Homemade Biscuits

I was blessed to have a childhood where I had many opportunities to travel to the quintessential Grandparents' home. Outside there was a chicken coop where I learned to gather eggs, a barn with cats and a tractor, and rows and rows of crops in every directions from the house. I shelled beans, husked corn, and picked cucumbers on that farm. Inside you could often find a quilt on a large frame that filled the back room, fabric lying next to sewing machine, and my grandmother in the kitchen cooking something. I would set myself down at the kitchen table and watch her every move as she worked in the kitchen - while she constantly told me to get my hair out of my face.

The picture above is from long before I knew my grandmother - in fact - it's before my father was even born. However, it's one of my favorite pictures because, despite the obvious timing issue, that is how I remember my grandparents.

When it was time to make biscuits she'd open a bottom cabinet and pull out a large shallow wooden bowl that had flour and who knows what else in it. She'd add other ingredients - milk, butter, shortening, and other things that my childhood memory does not recall. Eventually she'd have a ball of dough that she'd kneed for a few minutes and then move it to the tabletop to roll out into a flat sheet. She'd use the top of a glass to cut out small circles before placing them in the oven. The biscuits always came out fluffy and golden brown with a light dusting of flour still clinging to them.

I don't know my grandmother's recipe. I don't have a wooden bowl (or a rolling pin for that matter), but I attempted to make some homemade biscuits of my own and here's what I did:

First, I pulled out my America's Test Kitchen cookbook and followed their recipe. It pretty much seems to be the same as this Quick Biscuit recipe from allrecipes.com except that America's test kitchen uses all purpose rather than self-rising (plus the stuff to make it rise). Although - the recipe at the site tells you to need for 5 minutes. Don't do that. Just kneed for about 30 seconds until it's smooth. Kneading too long will de-fluff your biscuits!

And, since I didn't have a rolling pin I just patted out the dough into a circle about 3/4" thick and then cut the circle into 8 wedges for the biscuits. (This avoided the whole "cut circles out, re-pat dough, cut circles out, repeat" process) Try not to drag the knife as you cut - rather just push straight down and then pull straight up. Dragging through the dough will cause it to rise unevenly.

Then you put them in the oven and bake.

I love how they look coming out of the oven. I felt very "rustic" serving wedge biscuits. And, they tasted great! 3 cheers for heavy cream rather than butter/milk!

Coming Up Next: Italian Roast Beef, Potatoes Au Gratin, and a few cake tips I've learned since I last posted a Chocolate Layer Cake. (I invited my parents and a friend over for dinner on MLK day since I had the day off - you now get the blog results of that meal!)