Ah, Biscuits June 2007

It’s universal knowledge that “bread is the staff of life” and here on SandMountain biscuits may be the number one choice of bread.  Anyway biscuits are an important part of the traditional Southern breakfast.  In my growing up years, everybody had biscuits for breakfast – every morning!  During the years of the Great Depression many farmers did not have money to buy flour and they ate cornbread for breakfast.  They had grown the corn for cornmeal.

Some cooks used plain flour and some used self-rising – my mother would not use self-rising flour.  She thought the cook should be smart enough to put the right ingredients in to make the recipe a success.  Here at the Windy Knoll I use self-rising flour, but I have no recipe for biscuits – I just make them using shortening, flour and buttermilk.  I don’t cut my biscuits, but pinch off bits of dough, roll it into a ball and flatten it some as I place it on the baking sheet.  I remember the first time my daddy saw me doing this – he said, “My god, Billie, you’re chokin’ ‘em out.”  A friend criticized me for doing them this way saying no two were the same size.  That’s okay if someone doesn’t want a large biscuit they can get a smaller one.

In some recipes I’m sharing the term “buttermilk” is not used, but I would guess that most recipes for biscuits use it instead of “sweet milk.”  You know, it’s only here in the South that these terms are used — in other places they just say “milk.”

I read an article recently written by Prudence Hilburn about whipping cream biscuits.  That lady uses 1 ¾ cups of self rising flour with a cup of whipping cream.  No need for shortening, she says because of the high fat content in the cream.  After the biscuits are cut, they get a “butter bath” (dipped in melted butter) and are baked in a 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

Food Processor Biscuits (another Hilburn recipe)

2 cups self rising flour
1/3 cup canola oil (or shortening)
2/3 cup buttermilk

Combine all ingredients in a food processor – use steel blade.  Process 15 to 20 seconds.  The dough will be very sticky but do not be concerned  Spoon the dough onto a floured surface  Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour and gently knead about 10 times.  Pat or roll out to a thickness of 1/2 inch.  Cut biscuits nd place in greased skillet and bake for about 8 minutes or until lightly brown.

Celestine Sibley was a columnist for The Atlanta Journal Constitution for years and her favorite recipe was called Angel Biscuits:

5 cups flour to start; it may take more for a stiff dough
1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
3 tsps. baking powder
1 pkg. dry yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
1 cup shortening
2 cups buttermilk

Combine dry ingredients, cut in shortening and stir in yeast and milk.  Roll and cut as desired.  Bake on center rack of oven set at 450 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes.  Dough may be covered and refrigerated for a week and used as needed.

One of my favorite ways of making quick and somewhat “short” biscuits came to me from my sister-in-law, Ruby Jones Lang.  Her friends called these biscuits “Lang Biscuits.”

2 cups flour
1 cup milk — buttermilk or sweet milk
1/2 cup oil – corn or vegetable

Stir together and put in muffin tin.  Bake in 450 degree oven until slightly brown.
This is an easy recipe to double.  Use one-half as much milk as you do flour, then use one half as much oil as you do milk.

I have a book written by Mrs. S. R. Dull, who wrote a homemakers page for the Atlanta papers for years and in that book there are 15 recipes for biscuits, some of which are Beaten, Party, Raisin, Sweet Potato, Left-over and Georgia Biscuits.  No telling how many different ways there are for making biscuits, but I can almost smell them now with this style of country living.