a pie crust.
There are a lot of things that can make biscuits not rise much–not using much baking powder, using old baking powder, not mixing the baking powder in well, or over-handling the dough are the most common ones. I’d go with the last one, maybe with some help from a leavening issue, as it sounds like she’s pretty damn rough on her dough.
My first boyfriend’s Mom made exactly this kind of biscuit every single day. They were the best biscuits I’ve ever eaten and I cannot duplicate them. She had a biscuit bowl that had flour in it, and she would pour in some buttermilk, add some shortening, and mix it together with her fingers until it looked right. Then she pulled them off, placed them on a pan and mooshed them down a little with her fingers. Bake and eat. Any flour that didn’t get incorporated into the dough would just stay in the bowl till the next batch.
Yep, that’s fat all right. Take your basic biscuit recipe, and increase the fat by about half. Of that amount of fat, make about half butter and about half shortening, and cut your leavening by about half. See where that gets you, and adjust from there. Oh, and pop your shortening in the freezer for about 10 minutes before you start the cutting-in process.
Can someone post their favourite southern biscuit recipe? I was cruising the Food Network and saw some rather enticing ones last week or so, and got an urge to try and make them. Thanks!
My grandmother used to make Butter Dips. Basically you roll out the biscuit dough to fit the size of the pan, melt a half-stick of butter (NOT substitute), pour half the butter on the bottom of the pan, lay the dough in the pan (on top of the butter), pour the other half over the dough, then cut into squares. Bake until brown.
I never said they were healthy but damn they were delicious!