We made biscuits this week! Real biscuits - no cans or frozen dough. It's an art form, you know. This recipe takes practice to perfect, but boy is it worth the trouble! For the most part, my students were so impressed with how well their creations turned out. We served our biscuits with butter and jelly.
I have tried several different biscuit recipes over the years, and this is the best I've ever had, by far. The morning before our classroom demonstration, I prepared biscuits two ways, using two different recipes, in an attempt to decide which of the two I would teach the class. I did an informal survey with the help of some of my coworkers. "Which is your favorite biscuit - A or B?" And wouldn't you know that it was a tie! A lot of help they turned out to be! Anyway, I made an executive decision and chose my favorite to show the kids. It was a hit!
On Lab Day One, the students made the biscuits plain. But on Day Two, they were encouraged to make a variation of the biscuit recipe, adding either cheese and garlic or cinnamon and sugar with glaze. Both were delicious and are very easy to execute.
As a side note, this recipe calls for buttermilk. If you do not have buttermilk in your fridge, add a tablespoon of white vinegar to a cup of milk to make your own. Stir and let it set for a couple of minutes, and PRESTO! You have buttermilk! This is what we did in class.
Before I give you the recipe, a few secret tips to help you make delicious biscuits:
• A pastry blender is, by far, the best tool for the job of cutting the butter into the flour. You can find them just about anywhere – Walmart, Target, etc.
• The more you touch the dough, the tougher it will become. Tough is bad when we’re talking about biscuits, so keep the kneading to a bare minimum.
• As a time saver, we just used a pizza cutter to cut the biscuits. Sure, they turn out square, but that was fine for us. There is absolutely no wasted dough when using this method, and you can simply flip the wax paper over onto the pan instead of handling the dough unnecessarily.
• If you do choose to use a biscuit cutter, be sure your biscuits are touching on the pan. This makes a MUCH softer biscuit with no crunchy edges.
Our Best Buttermilk Biscuits
Makes 12
• 1/ 2 cup cold butter, cut into ¼ inch slices
• 2 1/4 cups self-rising flour (We only use White Lily.)
• 1 – 1 ¼ cup buttermilk
• 1 ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
Cut butter into flour with a pastry blender until mixture resembles small peas. (Stir in cheese now, if using) Cover and chill 10 minutes. Add buttermilk, stirring with a fork just until dry ingredients are moistened.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead 3 or 4 times, gradually adding additional flour as needed. With floured hands, press dough into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle. Sprinkle top with additional flour. Fold dough over onto itself in 3 sections, starting with 1 short end. Fold dough rectangle as if folding a letter-size piece of paper. Repeat entire process 2 more times, patting and folding.
Press dough to ¾ inch thickness. Cut with a 2-inch cutter. (W used a pizza cutter.) Place biscuits in pan with the sides touching each other. (Very important for soft biscuits...)
Bake at 450 degrees for 13 to 15 minutes until lightly browned. Brush with butter.
Happy Fall Break, Y'all!
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