Biscuits & Jam

[Mud Creek]

Did some homemade buttermilk biscuits with bacon and strawberry jam for breakfast this morning. It hit the spot!

 

[Chapman]

That's some real deal breakfast.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Nice! Looks delicious!

 

[CritterGitter]

Hard to beat !

 

[Mud Creek]

About 3 years back I decided I was going to start making biscuits from scratch. I feel like this is something every good southern man should be able to do even if it's just once a year. I only have time to try them once, sometimes twice a week and I admit that's more than enough time but I've never been able to be consistent with them. The last few months they've gotten better and better by tweeking a few things along the way. At first I was cutting lard into the flour which IMO was throwing the texture off a little. When I switched to a stick of grated frozen butter that made a huge difference in taste,texture, and even the smell lol. I think I have them down now(fingers crossed). We made homemade sausage gravy, bacon,and these biscuits for dinner tonight. I've never ate a store bought or restaurant made biscuit that could even touch these! The only thing that would have made them better was having a fresh deer tenderloin to put on them.

 

[Apostolic Outdoors]

SHOOWEE those look good!!

 

[Pic IN the Casa]

Looks great.

 

[TNLynn]

This thread useless without recipe!

 

[Mud Creek]

This thread useless without recipe!

For starters this has all been trial and error for me. I've taken steps and advice from a few people/recipes, used what's worked best and combined them lol.


2 cups of self rising flour
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 stick of butter(frozen for at least a hour)
1/2 stick of melted butter
1 tbsp of Baking powder
1 tbsp salt(Less if using salted butter)

Preheat oven to 425

- Pre measure your buttermilk then put the measuring cup in the fridge. Original recipe called for 2 cups but I've found between 1 - 1 1/2 cups is a lot better.
- Sift your flour into a bowl with the baking powder and put it in the freezer.
- Take the stick of butter out of freezer and grate it.
- Dump grated butter into the bowl of flour and throw them back in the freezer for another 5-10 minutes.
- Remove from the freezer and cut butter into the flour with a fork or a pastry dough cutter(this is what I have been using and its way better than a fork IMO)It should look kind of crumbly when it's done.
- Remove milk then slowly pour and stir it in. Use a spatula just to get them combined.
- Once you have everything combined into a sticky ball, dump it out onto pre floured counter, then roll it around the flour a time or 2 before forming it into a rectangle and start folding it. I probably fold it about 5-6 times before rolling it out, and I don't like to roll it thin. I like it to be a little puffy looking.
-Take a biscuit cutter and press straight down. No twisting, just straight down and back up. I usually get 6 biscuits out of this before forming remaining dough back into a rectangle and folding it 2 more times, then rolling it out again. This has given me between 3-5 extra biscuits. When all is said and done I get between 9-11 of them total.
- When you have all your biscuits cut, set them on a plate and pop them in the freezer for another 5 minutes. During that time put a cast iron skillet in the oven to warm up. Get it warm but not hot or else biscuits will get too hard on the bottom.
- Remove skillet from the oven and biscuits from the freezer, then put them in the skillet all touching(this helps them rise better)and put it back in the oven to cook.
- Set timer for 15 minutes. Melt the 1/2 stick of butter and brush some of it on after they have been in for 5 minutes. When you have between 3-5 minutes left, crank it up to 450 to finish and get that golden look on top. When time is up remove them from the oven and brush a little more butter on top. Let them sit on the stove to cool a little before serving(but not too long)

Just a tip:
Keep all ingredients cold! This tip has been a huge help for me and made huge improvements. From the flour, butter, and buttermilk before all being combined, right up to freezing the biscuits for 5 minutes before going into the skillet/oven.

 

[Gronkmonster]

Thanks for all the great info. I've had making biscuits on my mind for a few weeeks now but haven't pulled the trigger. Nobody in town has a biscuit cutter so looks like I'll jump online and order one now. You've inspired me

 

[TNLynn]

Thanks for all the great info. I've had making biscuits on my mind for a few weeeks now but haven't pulled the trigger. Nobody in town has a biscuit cutter so looks like I'll jump online and order one now. You've inspired me

I've used glass jars and glasses as a cutter also.

 

[Mud Creek]

These are less than 5 bucks at Wal mart and are what I first used before I got a biscuit cutter. I can't tell much of a difference and wouldn't hesitate to use them again in a pinch. The blue one gives the perfect size biscuits IMO, I used the orange one too but for this recipe it gave me less biscuits so I stuck with the blue one until I got the biscuit cutter. I just flipped them around and used the flat side instead of the jagged side. I did notice that when you pressed down sometimes you had to give a little shake(don't twist!)to completely cut through.
**For the record I know nothing about baking cookies so that flat side might be the side you're supposed to use lol I have no clue

 

[tndeer56]