butter milk biscuits

[trailtwister]

2  cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the board (if you can get White Lily flour, your biscuits will be even better)
1â,,4 teaspoon baking soda
1  tablespoon baking powder (use one without aluminum)
1  teaspoon kosher salt or 1 teaspoon salt
6  tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold
1  cup buttermilk (approx)




Directions
Preheat your oven to 450°F.
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, or in the bowl of a food processor.
Cut the butter into chunks and cut into the flour until it resembles course meal.
If using a food processor, just pulse a few times until this consistency is achieved.
Add the buttermilk and mix JUST until combined.
If it appears on the dry side, add a bit more buttermilk. It should be very wet.
Turn the dough out onto a floured board.
Gently, gently PAT (do NOT roll with a rolling pin) the dough out until it's about 1/2" thick. Fold the dough about 5 times, gently press the dough down to a 1 inch thick.
Use a round cutter to cut into rounds.
You can gently knead the scraps together and make a few more, but they will not be anywhere near as good as the first ones.
Place the biscuits on a cookie sheet- if you like soft sides, put them touching each other.
If you like"crusty" sides, put them about 1 inch apart- these will not rise as high as the biscuits put close together.
Bake for about 10-12 minutes- the biscuits will be a beautiful light golden brown on top and bottom.
Do not overbake.
Note: The key to real biscuits is not in the ingredients, but in the handling of the dough.
The dough must be handled as little as possible or you will have tough biscuits.
I have found that a food processor produces superior biscuits, because the ingredients stay colder and there's less chance of over mixing.
You also must pat the dough out with your hands, lightly.
Rolling with a rolling pin is a guaranteed way to overstimulate the gluten, resulting in a tougher biscuit.
Note 2: You can make these biscuits, cut them, put them on cookie sheets and freeze them for up to a month.
When you want fresh biscuits, simply place them frozen on the cookie sheet and bake at 450°F for about 20 minutes.

  Al

[Okanagan]

Good info!  Thanks.

My mother made the best biscuits I've ever tasted.  Your recipe and process sounds like hers and she'd done it for so many years that she threw them together without measuring anything.  Hers were bigger than most people make them. 

I got to have lunch in the US Senate Dining Room, and the biggest surprise was the biscuits, just like my mother's.  That's one of the last places I'd expect great big home tasting hillbilly biscuits.   Several items on the menu are recipes Senators have brought in from their mothers' and I suspect the biscuits came from some southern Senator way back. 

Doggone, I may have to go make some biscuits today. 

[trailtwister]

Don't forget the pot of gravy for them.

  Al

[Okanagan]

Don't forget the pot of gravy for them.

  Al

How about posting  a gravy recipe?  Especially the how to, not just the ingredients.  I've never been any good at making gravy, though mine is edible.   

[trailtwister]

I like this one but the sausage if to strong covers the taste of the squirrel and biscuits to much but works over the biscuts perfect I think.

HOMESTYLE SAUSAGE AND GRAVY 

12 oz. (3/4 lb.) bulk pork sausage
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. all purpose flour
4 c. milk
1 tsp. beef bouillon granules
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/8 tsp. pepper


Makes 10 (1/2 c.) servings. Crumble sausage into a large skillet. Add onion. Sauté over medium heat until sausage is lightly browned and onion is almost tender. Sprinkle flour over meat. Cook and stir 1 minute. Gradually stir in milk. Cook and stir until mixture boils and is smooth. Stir in bouillon, poultry seasoning and pepper. Reduce heat to low. Simmer several minutes until thickened. Serve over biscuits or cornbread

  Al

[Okanagan]

Thanks!  I like it already! 

[trailtwister]

Making Gravy with Corn Starch

1 Remove the roast from the pan. Place pan on stove on medium high heat. Pour off all but 2 Tbsp of the drippings in the pan.

2 Dissolve 2 Tbsp of corn starch in the minimum amount of water needed to make a thin paste - about 1/4 cup. Pour into pan with drippings and use a wire whisk or spatula (as pictured) to blend into the drippings


3 Stir with a wire whisk until the gravy begins to thicken. As it thickens, slowly add water, stock, milk, or cream, or some combination to the pan. Alternate stirring and adding liquid, maintaining the consistency you want, for several minutes (about 5). You will probably add about 2 cups of liquid all together. Taking into consideration the evaporation that is occurring while you are cooking, you will end up with about 2 cups of gravy. Season with salt



Making Gravy with Flour

1 Remove the roast from the pan. Place pan on stove on medium high heat. Pour off all but 2 Tbsp of the drippings in the pan.

2 Into the 2 tablespoons of drippings in the pan stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour. Stir with a wire whisk until the flour has thickened and the gravy is smooth. Continue to cook slowly to brown the flour, and stir constantly.

3 Slowly add back some of the previously removed drippings (remove some of the fat beforehand if there is a lot of fat). In addition, add either water, milk, stock, or cream to the gravy, enough to make 2 cups. Season the gravy with salt and pepper and herbs.

  Al