Homemade biscuits

[butch-innj]

I'm dying for some good homemade biscuits.
I've tried recipes that I've found online and in cookbooks
but I'm really not happy with them.
Maybe I'm expecting too much.
I know they should be light and kinda flaky but shouldn't
they have some flavor to them too?
Maybe I should use some bacon grease in them?
I don't know.
Any thoughts on how to make good flavorful biscuits?

 

[jamiel]

Not much flavor components in biscuits...flour, salt, baking powder, shortening, milk/buttermilk. To add flavor, crumbled bacon, herbs, shredded cheese,...

Bacon grease would not be the right texture for the fat. You need a flaky fat (vegetable shortening/lard/butter)
Buttermilk adds a nice sour tang. You need to bake them quickly in a hot oven to get the right spring and to get them crusting nicely.

 

[jeffg]

1. Use lard

2. Avoid overmixing the dough -- stop mixing as soon as it starts to hold a ball shape.

 

[launderess]

Biscuts

Are another thing many put too much "though" into and end up over doing.

First, lard is really the only best fat for biscuts, though one supposes a mixture of lard and butter or just Crisco would give decent results.

DO NOT OVER MIX! You are making biscuts, not a cake. Combine things just enough to get everything "wet", then put that spoon down and walk away. Your mix should be rather lumpy and sticky.

Biscut dough/batter should be wet and sticky, and not dry. Extra moisture will bake out, and just enough left to give nice moist and flaky biscuts. Too dry dough/batter equals hockey puck biscuts.

When cutting, go straight down with the cutter, and not make side to side "squishing" movements.

As for flavour, lard usually provides the right amount of "goodness", remember biscuts are normally eaten along with something else so you don't want anything too powerful in terms of flavour.

Being as the above may, look around, you find recipies for cheese and other types of biscuts. Will take a peek in my vintage "Joy of Cooking" and my other cook books to see what there is.

 

[butch-innj]

Thanks for the comments so far.........

I found a recipe in a "Cooks" magazine today that I think I'm
going to try. It uses buttermilk and says that the batter
will be very wet and sticky. I know about overmixing. One
time I waaaaay overmixed the batter and they came out like
hockey pucks. Learned my lesson about mixing.
Anymore tips will be greatly appreciated.
(What types of cheese would you incorporate into biscuits?)

 

[launderess]

My Vintage Betty Crocker Cookbook (Circa 1950)

Lists the following biscuts:

Plain
Buttermilk
Bacon
Cheese
Chives
Herb
Curry
Whole Wheat

For cheese biscuts they recommend, dry sharp American cheese, which one assumes is chedder.

L.

 

[maytagbear]

Cheddar is good

in biscuits, but lately, my friends who do make biscuits more often than I do use shredded Parmesan. Not chopped Parmesan, but long (Microplane grater) shreds.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[nanook]

Try This Recipe:

Alton Brown has a dandy recipe, that agrees with all the previous advice. Take heed about the spacing of the dough on the baking sheet, too. Two other points not mentioned in the recipe: Be sure to indent the center of each biscuit to help even out the rising; and try to use a nice southern flour, such as White Lily Self-rising. Now, start baking...

Southern Biscuits

Get Southern Biscuits Recipe from Food Network

www.foodnetwork.com

 

[danemodsandy]

Except...

...That White Lily moved their mill and changed their wheat source recently, so things made with it are not the same as always. The new flour produces a product that is not as tender. Here's an NYT link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/dining/18flour.html

 

[circlew]

My Aunt Julie uses Martha White flour in hers. I'll have to ask her for the recipe the next time I see her. They're the best I've ever eaten.

 

[gyrafoam]

If I have access to a mill or there is flour from an area mill at the grocery, I prefer that flour because of freshness.
In a pinch there is always White Lily or Martha White (same company owns both) or Hudson Cream. Freshness is important so check the date.

Always sift in 1/4 t. baking SODA (in addition to the baking powder) to each cup of flour when using buttermilk. You won't need it if using sweetmilk or cream. Sift that flour two or three times.

Keep everything cold! The bowl, pastry cutter and whatever shortening you use should be COLD----- so work fast!
As others have mentioned DON"T WORK THE DOUGH or it will be tough! Same goes for pie dough!

Use a cutter with a sharp edge and don't twist it when you cut down!
Once the biscuits are on the baking sheet let them rest a bit before putting them in the oven.

A HOT oven is best----I use 500F.

 

[butch-innj]

Flour......

does make a big difference.

I only use King Arthur flour because its what I've had the best results with. Plus the fact that I can't find White Lily flour in my area for some reason.

The only "cake flour" that I can find is "Swans Down" and it comes in a box.

 

[launderess]

White Lily

Is mainly sold in the South and parts of the Mid-West, though some stores and mail orders offer.

Any good or professional baker knows there are differences between flours. Even plain "all purpose" flour can vary between regions and even countries.

In the case of the United States, flours milled and sold in the south tend to be made from "soft" wheat, while in the north it is mostly "hard" wheat. IIRC, it has something to do with where the flour is grown and type (winter, etc.

Persons raised in the South who move to the North often find their old recipes for cakes, biscuts and other baked goods do not turn out the same, and the difference is the flour.

Same is true for those from the North when they try to transplant certian baked goods down South, and or other parts of the country. IMHO it is nearly impossible to find decent NYC style bagles outside of that area for instance. Aside from NY's water, the difference is the flour.

Remember also that flour sold in the United States comes from many other countries as well, including Russia. Many bakers seek out sources for flour that have a certian type they know will produce consistent results. This is why White Lilly had such a following and the news about the changes are not being taken lightly. I mean when one wakes up and makes biscuts one has been making for over twenty years, and the batch turns out horrible, not only is one ticked off, but the stuff must be thrown out.

L.

 

[travlincub321]

Not to deflate anyones biscuits...

But mine come frozen in a bag from walmart and are baked in the oven.. They are quite tasty..Mind you a good souther style homemmaid biscuit is best, but if your not a baker, these Great Value things are good..

 

[panthera]

As a vegetarian

I don't use lard or bacon grease. And those are two of the most wonderful flavoring agents and ideal fats for biscuits in the world.

I use all coconut fat for my biscuits. Having White Lily go from the wonderful soft flour it was to the All-Purpose flour it has become is a major loss. Here in Europe, flours are graded on a number system so you know the gluten-starch ratio and can select the right flour for the right purpose. The US desperately needs such a system.

My biscuit recipes are pretty much the same as already posted, the most important thing in my opinion is absolutely not to overwork the dough (that develops the gluten which kills the flaky textures), to have the oven hot enough (preheat, baby, preheat) and to use enough fat and salt. Biscuits aren't healthy and there is no way for them to taste good and be healthy.

Doesn't mean they aren't good for you, tho'.

 

[norgeway]

My Biscuits

Boys, I do everything you are not supposed to, and my biscuits are light as a feather,...
2 cups self rising flour, I agree, White Lilly is not what it was,I use Virginias Best,or Southern Biscuit,1/3 to 1/2 cup crisco, cut in with a pastry blender, add 3/4 to 1 cup WHOLE buttermilk,dont waste your time with skim, add to the buttermilk a small pinch of soda, add all at once to the flour, now here is where I differ from everyone..I mix with a wooden spoon at least 30 to40 seconds vigorously, then turn out on floured board and knead about 15 seconds...most people cringe and say that is too much handling, it works for me, and when you put one in your mouth it almost dissolves, bake on a greased sheet in a 450 oven ,...oh yeah I do something else most people dont do, when I cut them out, I toss them back and forth to get rid of the excess flour before putting them on a baking sheet.

 

[westie2]

Here are the 2 differnt ways I make biscuts.

Rolled Biscuts

2 cups W-R Self Rising Flour
If using buttermilk 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cut lard or vegatable shortening
3/4 to 1 cup milk

Heat oven to 450 degrees
Cut the lard into the flour until like cornmeal
Add the milk/butermilk and with a fork quickly blend until it forms a ball. Dump the dough out on floured board and knead 3 times and pat out to about 3/4 inch. Cut with regular size can that both ends removed and cut straight down place on baking sheet. Bake in oven for 12 to 15 minutes

W-R Flour from McPherson, Kansas if the best and Shawnee is a close second.

 

[westie2]

This is my Great Grandmothers way that all our family call pinch biscuts.

2 cups flour W-R self rising
1/4 cup melted lard/bacon grease or butter (I use vegatabe oil)
3/4 cup to 1 cup milk or buttermilk

Heat oven to 450 degrees
Add the melted lard to bowl then the milk and stir with wooden spoon until dough forms.

To a square baking pan or even a pie pan (metal only)
add 1/8th cup more of the melted lard to it.

Dip your hand in the oil in the pan and then pinch off a golf ball size piece and then roll lightly in you hands and place in the pan do the same (it should give you 9 biscuts, Then form a fist and with your knuckle gently press down in the middle. Place in oven and bake 12 to 15 minutes.

This is great and old fashioned way.

 

[appnut]

Charles (westie2), I really like the pinch biscuit recipe. I may try that. I don't have good luck working with a pastry blender; cannot ever seem to roll dough out in the right dimensions to yield recipe stated quantity; usually end up overworking dough anyway. My biscuits I've tried aren't as bad as Ellie Mae Clampett's though.

So, when I do make biscuits, it's Biscuickand usually drop biscuits at that!!! (ducks & runs)