How to make biscuits -- need answer fastish

Cafe Society
21

I don’t use butter in my biscuits. It’s not traditional (poor Southerners couldn’t afford it) plus it is harder to work with - I always use shortening. It’s also got less water in it (less water = fluffier biscuits) and isn’t as hard as a rock when you take it out of the refrigerator, so it cuts in by hand much easier than butter. That means you are working the dough less to get everything incorporated.

Butter comes later - you melt some and brush the biscuits with it when they come out of the oven.

As already said, work the dough as little as possible. You want it to be very soft and a bit wet when mixed. Flour your board, give the dough a few turns (no more than 4), pat it out and cut. No twisting with the cutter, or if you don’t have a cutter, use a very sharp knife.

If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make ersatz buttermilk using milk + lemon juice or vinegar.

22

Hmm, there’s no way to post photos to this site, is there. :frowning:

(No, I’m not going to create an account on some photo site just to show you how my biscuits came out.)

23

But you cut the butter in BEFORE you add the liquid, so no gluten develops. I am accustomed to using warmer butter for pastry, but it worked just fine.

I used yogurt cut with a little milk. I had lemon juice, that might have been good.

I patted it out, folded, repeat. I wasn’t sure how much folding to do – the recipe said “5 times”, but maybe it meant “5 total folds, in two episodes of folding”. I think I made 2 folds 3 times.

I ended up using a round pizza cutter (floured) instead of my knife. That just felt like a good tool for the job.

I would have liked one of those pastry scrapers to peel the dough off the floured pastry board. They came out extremely tender, though.

My chief mistake is that I forgot to add the salt. :frowning: But they were pretty good. Can’t really go wrong with that much butter. :slight_smile:

24

If I know I’m going to make biscuits, I freeze a stick of butter and “cut” the butter in with a cheese grater.

Biscuits…mmmmmmmm.

25

Coincidentally, we finished off a pot of soup tonight, so I made biscuits to go with. Buttered up and drizzled with Lanier’s Tupelo honey, which has to be the best honey I’ve ever eaten. Heaven.

26

Chefguy, how much do you fold your biscuits?

27

As expected, the biscuits were better fresh than the next morning. But I had to try the experiment. :slight_smile: I had one with thyme honey. Thyme honey has a gentle hint of thyme flavor, and is REALLY GOOD with biscuits.

28

Pat down. Fold in thirds. Pat down. Fold in thirds. Pat down. Nine layers seems to be plenty for good texture. More than that, the dough starts to get overworked and the butter starts to soften.

Next day biscuits always get toasted.

29

Chefguy has the biscuit thing going on!

A few tips from the Deep South.

Drop biscuits are fast and easy and you can add herbs to the dough (like chives). Or you can go the other way around and throw a little sugar and cinnamon in and that’s good for breakfast, especially with sausage patties.

Freeze the butter, then cut the sticks into little cubes. It helps to freeze the flour too, then cut in the butter, either with a pastry cutter or even just two knives. Then add the milk and knead it with your hands just until it all comes together, dump it out on the counter, shape it up, cut out. Don’t twist the cutter.

Or … and yes, some of you will shudder … but you know what makes good biscuits? Lard. Real lard. Good quality lard will make a biscuit so good your tongue will slap the roof of your mouth. You don’t eat biscuits every day (in southern houses, it alternates with cornbread and yeast rolls on Sunday) so get over yourself and check it out.

If you add a little sugar to the dough (I like brown sugar myself), cut those out, you have shortcake, which is much better than store bought sponge cake. Sometimes I’ll make one huge shortcake and fill it with berries and whipped cream and serve it in wedges, people like that.

If you add a little sugar and use cream instead of milk, that makes good scones, which are a delight, especially if you add currants or dried cranberries.

It’s not as good as it used to be (they mill it different now), but the best flour for biscuits is White Lily. I used to have it shipped to me when I lived in New York City because it was $10.00 for two pounds at Dean and DeLuca.

Most of all, enjoy.

Jenny
your humble TubaDiva

30

Cutter

I don’t have a pastry cutter or cookie cutter. I use a glass. I have some 12-ounce Coca-Cola glasses from the late-'70s, and they make the right size dough-circles.

31

I use yogurt subbed 1:1 for buttermilk as I always have it. Freeze the butter and grate. Tip: do not overbake them. They are better under than over baked.

I’m lazy and don’t even roll them out, just drop them on a cookie sheet with a big spoon. You don’t need to grease the pan. Homemade apricot jam and butter. Easy peasy.

32

The best enchiladas have the tortillas softened in melted lard before filling and rolling. Yum!

33

I go to a gaming event every year with about 50 friends (not this year, sob), and in addition to coordinating all the meals for the trip, I head up breakfast on Saturday mornings. We always do breakfast meats, sliced fruit, oven-scrambled eggs–and biscuits.

I discovered that homemade biscuits translate really well to this, because I can premix the dry ingredients and the flour (and the cheese, because herby cheesy biscuits are spectacular) in the food processor, then put it in gallon ziplocs and freeze it. At the game day, I stir in the buttermilk and bake them. The biscuits may not be QUITE as good as fresh, but honestly I can’t tell. I make six batches, half herby-cheese and the other half cinnamon with a tiny bit of sugar (sugar really affects the texture, making them much more cakelike and not in a way I especially like), and at the game-day, the main work is just scooping the batter onto the pan. Easy and delicious!

34

It’s the secret ingredient!

35

Seems to me that White Lily sold out to another company a few years ago, much to the horror of Southerners everywhere. I ordered it once from Amazon, but the only quantity available was four five-pound bags. I think I eventually ended up tossing at least one bag. Can’t find it in this part of the country, of course, but King Arthur makes a good product; their all-purpose is under 12% protein (White Lily is 9%).

I’ve used lard in the past, but I’m a butter addict. I cut it into cubes, then pop it back in the fridge for about ten minutes, as just that small amount of handling will start it to softening. I’ve also found that a premium butter like Kerrygold is not a good choice, as is goes soft very quickly. I just buy whatever unsalted sticks are on sale.

And I really recommend using a food processor for cutting it in. It’s fast and easy and gives a uniform distribution. Then add the liquid and pulse maybe two or three times and the dough is ready for folding.

36

Thanks, perfect.

For a first try, I was very happy with my biscuits.

37

The fat makes SO much difference.

I sometimes fry veggies or potatoes in goose fat. SO GOOD. I had company over for dinner, and they were all exclaiming about how fabulous my potatoes were. They asked for the recipe… No, they weren’t expecting that goose fat was the secret ingredient. Goose fat makes stellar popcorn, too. Ghee is also good, but fussier, as it has a lower smoke point.)

38

My mother-in-law made her own Bisquik with a twenty-five pound bag of flour, one can of vegetable shortening, one box of salt, and one can of baking powder. I never watched her mix it all together. I was afraid she’d use the bathtub, LOL!

She had made biscuits for so many years, she’d scoop out “that much” mix, add “that much” milk, and get the exact number of biscuits she wanted. They were light, they were fluffy, and they would practically dissolve on your tongue when they were hot from the oven

She was The Biscuit Queen.
~VOW

39

I really haven’t noticed any change in White Lily - a lot of the wheat for it was already grown in Ohio, and when Smucker’s bought the brand in 2006 all that really changed was that the old mill that made the flour in Knoxville, TN was closed a couple years after the acquisition. It was already being milled in Ohio at another plant even before the acquisition and that didn’t change. It’s still the same wheat.

Southern Biscuit is another good brand of biscuit flour if you can find it. Unfortunately they’ve been slammed lately and had to disable their direct online ordering because they couldn’t keep up!

Lard is of course the traditional biscuit fat but it’s been out of favor for so long it can be hard to get - just over the last year though I have noticed it back in stores (when I first moved here Walmart sold great big buckets of the stuff). Fat seems to run in trends - for awhile all the restaurants were doing duck fat French fries and now you don’t see them anywhere. Schmaltz is another thing that seems to show up for awhile and then disappear again. Coconut oil seems to be enjoying a good run as well, though using that for biscuits would just be weird …

40

The first time I went shopping for lard, I couldn’t find it in the cooler, so I asked a stocker. I had no idea it was shelf stable if unopened.