Biscuits: Sweet and Savory Southern Recipes for the All-American Kitchen (2015)

Biscuits in Grandmother’s Kitchen

Biscuits are versatile and capable of being incorporated into all aspects of our food ways. This chapter contains basic biscuit recipes that make biscuits good enough to stand on their own or to be used as an ingredient in a more complicated recipe.

Biscuits can be categorized by the five techniques used to shape them. The ingredients for the dough vary. Once the dough is mixed, the instructions for shaping the biscuits are the same for each biscuit in the category. Listed below are the categories and the names of each biscuit included in this chapter.

The chapter on traditional biscuits likely to be products from your grandmother’s kitchen wouldn’t be complete without a recipe that my grandmother made for a dessert made from leftover biscuits.

Rolled and Patted, Layered, and Cut Biscuits

Rolled and Cut Biscuits

Drop Biscuits

Free Hand

Loaf

Leftover

Rolled or Patted, Layered, and Cut

The beautiful, tender, flaky layers coveted in today’s biscuit are a result of three things: product, technique, and faith.

First, you must use the right products. Flour should be soft winter wheat flour which has a lower protein content than standard flour and keeps the dough tender and flaky. White Lily flour is my preferred brand. I prefer self-rising flour and can’t understand, for the life of me, why some people treat self-rising flour as a product that’s inferior to all-purpose. White Lily self-rising flour has just the right ratio of flour-to-leavening and never has an off-putting metallic taste. Butter should be very cold. Cube it and place it back in the refrigerator or use it immediately after cubing. Buttermilk, or other liquids, must be ice cold, also.

Next, a special layering technique builds layer upon layer much in the same way as puff pastry. An important part of technique is to handle the dough as little as possible. You want to get in and get out when you’re making biscuits. Obviously, you must handle the dough. But biscuit-making time isn’t when you want to lollygag around and make the process long and drawn out. Biscuits are quick breads. They’re meant to be assembled and baked in short order.

Lastly, you need to keep the faith and pray for grace. Making biscuits isn’t complicated but it does require “the touch.” Turning out beautiful delicious biscuits is no different than varsity sports in that the more you practice, the better you become. You will develop the right feel for rubbing in the butter, knowing when the dough has enough flour and being able to develop the layers. Don’t rely on a recipe for the correct ratio of wet-to-dry ingredients. I prefer to get my dough wet in the mixing bowl, turn it out onto a floured surface, and work in the right amount of additional flour until it’s no longer sticky and it holds its shape. The amount of the last bit of flour needed will depend on several variables such as weather, viscosity of the liquid, and the type of flour used.

Buttermilk

Baking Powder

Cornmeal

Angel

Gluten-free

Honey Whole Wheat

Instructions and Layering Technique

Add soft winter wheat flour and cubed, chilled unsalted butter in a large mixing bowl.

Rub in the butter by grabbing small amounts of the flour and butter between your thumb and fingers. Rub once and then release back into the bowl. Continue this process quickly all throughout the flour mixture. This is my preferred method. Alternatively, use a pastry cutter. Continue until the flour looks like coarse meal.

Pea-sized pieces of butter will remain.

Stir in buttermilk or other liquid with a wooden spoon. The dough will be wet and sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a tea-towel that has been sprinkled with flour. Sprinkle the top of the wet dough with flour. Lightly knead the dough, working in the flour. Add more flour as needed until the dough is no longer sticky and holds its shape. Don’t let a recipe dictate the proportions of wet to dry ingredients. Develop “the touch” and know when the dough feels right. Roll or pat out the dough until it’s ¼-inch-thick long-ways on the towel. Make sure there is enough flour under the dough to prevent sticking.

Grab the right side of the towel and fold the right third of the dough toward the center.

Grab the left side of the towel and fold the left third of the dough toward the center.

Grab the top of the towel and fold the dough in half from top to bottom.

Grab the bottom of the towel and fold in dough in half bottom to top.

Lightly roll or pat out the dough to one-inch thick. Cut out the biscuits by using a floured biscuit cutter. Cut straight down and don’t twist the biscuit cutter or the edges will bind together and prevent the biscuit from rising to its full potential. Just think about how hard it is to stand up straight and tall when your underwear is twisted.

Continue cutting as many as biscuits as you can.

Gather the scraps, stack them, and gently press together. This method keeps the layers intact and will result in prettier biscuits than if you reroll the dough scraps. We all want pretty biscuits. The gently pressed layer of scraps needs to be about one-inch thick.

Cut as many biscuits as you can get.

This is what you’re looking for: layers, glorious layers.

Place the cut out biscuits on a baking sheet that has been greased or covered with a baking mat. I find it best to scoot these layered biscuits next to each other to help them rise up straight and not fall over. Brush tops with cooking oil, butter, or milk.

Bake in a preheated 450-degree oven for 15 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

Apply these instructions for recipes on pages 29 to 39!

Angel Biscuits (35) and Gluten-free Biscuits (37) have their own set of instructions.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Yield: 12 to 15 (2½-inch) buttermilk biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

This is my standard biscuit recipe. Buttermilk contains a mild acid that further tenderizes the already tender southern winter wheat flour. The flaky layers are the result of pea-sized pieces of butter left in the dough and a folding technique that builds layers similar to puff pastry. If you want to perfect one biscuit recipe for your favorite collection, this is it. Folks are fools for hot, flaky buttermilk biscuits.

2 cups soft winter wheat self-rising flour

½ cup unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

1 cup buttermilk

Baking Powder Biscuits

Yield: 12 to 15 biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

The commercialization of baking powder dramatically changed the preparation technique of biscuits. Baking powder is a combination of baking soda, a mild acid such as cream of tartar, and a moisture-absorbing ingredient such as cornstarch. It’s used as a leavening agent. Prior to the invention of baking powder in the nineteenth century, potash was used as leavening. The leavening capability of potash isn’t nearly as potent as baking powder so the rise is less. Also, potash was homemade so it wasn’t consistent in its composition. Commercially prepared baking powder was a trustworthy leavening agent that offered the same leavening action as yeast but acted immediately and didn’t require the long rise times needed with yeast. Self-rising flour contains baking powder and all-purpose doesn’t. Recipes for Baking Powder Biscuits are ubiquitous while basic biscuit recipes using self-rising flour aren’t nearly as common. Perhaps the nostalgia of Baking Powder Biscuits has garnered fame yet to be shared by biscuits made with self-rising flour. Baking Powder Biscuits are historically significant. Self-rising flour arrived on the scene later but isn’t an inferior product.

soft winter wheat

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup unsalted butter, diced and chilled

1 cup buttermilk

Place flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and mix together with a fork or whisk.

Cornmeal Biscuits

Yield: 12 biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

If biscuits and cornbread got married, their children would look a lot like cornmeal biscuits. The flakiness of a traditional buttermilk biscuit is there, but with an extra dose of texture from stone ground cornmeal. The small amount of cornmeal produces a surprisingly distinct corn flavor. I used all-purpose flour instead of self-rising because I wanted to have control over the amount of leavening and be sure to have enough to account for the addition of plain cornmeal. Serve these biscuits with a hearty stew.

1½ cups soft winter wheat all-purpose flour

2½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup cornmeal

½ cup unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

1 cup buttermilk

Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and cornmeal.

Angel Biscuits

Yield: approximately 30 (2½-inch) biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

Also known as Bride’s Biscuits, these biscuits are so certain to be light and fluffy that even a new bride can’t fail. The insurance policy comes in the form of yeast plus the leavening action of baking powder. When working with a large amount of flour, such as the amount in this recipe, I find it convenient to measure all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and then sift them into a large container, such as a stockpot, which will give ample room to work in the butter.

2 (¾-ounce) packages yeast

¼ cup warm tap water (110-115°)

⅛ teaspoon sugar

5 cups all-purpose flour

soft winter wheat

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2½ tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

2 cups buttermilk

Dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over top and gently swirl. Set aside. If the mixture bubbles, then the yeast is active. If it doesn’t bubble, throw it out and start over.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt.

Add cubed butter and rub it in with your fingers or cut it in with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Make a well in the center and pour in yeast and buttermilk. Stir until the dough is wet.

Cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm spot for 1 hour.

After an hour, turn half the dough out onto a surface sprinkled with flour. Sprinkle enough flour on the top of the dough to keep it from being sticky.

Knead dough 6 or 7 times. Shape into a disk.

Roll out to ¾ inches thick. Dip 2½-inch biscuit cutter in flour. Cut biscuits and place 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet that been greased or covered with a baking mat.

Gather scraps and repeat until all the dough has been used.

Brush biscuits tops with cooking oil.

Bake in a 450° preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes until tops are golden brown.

Gluten-Free Biscuits

Yield: 10 to 12 (2½ inch) biscuits.

Preheat oven to 450°

So many folks have wheat sensitivities in our society today. Using King Arthur Gluten-Free Multi-Purpose Flour, I was able to create a biscuit with a good flavor. The texture isn’t as light and fluffy as biscuits made with soft wheat flour. The dough was crumbly and slightly harder to work with than my soft wheat biscuits. Nonetheless, this biscuit is a good substitution for those who avoid wheat. If using baking flour other than the one I used for testing, be sure to use a blend.

2 cups gluten-free multi-purpose flour mix

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

1 cup buttermilk

Add baking mix, baking powder, and salt to a bowl and stir with hands. Rub in butter until the flour looks like coarse cornmeal. Make a well and pour in buttermilk. Stir with a heavy spoon until dough is wet. Turn out onto a surface sprinkled with gluten-free flour. Sprinkle top of dough with flour. Knead gently, adding flour as needed, until dough is no longer sticky.

Roll out to a rectangle ¼-inch thick. Fold ⅓ of dough toward the center. Repeat with the other side. Fold dough in half from top to bottom. Roll out to a ¾-inch thickness. Cut with a 2½-inch biscuit cutter. Place on a prepared baking sheet one inch apart. Brush tops with cooking oil.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until tops are brown.

Honey Whole Wheat Cream Biscuits

Yield: 15 (1½-inch) biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

Honey and cream work together to soften the bold flavor of stone ground whole wheat flour. These biscuits are slightly denser than those made with only soft winter wheat. I just love the craggy appearance of these hearty biscuits. I feel like I need to wear a plaid flannel shirt while eating them. They have a personality and proudly display a marvelous flavor that can stand on its own with simply a pat of butter or a little more honey drizzled on if your sweet tooth is talking to you.

1½ cups stone ground whole wheat flour

½ cup all-purpose soft winter wheat flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1½ teaspoons kosher salt

1 cup plus 4 tablespoons heavy cream

1 tablespoon honey

Stir together both flours, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Stir honey into cream and add to bowl.

Stir until dough is wet.

Rolled and Cut Biscuits

Rolled and cut biscuits are made similarly to rolled, layered, and cut. The difference is the dough is rolled or patted without layering. I typically use this method for dough with extra ingredients such as fruit, cheese, or herbs. Rolling or patting out the dough multiple times, as you do with the layering technique, can crush or mash the additional ingredients and the supplemental items add extra weight to the dough, which can make it more difficult to complete the folding technique. Tavern biscuits are historical and meant to be more like a cracker than a biscuit. Party biscuits should be a little on the flat side because they are folded in half after you cut them. An extra high rise would make them too large to bite without breaking into pieces. Because of the strong flavor of dill, I find a smaller biscuit more desirable. A little bit of dill goes a long way.

Sweet Potato

Garlic Cheese

Tavern

Dill Buttermilk

Mashed Potato

Party

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Yield: about 24 (2½ inch) biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

The goodness created when sweet potatoes marry homemade biscuits is the stuff about which movies are made. The flavors of sweet potato and spices bring personality to the biscuits without being overpowering. The biscuits are more like your favorite cousin and not like your least favorite great uncle.

3 cups self-rising flour

soft winter wheat

¼ cup light brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

1 average-sized sweet potato, baked, cooled and peeled

1 cup half-and-half

Mix together flour, and next four ingredients. Cut in butter until flour mixture resembles coarse ground meal.

Add sweet potato. Mix with dry ingredients.

Pour in milk and mix, with spoon or hands, until incorporated. Dough will be wet and sticky.

Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface. Keep sprinkling flour on dough until it’s no longer sticky and holds its shape. Roll out to 1-inch thick. Cut with 2½-in. biscuit cutter dipped in flour.

Place 1 inch apart on a sheet pan that has been sprayed with nonstick spray or covered with a baking mat. Brush tops with cooking oil or butter.

Bake in a 450° preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

Serve with Cinnamon Honey Butter.

Cinnamon Honey Butter

½ cup softened unsalted butter

1 tablespoon honey

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

Yield: about 15 (2½ inch) biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

The tang of extra-sharp cheddar cheese and aromatic punch of garlic combine to deliver a savory biscuit well suited to accompany almost any entrée.

2 cups self-rising soft winter wheat flour

½ teaspoon cayenne powder

1 cup shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

1 cup half-and-half

Mix flour and cayenne pepper in a large bowl. Stir in cheese and parsley. Cut in butter until flour resembles coarse meal.

Make a well in the flour and pour in half-and-half. Stir until flour is wet and sticky. Turn out onto a generously floured surface. Sprinkle dough with enough flour to keep it from being sticky. Sprinkle flour on top and gently knead until dough is no longer sticky, adding flour as needed.

Roll out to 1-inch thick. Dip 2½-inch biscuit cutter into flour. Cut biscuits. Place 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray or covered with a baking mat. Brush tops with cooking oil.

Bake at 450° in a preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

Tavern Biscuits

Yield: about 3 dozen (2½-inch) biscuits

Preheat oven to 400°

This recipe first appeared in Mary Randolph’s The Virginia Housewife in 1824. The dry ingredients were listed in weights and not measures with which American home cooks are familiar. I weighed the dry ingredients and converted to measures. Soft winter wheat flour is lighter than standard wheat flour. I substituted ground ginger for mace because I had ginger on hand and rarely use mace. I estimated “a glass of brandy” to be four ounces. This slightly sweet biscuit has a marvelous flavor and the appearance of a historical biscuit.

3½ cups all-purpose soft winter wheat flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

½ cup brandy

½-¾ cup milk

Add flour, sugar, nutmeg, and ginger to a large mixing bowl and stir.

Rub or cut in butter until the flour resembles coarse meal. Stir in brandy.

Add milk until the dough is wet and forms a soft ball.

Turn out onto a well-floured surface. Roll out to rectangle ¼-inch thick. Cut with a 2 ½-inch biscuit cutter dipped in flour.

Gather scraps and repeat.

Place biscuits on a baking sheet that has been greased or covered in a baking mat.

Prick the tops of the biscuits a few times with the tines of a fork. Brush tops with cooking oil.

Bake for 17 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Check carefully during last few minutes of baking to make sure the bottoms are getting too brown. Remove them if the bottoms are browning too much.

TAVERN BISCUIT

To one pound of flour, add half a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, some mace and nutmeg powdered, and a glass of brandy or wine; wet it with milk, and when well kneaded, roll it thin, cut it in shapes, and bake it quickly.

Dill Buttermilk Biscuits

Yield: 12 (2½-inch) biscuits or 18 (2-inch) biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

Dill can quickly overpower. It’s not an herb that I want to use as the star of the show. Used in correct proportions, it can accentuate flavors nicely. Dill has an affinity for seafood, making dill biscuits a perfect choice to serve alongside, or as a part of, any seafood dish. If these biscuits are to be used as a bread accompaniment for a seafood dish, I recommend cutting them to a smaller size. A small bite goes a long way.

2 cups self-rising soft winter wheat flour

½ cup unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

2 tablespoons fresh dill, finely minced

1 cup buttermilk

Add flour and butter to a large bowl. Cut or rub in butter until it resembles coarse meal. Stir in fresh dill.

Add buttermilk and stir with a wooden spoon until the flour is wet.

Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface. Sprinkle flour over dough, gently knead and work it in, adding more as needed, until the dough is no longer sticky and holds its shape.

Roll or pat out dough to 1-inch thick.

Cut with biscuit cutter dipped in flour.

Place on baking sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray or covered with a baking mat.

Brush tops with cooking oil.

Bake in a 450° preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Mashed Potato Biscuits

Yield: 12 to 14 (2½-inch biscuits)

Preheat oven to 450°

Leftover mashed potatoes at my house were usually mixed with an egg, flour, and a little bit of onion, shaped into a patty, and fried. We called these potato fritters. I found adding some leftover mashed potatoes to biscuit dough gives the biscuit a nice soft texture.

2 cups soft winter wheat self-rising flour

½ cup unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

½ cup leftover mashed potatoes

1 cup buttermilk

Add flour to a large bowl. Cut or rub in butter until flour resembles coarse meal.

Stir in mashed potatoes and buttermilk until the flour is wet. Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface. Sprinkle the tops of the dough with flour. Gently knead and work in the flour, adding more as needed, until the dough is no longer sticky and holds its shape.

Party Biscuits

Yield: about 30 (2-inch) biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

Henrietta Dull shared a recipe for what she called Party Biscuits in her 1928 cookbook, Southern Cooking. Her recipe calls for an egg and a little bit of sugar, which I omitted and then followed my standard buttermilk biscuit recipe. I did incorporate her technique for folding the cut-out biscuit in half like a Parker House roll. You’ll need to cook in batches.

2 cups soft winter wheat self-rising flour

½ cup unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

1 cup buttermilk

Additional melted butter

Add flour to a large mixing bowl. Rub or cut in butter until flour resembles coarse meal. Stir in buttermilk with a wooden spoon until dough is wet. Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface. Sprinkle flour on top of dough. Gently knead the dough and work in the flour, adding more as needed, until dough is no longer sticky and holds its shape.

Roll out to rectangle ¼-inch thick. Cut out with a 2-inch biscuit cutter dipped in flour.

Place biscuits on a baking sheet that has been greased or covered with a baking mat.

Brush top of biscuit with melted butter. Fold in half with melted butter on the inside of the biscuit.

Bake in a 450° oven for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Drop Biscuits

Drop biscuits save time by taking away the step of rolling and cutting biscuits. The biscuit dough is mixed and dropped onto a baking sheet while the dough is still sticky and wet. Instead of dropping dough from a spoon, I use an ice cream scoop so the dough maintains more of rounded, uniform shape.

Cream

Sour Cream and Chive

Cream Biscuits

Yield: about 12 to 13 biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

Cream biscuits are a sweet little biscuit in every way possible. They are easy to make, taste slightly sweet, and are as tender and fluffy as clouds. The substantial fat content of heavy cream is sufficient and eliminates the step of cutting in cubes of butter or shortening. The sweet overtone makes them an ideal dessert biscuit, a perfect partner for salty country ham, or an afternoon teatime treat. This recipe is a good starting point for novice biscuit bakers.

2 cups soft winter wheat self-rising flour

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1½ cups heavy cream

Mix flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Pour in cream and stir until flour is wet. Scoop out the dough with a greased ⅓ cup ice cream scoop.

Place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet well-greased or covered with a baking mat.

Bake in a preheated 450° oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Sour Cream and Chive Drop Biscuits

Yield: 12 to 13 biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

Sour cream adds tang and moisture to the dough and chives add a desirable, herby, savory flavor that makes these biscuits a fine dinner bread.

2 cups soft winter wheat self-rising flour

1 tablespoon sugar

½ cup unsalted butter, diced and chilled

3 tablespoons chives, chopped

8 ounces sour cream

1 cup buttermilk

Place flour and sugar in a bowl. Cut or rub in butter until flour resembles coarse meal. Add remaining ingredients and stir until mixed.

Using a ⅓ cup ice cream scoop, drop even amounts of dough onto a baking sheet oiled or covered with a baking mat.

Bake in a 450° preheated oven for 15 to 18 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

Free Hand

Pieces of dough are pinched off and patted by hand to form a rustic biscuit with a free-form shape. No two biscuits will be exactly the same, which adds to the charm.

These biscuits come together quicker than rolled-and-cut biscuits. The dough stays in the bowl and doesn’t have to be turned out onto a floured surface. Theoretically, this makes clean up easier. I seem to find ways to scatter flour all over tarnation regardless of the biscuit making method.

Cathead

Bacon Cathead

Cathead Biscuits

Yield: 8 biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

Cathead biscuits ain’t no dainty biscuit. They’re big, craggy, and rustic; sort of like a backwoodsman. Serve these for a hardy breakfast or with a meaty stew, but select a more appropriate biscuit, such as cream biscuits, for afternoon tea. Cathead biscuits would not know how to dress or act appropriately at teatime. Considering the rough texture and similar personality of these biscuits, brush the tops with bacon drippings instead of a more delicate fat like cooking oil or butter.

1 generous tablespoon (very generous) bacon drippings

2 cups soft winter wheat self-rising flour

½ cup unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

1 cup buttermilk

Melt the bacon drippings in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Pour excess into a cup and set aside. Leave residual drippings in the skillet.

Place flour in a large bowl. Cut in butter until the flour resembles coarse meal.

Pour in buttermilk and stir until you have a wet and sticky dough.

Turn out dough onto a floured surface. Sprinkle top with flour until dough is no longer sticky.

Knead 4 or 5 times, adding flour as needed, until dough isn’t sticky and holds its shape. Form into a disc and divide into 8 equal portions using your hands. To maintain the authentic uneven surface, don’t roll with a rolling pin or cut with a biscuit cutter.

Gently shape each piece of dough into a round by rolling between your hands. Place in the skillet that was used to melt bacon drippings. One biscuit goes in the center with 7 surrounding it. Mash the biscuit dough down with the back of your fingers until all the biscuits are touching. You should be able to see ridges in the dough.

Brush the tops with reserved bacon drippings.

Bake in a 450° preheated oven for 15 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Serve directly from the skillet.

Bacon Cathead Biscuits

Yield: 8 biscuits

Preheat oven to 450°

You can put slices of bacon on your biscuit and create something wonderful. However, working bacon into your biscuit dough is biscuit bliss. The craggy, rustic, and rugged nature of cathead biscuits and the commonness of smoky bacon is the perfect marriage. If you infuse bacon bits into the biscuit dough, it’s only right that you brush the tops with bacon drippings.

4 slices bacon, cooked until crispy*

2 cups soft winter wheat self-rising flour

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

1 cup buttermilk

* Reserve 2 tablespoons of drippings to brush the tops of the biscuits.

Add flour to bowl and cut or rub in butter until flour resembles coarse meal. Stir in diced bacon.

Form a well in flour and pour in buttermilk. Stir with a wooden spoon until dough is wet.

If dough is too sticky to handle, sprinkle flour on top and work in until it’s no longer sticky. Separate the dough in 8 equal portions and roll each into a ball with your hands.

Place the dough pieces into a 9- or 10-inch cast-iron skillet coated with bacon drippings. I use the skillet in which I cooked the bacon. Press down the dough with the back of your fingers until the dough covers the bottom of the skillet. Brush tops with reserved bacon drippings.

Bake in a 450° preheated oven 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Loaf

Baking biscuit dough into a loaf shortens the work time and shows the versatility and forgiveness of the dough. Prior to testing this recipe, I was interested to see if the middle of the loaf cooked completely before the outside burned. It worked well and produced a nice loaf of biscuit bread.

Biscuit dough conforms well to a loaf shape. For best results, let the loaf cool completely before cutting.

Yogurt Biscuit Bread

Rosemary Focaccia Biscuit Bread

Yogurt Biscuit Bread

Yield: 4 (4-inch) squares

Preheat oven to 450°

Sourdough bread is made from using a centuries’ old technique of fermenting yeast cultures, which gives the dough its characteristic sour flour. Plain yogurt mixed with flour produces the same sour-flavored batter. Sourdough bread requires a starter which takes time to make. Yogurt Biscuit Bread only requires self-rising flour and yogurt and is ready to make when you’re ready. As with all yeast breads, the texture is different than that of quick breads such as biscuits. I find the flavor of this biscuit bread outstanding and it improves the second day. To get more of a bread experience, I baked the bread into a loaf instead of individual biscuits. Nathalie Dupree includes a recipe called Busty Yogurt Biscuits in Southern Biscuits and she discusses the varying consistencies of yogurt. I used twice as much yogurt as Nathalie’s recipe, which shows the wide variation in the amount of yogurt needed to get the dough to the desired consistency. The ingredients need to be incorporated and the dough must be workable.

2 cups soft winter wheat self-rising flour

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

16 ounces plain yogurt

Rub butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal. Stir in yogurt until the flour and yogurt are mixed.

Cover the bottom and insides of an 8x8-inch pan with parchment paper. Spoon batter onto paper and spread evenly. Lightly brush top with oil.

Bake for 20 minutes or until top is brown and toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Rosemary Focaccia Biscuit Bread

Yield: 4 (4 inch) squares

Preheat oven to 450°

Focaccia bread is that wonderful bread served in Italian restaurants for dipping in olive oil. I researched lots of focaccia bread recipes to determine the main characteristics that would help me develop a focaccia-style biscuit bread. Olive oil, herbs, and garlic are commonly used for flavor. The characteristically craggy appearance on the top is made by forming indentions with your knuckles.

2½ cups soft winter wheat self-rising flour

1 tablespoon finely minced fresh rosemary

½ teaspoon garlic powder

1 cup buttermilk

½ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Place flour in a large bowl. Stir in rosemary and garlic powder.

Add milk and olive oil. Stir until dough is wet.

Cover the inside of 8x8-inch baking dish with parchment paper. Sprinkle dough with olive oil and spread dough evenly over paper.

Make indentations over the entire top surface of the dough with your knuckles. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake in a 450° preheated oven for 15 minutes or until top is brown and inside of bread is done.

Remove and let cool on cooling rack.

A collection of vintage enamelware used by my grandmother to make cobblers and biscuit pudding.

Leftovers: Be Smart

In my grandmother’s eyes, throwing away food was a sin against God and all creation. She frequently gave me lessons on how to “be smart” and use up leftovers, as well as how to create meals from things you had on hand, which she called “making good with you’ve got.” Those lessons of thriftiness and frugality extended beyond the kitchen. She and my granddaddy had the innate gift of being able to find ingenious ways to reuse things, as did so many folks of their generation. Today, we are a disposable society and many of the smart ideas to reuse products have been lost. We throw away tons of food, too.

She taught me how to use leftover biscuits to make a pudding. Her method fell right in line with her frugal way of thinking.

“Don’t mess up any more dishes than’s called for. You can mix all the fixin’s right in the dish you’re a-gonna bake in,” she advised.

She cooked by sight, not by book. Her instructions were usually vague and incomplete.

“Crumble you up some leftover biscuits in a pan. Then, pour over enough good milk to cover them. They need to set (sit) for long enough that they can get good ’n’ soft. Then sprinkle a good cupful of sugar over them and stir it with your fork. Now, you need to add you in some eggs to make the pudding set up real good. Whip ’em in with your fork as you go. If you’ve got some vaniller flavoring, add you in some of that. Last thing to do is to chip you up some butter over the top. Put it in a oven that’s not as hot as you need to bake biscuits ’cause the biscuits is already done. Take it out when it’s done.”

I’ve deciphered and decoded Granny’s instructions to meet our modern-day expectations of explicit recipe directions. However, I hope the old-timey notions of “be smart” and “make good with what you’ve got” stay with me. For more recipes using leftover biscuits, see Cornish Games Hens with Cornmeal Biscuit Dressing, page 147, and Skillet Toasted Biscuits with Herb Cream Cheese and Country Tomato Relish, page 140.

Raspberry Biscuit Pudding

with Vanilla Ice Cream Sauce

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Preheat oven to 350°

Buttermilk biscuits work best for this, although, a sweet biscuit would be good, too, with the amount of sugar in the pudding adjusted. The addition of raspberries was my idea. If my grandmother ever added fresh fruit to her biscuit pudding, I don’t remember it. Crumble the biscuits in chunks. You don’t want to start with biscuit crumbs.

4 cups leftover biscuits, gently crumbled

2 cups half-and-half or milk

1 cup granulated sugar

4 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

12 ounces fresh raspberries

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cubed

1 cup premium vanilla ice cream, melted

Grease an 8x8-inch baking dish. Add crumbled biscuits.

Pour half-and-half over biscuits and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes until the biscuits are soft.

Sprinkle sugar over top and mix in with a fork.

Pour in beaten eggs, vanilla extract, and cinnamon and mix into bread mixture with a fork, making sure all ingredients are well incorporated.

Sprinkle raspberries on top and gently press down.

Sprinkle cubed butter over top.

Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 45 minutes. When done, the center will jiggle but it shouldn’t slosh.

Let cool 15 minutes before serving. The center may have risen during baking, but it will collapse when cooled.

Drizzle with vanilla sauce before serving. If you prefer to omit vanilla ice cream sauce, sprinkle a little bit of sugar over the berries before baking.

Vanilla Sauce

Melt 1 cup premium vanilla ice cream.