made first successful biscuits!

14 years ago

I have never been able to make biscuits before. Every time I've tried, I've gotten bricks instead. Well, I had a friend over and he wanted to impress me by making buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy. He said his grandmother taught him how to make buttermilk biscuits. When I saw is method, I had only one thought, "This can't end well!" He mixed the flour with salt and baking powder with his hands and then added buttermilk. Patted the whole mess out and cut them into squares. Put them on a cookie sheet and then sliced a pat of butter off and put it on top of each one (wasted a whole stick of my butter!!!). As I expected, these things were something that would have cracked teeth. Very dense...

I quick googled a recipe and found one that I was brave enough to attempt. I hope I didn't offend my friend... but I wore braces for four years... too much invested to have my teeth fall out just to save somoene's feelings! I didn't throw his in the trash until after he left! I was already a little nervous, because just the day before I made a carrot cake in a bundt pan and nearly had to blast it out with dynamite (let it cool too long...), I wasn't sure if the curse had been lifted from my kitchen enough that I should try biscuits. My favorite thing about this recipe is that it uses the food processor... any excuse to use an appliance, I'm there. It also told me not to roll the dough with a rolling pin because that overstimulates the gluten. I followed it exactly, and the biscuits came out perfectly! They tasted great, were a nice tender texture, browned perfectly, and made an awesome thing for the sausage gravy to cover. The gravy was good, but how could anything with a half cup of bacon grease in it not be good?

Here's a link to the recipe I used. It feels good to have something that I've always failed at turn out right! Any of you ever have similar experiences?

Here is a link that might be useful: My new favorite biscuit recipe!

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Comments (14)

trudymom
14 years ago
That looks like a great recipe with lots of good review. Thank you for sharing!!
lyndaluu2
14 years ago
Bobby,

That's great...biscuits are really easy to make; just don't over mix them and they will always be tender.

Linda
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mustangs81
14 years ago
Yea Bobby!! Isn't it good to find something that you can make with confidence.

I have also been working towards becoming a stellar biscuit maker. I even bought lard which was my Aunt Ora's fat of choice. Biscuit talk in my family always ends with the statement that none beat our dear Aunt Ora's biscuits.
lakeguy35
14 years ago
Love B&G! Congrats on your biscuit success Bobby.

David
User
14 years ago
Congratulations Bobby. Nothing better than a great biscuit.

Ann
dgkritch
14 years ago
Yep!! Same thing almost!
Hockey Pucks and Gravy is not good.

A friend gave me a "Can't Fail" recipe and so far she's right!!
It uses oil rather than butter so no 'cutting in' the fat.
I like that!
Even the pieced together parts are good!
I can add a little sugar and make shortcake from the same recipe!

Unfortunately.............it's at home and I'm at work. :-(
I'll try to remember to look it up this weekend and post.

Congrats on your success, Bobby. Did your friend like them?

Deanna
dgkritch
14 years ago
OK, home now!!

Here's my friend Carla's "Perfect Baking Powder Biscuits"
And I haven't found a way to ruin them yet, so I like them!! LOL

2 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Mix with fork

Make a well in the center and add:
1/3 c. oil
3/4 c. milk
Mix until just moist

Pat out about 1/2" thick and cut to desired shape.
If possible, let rise about 15-20 mins before baking.

Bake: 400 degrees for 12 mins.

To make shortbread, add 1/3 c. sugar and nutmeg to taste with the dry ingredients.

Deanna
pat_t
14 years ago
Bobby, I'm so proud of you! You do a Southern girl's heart good...

There's an old Southern country saying that makes lots of sense - "Biscuits are like kittens - they don't take to handling too much". For me, this was like a light bulb going off over my head.

I mix my dry ingredients together in the FP first - then cut in the shortening/butter with VERY short pulses. Pour the mixture into a bowl - and then add the buttermilk, stirring JUST until it comes together. Perfect every single time.
vacuumfreak
Original Author
14 years ago
Deanna... he did like them. I tried your recipe last night, but I coudn't get them to brown. My oven was acting up and I couldn't get the temp over 350 degrees. I bought a second doven thermometer and now the silly thing seems fine (new one and old one got up to 400). I made more biscuits from that recipe I originally posted and then made some sausage patties and made homemade sausage biscuits. Much better than Jimmy Deans! I used maple sausage and it was fabulous.

Pat... that's a great southern saying. I have never heard it before, but it certainly seems to be true.
annie1992
14 years ago
Bobby, Grandma made biscuits just like your friend, mix everything with her hands, add buttermilk to the right consistency, pat out and bake or just drop from a spoon. Hers was always perfect, light, golden, delicious. It doesn't work for me, though.

Since you have a recipe you like, I won't add another, but I use one that Terri posted here and it's delicious too. Ann T's are pretty close to perfect and, well, good biscuits are all good.

Annie
sally2_gw
14 years ago
One of my cookbooks, Baking with Julia, by Dorie Greenspan, recommends that when making pastry dough or biscuits, you mix until you think it's almost mixed, and stop. Here's what Dorie Greenspan says about mixing biscuit dough.

"To have a good biscuit hand is to have a light touch and restraint - a biscuit dough is so soft that it invites poking and prodding, kneading and mashing, when it should be just barely worked. The golden rule with biscuits is to stop doing whatever you're doing to them two beats before you have to. So, when you're rubbing the shorteniing and flour together and there are still some chubby chunks of shortening - stop. When you're tossing the flour-and-butter mixture with the milk and the dough looks only just moistened - stop. And when you turn the dough out onto the counter and knead it just to work it into a mass, count each knead, get to ten, and - stop."

When I read this, my light bulb turned on. I knew biscuits shouldn't be over mixed, but something about the way she worded it clicked with me, and my biscuits have been better ever since, whether I use her recipe or a different one.

By the way, if I handled my biscuit dough as much as my kitties like to be handled, I'd way over mix it! lol

Sally
sally2_gw
14 years ago
Sorry, Bobby, I meant to congratulate you on a fine job. There's not many things that are more satisfying than making and eating a great biscuit!

Sally
shaun
14 years ago
Way to go Bobby! I copied and saved your and Deanna's recipes! I love a good biscuit; but as usual, hubs and son dont.
Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
14 years ago
Bobby, last night I made the biscuit recipe you posted and they turned out very good.
I thought I might have wanted a bit of sugar in them when I read the recipe but I made them as stated (and touching) and they were perfect.
Thank you for posting it.

made first successful biscuits!

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made first successful biscuits!

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