Biscuits

Who doesn't love a good biscuit?! Thanks to my wonderful Mother-In-Law, I can make a biscuit that is neither a hockey puck or just a mess of a clump of biscuit.  After making a successful batch of biscuits, I've decided they are similar in process as to pie crust, just with some additional ingredients and a different rolling process.   

TIP: You can use regular milk, or to make homemade faux buttermilk, add 1T lemon juice (my preference) OR 1 T white vinegar to 1 c milk and let set to room temperature for 10 minutes.

Ingredients:
8 oz ( 1 3/4 c) flour
1 T sugar
2 1/4 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1/4 baking soda
4 oz (8 T) butter
3/4 c buttermilk





Directions:

1.  Mix your dry ingredients in one big bowl.

2.  Since I'm using my homemade butter, it was just easier for me to weigh it.  If you use store-bought, use 8 T, or one stick.

3.  Starting with a fork, start cutting your ICE COLD butter into the flour.  When in pea-sized clumps, rub between your finger until it forms a ball.  Again, just like your pie crust, this does not need to be uniform.  Big and little sized butter clumps are a good thing. 

4.  Add your butter milk all at once, mix until just moistened.

5  Flour your counter top and your hands thoroughly

6. Drop your biscuit dough onto your counter top
NOTE: At this point, the biscuits are DROP biscuits.  You can bake them like this, as well, see variations.

7.  Knead until no longer sticky

8 Roll out to 1" thickness.

9.  This is where I defer from most cooks.   The reason biscuits get tough is you work with them too much.  So people put a cup through their dough to make circle biscuits.They continue to roll out the dough to make circle biscuits until there isn't any dough left.  The more passes you make on a biscuit, the tougher they are.  Meaning your first batch of biscuits are the most tender, the second batch is the second most tender, and so on.  Who says your biscuits have to be round?!  Roll out the dough 1", cut it into portions, and mold it into a uniform shape. 

10 Bake at 450* for 18 minutes

11. Turn pan 180*, bake for additional 4-6 minutes

12.  Remove pan from oven, let biscuits rest on pan for 3 minutes

13.  Remove biscuits from pan, add a pat of butter and some jam.  ENJOY!

VARIATIONS:
1.  Cinnamon: Mix together 1/4 c sugar with 1 T cinnamon.  After step 9, roll in cinnamon sugar mixture, bake. MONKEY BREAD!
2.  Honey:  Add 1/2 c honey with milk.
3.  Garlic Cheddar: decrease sugar to 1 t, add 1 c cheddar and 1 t garlic powder.  Bake as DROP biscuit, step 6

TIP:

Guess what?  You can freeze these unbaked for your own Pillsbury Dough boy anytime you want!

1.  Flash freeze these on a wax paper lined pyrex glass. 

2.  Freeze AT LEAST overnight.  Remove from glass and put in a freezer bag

3.  When wanted to cook, decrease temp to 400*, add 6-8 minutes to cooking time.

Easy Speasy!