Biscuits & Jam

Mud Creek

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 17, 2013
Messages
15,904
Reaction score
71,995
Location
Mid TN
Did some homemade buttermilk biscuits with bacon and strawberry jam for breakfast this morning. It hit the spot!

20240711_083850.jpg
20240711_083856.jpg
20240711_091250.jpg
 
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.

20240803_182254.webp
 
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.
 
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 😁
 
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

20240805_120206.webp
 
Back
Top