I made Moe biscuits this morning to have with scrambled eggs.

The recipe I use can be made with buttermilk or cream. Wonderful with sausage gravy.

Country Biscuits

2 cups of flour
1 Tablespoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening, lard, Crisco or butter (I use butter)
1 cup of milk (cream) or buttermilk
if using buttermilk add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda)

Optional. Add a little sugar if you prefer sweet rather than savory.

Mix the flour with the baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter/shortening

until it resembles coarse meal. Stir milk or cream in to flour mixture.

Mix quickly with fork just until dough starts to come together.

Tip out on to lightly floured surface. (Will look shaggy)

Using hands gently pat mixture to flatten.

Now fold dough like an envelop. Turn and fold again.

Do this at least three to four times. The dough is now ready to roll out. This whole step should only take 30 to 45 seconds. Do not over-handle. (Folding forms layers which makes for a very flaky biscuit).

Pat out to about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick on a lightly floured board.

Cut with biscuit cutters and place on a parchment paper lined

cookie sheet. Brush biscuits with a little milk or cream and bake for approximately 12 to 15 minutes at 450°F.

TIP: Using your thumb push a little dent into the

middle of the biscuit. This helps the biscuit rise

straight and prevents it from tipping over as it rises.

If making cheese biscuits add the mustard and cayenne to

the dry ingredients and add the cheese after the shortening

has been cut into the flour.

Tip: An easy way to cut the butter into the flour is to use a box grater. The large side of the grater makes the perfect size pieces of butter.

Options:

You can use any favourite cheese. Gorgonzola and other

blue cheeses are wonderful with the addition of black pepper.

Cheddar cheese is good with chives or green onions.

Sometimes I add dry mustard and cayenne pepper. Or bacon or ham.

NOTE: If you like the tops to stay soft, dip the biscuits,

top side down into melted butter.

Thanks Ann, I will give this a try.

Tami, I've made biscuits with Ann T's recipe and they are very, very good. I always use the buttermilk option, because I like the "tang" that buttermilk gives, so I haven't tried the regular milk version. I also forget to indent the middle EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. So, I can't tell you how that works either, LOL. Anyway, you won't go wrong with these, they worked well for me and I don't pay attention and always do something wrong or leave a step out....

Annie

Thanks Annie!

It is my understanding KFC Buttermilk Biscuits are made with a Bisquick-like mixture as the base ingredient, and this is a copycat recipe I tried years ago.

1/2 c. butter

2-1/2 T. sugar

1 beaten egg

3/4 c. buttermilk

1/4 c. club soda (must have "secret" ingredient)

1 t. salt

5 c. Bisquick

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.

2. Combine all the dry ingredients; combine all the liquid ingredients in a separate bowl; add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and knead dough on a floured board a few times until smooth.

3. Flour hands. Pat dough to 3/4" thickness on waxed paper or parchment paper and cut with biscuit cutter.

4. Bake on greased baking sheet for 12-minutes.

Makes 18-biscuits.

Quick Tip: Cut the dough into squares with a bench knife or large pizza cutter, or even a square (instead of round) cutter. When you cut the dough with a round cutter you end up with dough leftover for second-cuts. Second-cuts are generally more tough than first-cuts due to handling the dough a second time and over-developing the gluten. By cutting square biscuits, you avoid second-cuts entirely.

Thank you everyone. I will try both of these. I knew about not twisting the cutter. And I am lazy enough to use the bench knife to cut them in squares!

Interesting about round cutters. In my family we have ALWAYS cut biscuits in squares. Why fiddle around with cutters and second cuts? I've always wondered why biscuits became cut in rounds in the first place.

I use a simple biscuit recipe,

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

pinch salt

1/2 cup butter

1 cup milk (maybe can use buttermilk?)

Combine flour and baking soda and salt. Cut in butter, and add milk, stirring with a fork until straggly dough.

Pat in a circle and cut in circles using a cookie cutter, or in my case, a soup can.

Bake 375 for 30 minutes.

Thinking it's quite likely that those restaurant biscuits are made w/ some type of shortening/margarine & artificial butter flavor, so duplicating the exact flavour may not be so easy w/ real scratch ingredients.

Ann_t's recipe is the same as mine (which is from James Beard's bread book), baking temp. & time are the same, but sometimes I use part butter/part olive oil instead of all butter & it actually tastes much richer than butter only. I also sub 1/2 plain yoghurt/half whole milk for buttermilk (or sometimes all yoghurt). I do not flour, but just pat it out on waxed paper after kneading lightly to 'smooth' it. Will def. try the folding technique next time!

If you want them taste extra rich, add a Tbs. of sugar & brush the tops w/ melted butter before baking. & Beard suggests placing them close together for softer & further apart for crisper results. Thicker dough when cutting will most definitely make for higher results.

Thanks, Ann! I never bother to make folded biscuits because my recipe is really fiddly. Your method sounds easy and still like biscuits. ;)

Sheesh, my father told my grandmother (his mother in law) to do that with her sour cream sugar cookies, which did him out of cookies! My grandfather only liked the first cuts, and dad got the second cuts, so after dad told grandma to just cut them square, he didn't get as many cookies! :)

Carolb_w_f, it isn't so much flavor, as mine are good taste wise. It's the fluffy texture that I am looking for. That tender center, not really flaky, with the slightly crisp top and bottom. I will eventually get all three posted recipes tested. Today is going to be a lazy day. It is Fat Tuesday, and I have been to the Polish Bakery to get our Pazcky. Not sure I spelled that correctly, but it is pronounced Poonchki. DH is Polish. DS has worked for the bakery for about 3 years now, and as he finally got a decent paying full time job in maintenance at a Senior Living facility that he really loves, his last day was last Sunday. It has been tradition for the last 5 years to go stand in line (out the door and down the sidewalk) the morning of Fat Tuesday for Pazcky. They bring in accordian players, one of the local news channels, and usually a local radio station in the morning. They set up a tent right outside the door in the parking lot with patio heaters for the line to wind in and out of to help us stay warm. Boss is quite often to be found socializing with the customers while offering shots of Vodka and samples of fresh warm Pazcky. They also had a Polish king and queen socializing and dancing the Polka. I also need to figure out what I am going to do with an overflowing room of craft supplies & bedroom furniture so we can get window estimates on Friday. That is frying my brain!

You are welcome Plllog.

There is little difference between biscuits recipes. I think technique is what makes a difference between heavy or light and flaky biscuits.

I've only make biscuits with cream or buttermilk. I would only use milk if that was all I had on hand and really wanted biscuits.

Tami, I wonder if you would like one of the biscuit recipes that also adds egg to the mix. That might give you more of the texture you are looking for.

That might be, and Grainlady posted one above. I will try it, as well as the others. Thanks.

Ann, I do keep half and half in the house for my coffee, I figured I don't need the added calories of cream, since I use butter and jam or honey on the biscuits. For sure cream or buttermilk can be used in place of milk, but they always turn out using milk.

I also cut my biscuits in squares, because I seldom want to go searching for a round cutter, LOL. I have a big tub full of cookie/biscuit/donut cutters in the back room, it's quicker to just grab the bench scraper Ann T so kindly sent me years ago and just cut them into a dozen or so squares.

Tami, the only thing I can say about texture is that the less you handle the dough, the better. I'm sure you know that, though. Even recipes that tell me to "knead" the biscuit dough gets just mixed enough to be cohesive, patted out and then cut, I think kneading is just too much handling. Others may have other opinions, of course, but I can hear Grandma chastising me "quit touching the dough, you'll make it tough". LOL

My last batch looked like this:

Annie

Annie, that looks like what I am looking for!

Yum! They all sound wonderful. Plan to try every one until I find the one I feel my grandson-in-law will like best. Many thanks.