STEPHANIE'S SLICE OF LIFE

You don’t have to be from the South to love a good biscuit! Homemade biscuits are not something I make often, in fact hardly ever. I am going to admit something that I am not particularly proud of, I usually just make Bisquick biscuits because they are quick and easy, hence the name Bis-quick. Insert gasping sound here. I know, the shame, my head is hung low. When you are a person that bakes just about everything from scratch, you really do feel guilty admitting such a thing. However, they are really good, and if you don’t have the time to make them from scratch it is a really good alternative. But, and this is a big but, they are not going to be a classic flaky biscuit.

Yesterday I had the time and really wanted homemade classic flaky biscuits to go with the sausage gravy I was planning on making for dinner. I have read lots of tips over the years on how to make a good biscuit and those tips really do make a difference. I have included them in my instructions.

So here is what you need to do to bake biscuits.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 heaping tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup milk

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized the importance of sifting. It does make a difference, especially in cakes.

Use a grater to grate the cold butter into the flour mixture. Yes, you read that correctly, you need to grate the butter. The butter being cold is important not only for grating, but for the biscuits to bake properly.

It is funny to see butter like that isn’t it? I was thinking about something else and grabbed a little and ate it by accident thinking it was cheese. It wasn’t cheese 😬

Use a fork or a pastry cutter to combine the butter with the flour mixture until it looks like course crumbs.

Add the milk and mix with a fork until the mixture is moist and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. I had to add a little more milk than the 3/4 cup.

Roll the dough out onto a floured surface and kneed as little as you have to until the dough is no longer sticky. You don’t want to over kneed the dough.

Roll out the dough until it’s about 1/2 thick and use a biscuit or cookie cutter to cut out the biscuits. Do not twist the cutter, just cut straight down and lift. It holds in the moisture better that way.

I used a fairly small round cutter today and made small biscuits. Even though I would have liked making larger biscuits, I’ll be honest and admit I was just too lazy to try to find another one.

Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet close together and bake at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes or until they start to brown.

I think it is time for me to invest in some new cookie sheets, mine aren’t looking that great anymore. Especially if I am going to be taking pictures of them. Just think of them as well loved.

As the old Southern saying goes, “Butter my biscuit”. I even have the saying stamped on a butter knife (and I stamped it myself).