Biscuits
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I have pretty funny story to share with you. Over the weekend, my mother and I experimented with making biscuits. It started Friday morning when mom told me how her father would come home from a long day at work, run to the kitchen, and whip up some of his delicious biscuits. She told me how his demeanor would change, he would talk softer, and he would put so much TLC, into making the biscuits, but here’s the clincher, he would share not one with the rest of the family. Now that’s not right. She described, how the aroma of fresh biscuits along with warm apricot, or blackberry preserve would fill the house, and she would ask him,
” Dad, may I have one?”
He’d reply ” No, ask ya mama to make you some.”
My mom would say ” But Dad, you know mama can’t cook.”
Grandpa would say ” Oh well, ’cause I’m not sharing”
Any who, back to what happened over the weekend – We decided to make biscuits ourselves, and boy oh boy was it a disaster. We went through 5 pounds of flour trying to get the recipe right, I mean I just don’t know where we went wrong. We started out using the stand mixer with the dough hook attached and my mom was very adamant about not over working the dough, and having the butter and milk chilled, so the biscuit will turn out light and flakey, not yuck and gooey, which is pretty much what happened the first few tries.
We tried to make them with butter,shortening, buttermilk, regular milk, more liquid,less liquid, more baking powder,more shortening, less shortening, – barely mixing them, over mixing them. They either turned out too floury too gooey, or hard as a brick. They didn’t rise, they didn’t brown, they stuck to the pan, and they burned – oh it was a mess, not to mention the cleanup. But it was fun.
And then today, we had the brilliant idea to use the food processor, which we’ve had for a year, (never used it until today), and the handy dandy dough blade that came with it, to finally perfect grandpa’s famous light and flakey biscuits, which he never shared. And guess what, we conversed, we cooked, and we conquered,and they we’re the best biscuits I’ve ever tasted, they turned out just the way we wanted.
But I said all that to say, I am so grateful that God has blessed me with a mother who strongly believes in “if at first you don’t succeed try and try again” Not If you didn’t get it right the first time oh well, ’cause your not wasting my flour that I spent my money on” Thanks Mama!
Ingredients:
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of butter milk
2.5 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/6 cup of butter, 1/6 cup of shortening
Preheat oven to 425 F
Step 1: Sift together, flour,baking powder,and salt, add to a food processor. Add in small pieces of butter and shortening, along with butter milk, then hit the on button, and let it go until a ball forms. Mixture shouldn’t be sticky, but should feel like playdough.
Step 2: Roll out dough on a floured surface, about an inch thick, then using a biscuit cutter( a cup will work just fine), cut out biscuits, and place on lightly greased pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top. Goes great with jam or as a breakfast sandwich.
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Hello Shauniece,
That is funny! All the trial and error paid off, and good for you both.
I taught my man to make biscuits by hand, rubbing the butter into the flour, ’till it was like corn snow in texture, then making a well in the mixture, pouring in the milk and eggs (lightly beaten only) and stirring gently, but surely with a dinner fork, until it starts to come together. Then if it forms into a ball fine, if not just a bit more milk. Better to have it a little wet than too dry (you can make up for it on the flouring board when you roll it out). On humid days, or if the flour is too fresh, it needs a little extra care.
He liked to put a dab of butter on top before the oven. His turned out so well he became a gloat about it.
It feels nice to get your hands into the butter, almost like putting your them in warm soil, that is where it all comes from after all, and it is human to make this connection to our food.
Your Mother says her Father put all that TLC into it… that best ingredient.
As to his not sharing, it was his thing!
PS: tomatoes out of season are not worth the $. The canned tomatoes have more lycopene, any tomato product is better combined with extra virgin olive oil.
Thank you for inviting me to your site and all the best.
go be delicious xx
I love, love this post! My grandmother’s flaky homemade biscuits with home canned blackberry jam are my best childhood food memories. So glad you got the chance to recreate your recipe. I’m still working on getting mine just right. Yours look great, rich, and buttery.
You made me smile all morning with this post. Your father sounds a lot like mine, so much softer in character when he cooked. Thank you for a wonderful post!