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Southern Breakfast Biscuits

Source of Recipe

From "Essentials of Southern Cooking" by Damon Lee Fowler


Recipe Introduction

"From at least the beginning of the nineteenth century until the middle of the twentieth, biscuits were standard breakfast fare in most Southern households. They were rarely seen at any other meal — and were never served at dinner. Today, while they're still a popular breakfast bread, they're also turning up in the bread basket of the most formal of dinners. Fast-food restaurants all over the South do a booming business in 'from scratch' breakfast biscuits; white-cloth restaurants offer them all day long. But as they become more commonplace outside the home, the place that they're actually becoming rare is within it. This is too bad, because once you get the knack, they're very easy to make, and people always think you've gone to a lot more trouble than you have."

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 2 cups Southern soft-wheat flour or soft-wheat pastry flour
â—¦ 2 teaspoons baking powder
â—¦ 1 teaspoon salt
â—¦ 4 tablespoons (¼ cup) chilled lard (don't argue with me), cut into small bits
â—¦ ¾ to 1 cup whole-milk buttermilk
â—¦ 1 to 2 tablespoons melted butter or milk, optional


Recipe

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 500° F. Sift or whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the lard, and cut it in with a pastry blender or two knives until it's the texture of grits or polenta meal with lumps the size of small peas. Do not overblend; small lumps of shortening are what make biscuits flaky.

Make a well in the center and pour in most of the buttermilk.
(You may not need quite all of it; a lot depends on the moisture content of the flour, the humidity of the day, and how good you have been. Biscuits are very judgmental.) Mix with as few strokes as possible until the dough clumps together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, adding milk by the spoonful until the dough is no longer crumbly.

Turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat out 1 inch thick. Fold it in half and pat it flat again. Repeat this twice more, then lightly flour the surface and roll it out ½ to ¾ inch thick. Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter dipped in flour before each cut, cut straight down without twisting into 12 biscuits. When cutting at the edges, be sure that there is a cut side all the way around the biscuits or they won't rise evenly. Lay them on an ungreased baking sheet; for very light, fluffy biscuits with soft edges, let them touch; for crisper biscuits (the kind I prefer), space them at least ½ inch apart.

There will be leftover scraps.
To rework them, lightly gather them into a lump, gently fold it over itself, and pat flat. Pat and fold as before about three times, just until the scraps hold together, then pat it out ½ to ¾ inch thick and cut. To help the tops brown, you may brush them with milk or melted butter.

Bake until they're risen and golden brown on top, about 8 to 10 minutes. Serve piping hot.


Makes 12 biscuits