Sunday, October 19, 2008

My obsession with biscuits

Tonight was suppose to be chili. I had every intention to make chili, however I got home from the pumpkin patch and the last thing I wanted was chili.
But what I really wanted was a biscuit. So I googled and then went to Food Network, finding Alton Brown's biscuit recipe. You know the shortcut episode- instead of buttermilk use milk and lemon. So I had found my recipe, but could I make fluffy biscuits?
I've been trying to get that final product, Brown's would be my third. Every other time, the biscuits were never fluffy rather rolly. Crusty outside, white inside, but it would never be a biscuit. So awhile ago, I asked my dad about biscuits, he said that I should never knead them, which is what I had been doing. So, this time I used the best tools- my hands.
What did I get? Well, they weren't exactly huge, tall biscuits, but they were fluffy and crusty and oh so good.
The perfect biscuit to go with my southern dinner/breakfast- eggs over easy, bacon, biscuits and OJ. A great way to end my day.

Southern Biscuits
(adapted from Alton Brown's Southern Biscuits)
1 cup skim milk
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
9 1/4 ounces all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, chilled

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Combine the milk and lemon juice in a glass measuring cup and place in the refrigerator.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips and working quickly, rub the butter and shortening into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks like crumbs. Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled milk mixture. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky. Turn the dough onto a floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold the dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform the scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting.

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, approximately 15 to 20 minutes.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you tried Homesick Texan's biscuits - those are fantastic (and I do the vegan version - soy milk and margarine)? I've also been experimenting with using just a little bit of bread flour in my recipe (i.e. ran out of all-purpose) using 3-1 A.P. to bread flour, it changes the texture some.

-Biscuit Fiend

cakewardrobe said...

I just love the feeling of satisfying a craving with something homemade!

Big Boys Oven said...

I love biscuits, there are awesome to indulge!

kat said...

it took me awhile to get the biscuit thing down too, once i learned to keep everything cold & not overwork it they came out much better