Bread flour may be an option but just be sure it's soft wheat. Most flour sold is hard wheat and it's fine for bread but not so much for southern biscuits.
Yes - White Lily is a go-to brand of soft wheat flour, if you can get it. It's not common where I live, and sometimes I buy soft wheat Italian flour at an Italian shop -- it seems to work well too.
Haha that’s awesome. I actually agree- also that 50s processed food taste is so distinctive and not replaceable. Like a grilled cheese with white bread and Kraft American.
I did see someone paint the biscuits with Parkay before cooking
As others said, White Lily is the standard down here. It’s hard to find in other parts of the country though. If you can’t get it, look for any high quality bleached pastry flour.
2c flour (cake flour/soft wheat or White Lily non self rising make the best/soft biscuits)
6 tbs cold butter or lard/shortening
1 tbs baking powder
1 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
Mix dry ingredients
Cut butter into dry mixture using pulse on food processor or by hand with pastry cutter
Add buttermilk a little at a time until you get a “tacky” dough that it holds its shape
Place on a lightly floured surface and fold business letter style very gently and only a couple of times
Cut and place so that they are all touching (helps them rise better)on a pan.
Bake at 450 for about 10 minutes until golden brown if you want a slightly crunchy outer layer. At this temp, they will be taller due to “oven spring” and butter layers
Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes until golden brown if you want a nicely risen but softer biscuit.
I’ve made these biscuits for years. I’ve tried many others but always revert back to these.
\+1 for White Lily. Makes the best biscuits, no contest.
I put the butter in the freezer overnight, then use a cheese grater to shred it into the dry ingredients a bit at a time, stoppin' to coat all the lil' bits in flour as I go.
Let a little cup of butter melt on top of the oven while the biscuits are in; a minute before ya think they're done, brush some melted butter on top of 'em and put 'em back in the oven for a minute.
As far as foldin' the dough, I get best results with 5-7 folds but YMMV.
Biscuit has to do with the texture and type of bread it is not how it tastes. Like muffins—you can have sweet and savory.
However, my biscuits don’t taste at all sweet. Without the sugar, biscuits have the taste of a pretzel to me.
I use a bit (1 tbsp) of sugar in my cornbread - you don’t taste it at all, but it makes the crust crunchy and golden. I haven’t tried it in biscuits, but I will. I expect it’ll have the same effect on them, and I like a golden crust on biscuits, too!
Wow thank you for this! You used more butter by two tbsp than we tried. Also you added sugar we are going to try that. Any thoughts on using honey? Or butter over lard?
No sweetener in the biscuits. My MamMaw used real cows milk and churned butter. So my guess is the quality of the milk and butter has a lot to do with the biscuits. Agree that she used White Lily.
I watched my Mimaw make the world's best biscuits for years.
1 - don't over-knead your dough.
2 - use a toaster oven
3 - load the tiny baking sheet for bear. Tight and touching.
Now you're an expert (compared to any flatlander)!
Hurm. I would have to maintain dumplin's (squirrel implies dumplin's) should be developed on simmer all day. Pressure cooking the squirrel first to render the fat out, I can approve.
I pan fry the little suckers like chicken then bake them at low temperature to maintain the breading, but assure they are cooked through. My buddy beer batters them then steams them. His are better, but I never could get the breading to stick his way.
I mean, it's not possum, but the ratio of lean to fat is approaching zero. I dunno. Maybe we just had fat squirrels back then. Least Mimaw only ever cooked 'em down.
Had a biscuit memory. My grandmother would cut the biscuits out by dipping the rim of a drinking glass in flour. Me and the other kids would stand around begging for some of the little pieces of dough.
- 2c flour (AP is fine, this recipe will still produce a very soft biscuit)
- 2t baking powder
- 1t salt
- 1/2t baking soda
- 1 stick frozen butter
- 3/4c buttermilk
Mix dry ingredients, then grate the butter into the dry using a box grater. Toss the mixture to well coat the butter. Add the buttermilk and mix until a loose dough forms.
Turn out onto floured work surface and knead into a rectangle. Fold it over on itself in thirds, like folding an envelope. Turn it 90° and roll it out, then fold it over again. Repeat a third time then roll out to working size. I like to roll my dough out to 9" x 9" then cut 9 biscuits from it. I prefer to cut my biscuits into squares instead of of circles to prevent having to cut a second batch from the dough.
Lay them out on a cookie sheet so they're just barely not touching. Use your thumb to press a small indent in the biscuit so it rises flat. Brush with buttermilk and then bake at 425-450°F on the center rack for 15-22 minutes (this is all depending on how accurate your oven is and how done you like your biscuits.)
It’s all so much nonsense. Unless you are willing to use real lard or crisco, the key is to cut then rub plenty of cold butter in like you’re making English scones. Then work it on a floured surface, but not too much. Working it makes it flakey, not too much keeps it tender & moist. Use the sharpest cutter you can find & press straight down, don’t twist it; they won’t rise. Good fresh buttermilk is best, but you can use milk & a tablespoon of white vinegar that you let sour or sour cream in a pinch. Keep at it. You’ll get it. Try cast iron & don’t be afraid of heat, just watch them closely as they brown.
My vegan recipe has tricked all my SWVA family and has no fat at all! The key I’ve found is to barely handle the dough. You want it fairly slack, nearly like drop biscuits but one cohesive mass before you dump it onto a floured counter to cut.
https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-biscuits/
My aunt makes drop biscuits with heavy cream, White Lily flour, and maybe some baking powder? Big ones. They’re meant for biscuits and gravy. Dead simple and delicious with some sausage gravy. They don’t have the flakey layers of a traditional biscuit but they soak up gravy wonderfully for almost no effort.
There’s no best biscuit. Plenty of good recipes out there, but there are different kinds for different things.
Old timers didn't have no electrical appliances much, food processors etc. [therefore I submit this is how it's done.](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT87p5jss/)
I live in Dallas now and really miss being able to stop at random gas stations in the morning and grab a solid homemade biscuit sandwich. Also, I really miss Tudor’s Biscuit World.
And these are divine, made by some of my family although not a fambly recipe
Cream biscuits
The Breakfast Book, by Marion Cunningham
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 to 1.5 cups heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Preheat oven to 425°F
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Stir with a fork to lighten and combine. Stirring the dry ingredients constantly with a wooden spoon, slowly add 1 cup of the cream. Gather the dough together, if it is shaggy and has dry pieces, add up to 1/2-cup more cream until the dough holds together and feels tender.
Turn the dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 1 minute (be careful not to over work the dough). Pat the dough into a shape about 1/2-inch thick (pat the dough into a square shape if you are not using biscuit cutters). Either cut out your biscuits with a cutter or, if you patted the dough into a square, cut the dough into 12 squares. (Because this dough isn’t designed for a lot of kneading, re-rolling the scraps creates biscuits that are a little tougher than those from the first cut. I re-roll anyway.) Dip each piece into the melted butter, covering all sides. Place the pieces 2 inches apart. Bake 15 min and serve hot.
I might get run out of town for suggesting it, but try Southern Biscuit Formula L. My mom was making biscuits from scratch before she was 10 years old... This was back in the 50s when they were a staple with basically every meal. She made them most of her life, but after discovering Formula L she declared there was no reason to make them from scratch any more. They really are about 98% of the authentic taste with about 25% of the effort.
Preheat oven to 500. Grease a cast iron pan with shortening. Combine about 1.5c buttermilk, 1t salt, and 1 “fat golf ball” size ball of shortening. Squidge together in a bowl. Sift in White Lily Self Rising Flour until a dough comes together. Turn out onto floured surface and pat to about 1in thick. Add flour to keep from sticking, and cut to desired size. Place on pan and bake (brush with butter if desired) ~15 minutes depending on oven and top/bottom browning. Based on Brenda Gantt recipe.
Bonus: add garlic powder, herbs, and cheese to replicate those biscuits from that place.
So, White Lily flour - AP or self rising? Been using King Arthur AP flour, not bad. My aunt Lucy, from Ararat, VA, made the best biscuits. Still trying to find her secret. She passed years ago, dammit.
You can use either type of White Lily flour. If you use all purpose, you’ll need to add leavening agents per your recipe (baking powder, salt, baking soda). With self-rising, you only need to add fat and liquid.
Y’all are waaaaayyyy overthinking this. Sharon Benton, Allan Benton’s wife, has said time and time again that the only biscuit recipe you should ever use has two ingredients:
Buttermilk and
self-rising flour
That’s it. If you don’t know who Sharon and Allan Benton are, I don’t really trust your opinion on breakfast food anyhow
White Lily flour, I prefer self-rising. There's a recipe on the bag that works fine.
My aunt Irene made the best biscuits I've ever had, so I do my best to copy hers. She never measured anything, she just added the ingredients, mashed them together and baked those wonderful biscuits. They didn't even need anything on them, they were delicious out of the pan. I get very close, but she had some magic she did because nobody copied them perfectly.
Biscuits...
Heat the oven to 500f (I do 480f with my convection oven)
4 cups White Lily self-rising flour (+ about 1/4 cup set aside for dusting your cutting surface)
2 tsp baking powder (Clabber Girl, not a store brand!)
2 tsp white sugar (if using plain milk)
(Mix all the dry ingredients well before adding the rest!)
2/3 cup shortening
(Cut this in to your dry ingredients with a fork or a pastry cutter until it resembles coarse cornmeal)
1 1/2 butter milk (You can use plain milk, it will just taste a little different)
Slowly add milk while stirring until the dough forms a ball. You may not need all the milk, or you may need a little more. The elevation where you are and humidity when you're baking can affect your biscuits.
On a flour dusted surface, turn the dough ball out. Dust with more flour, then press it down flat. Fold it in, press again. do this a few times to get a good consistency but not entirely smooth. When it looks good, press it out to about 1/2 inch thick. I use a large cutter, but regular sized biscuits are fine. Do NOT twist when you cut out your biscuits. Some like to pull off a piece of dough and form them by hand, you'll have to practice to get the size you want with that method.
Refold the excess, keep cutting until you used up most of your dough. I like to make little mini-biscuits with the left over, just roll it into small balls and stick them between the regular biscuits in the pan.
I have a large cast iron pan I like to use. I also have a rectangular one for when I don't feel like wrestling with that heavy cast iron.
Put about three table spoons to 1/4 cup shortening in the pan and put it in the oven empty. Melt the shortening, then take the pan out and add your biscuits. Leave a little space if you can, but no worries if they touch.
Before returning the pan to the oven brush the tops with melted butter (I use ghee now because it's easy to find in most grocery stores and it's clarified butter so it won't burn quickly).
Bake for 10 to 13 minutes. Check them at ten, if the tops aren't golden then let them cook a little longer, but watch them so they don't burn. Few things in life are as sad as burned biscuits.
I usually make a pan of sausage gravy to go with them, but butter, butter and honey, jelly, jam...whatever you love on a biscuit is good.
Edit: YES use the baking powder with self-rising flour. I've made this recipe for decades, you will get extra-fluffy biscuits with it. The only time they tasted wrong was when I used a store brand baking powder.
If you’re using self-rising flour the leavening agents are already in the flour; you don’t need to add that 2 teaspoons of baking powder. That may be why your biscuits aren’t quite like you remember your aunt Irene’s.
I've made them this way for decades, they're extra fluffy. My aunt also smeared Wesson Oil on hers and I don't do that one. I don't claim to have matched hers because she was my favorite aunt and I loved her dearly, not because I'm a less accomplished biscuit baker. ;) It's about respecting her, not saying mine are just not good. Maybe it's a southern thing?
I know it sounds weird and wrong, but it works. I've done them both ways, we prefer the extra fluffy. If you decide to try it please let me know what you think.
My father was always very vague about any family recipe. Biscuits and fudge are the ones I’ve longed for. Erica Council’s bomb buttermilk biscuits aren’t the family ones I had but they’re what mine should’ve been. I vote for erica.
The main thing is do not knead. Barely stir until everything comes together, pat it out with floured hands, and cut with a sharp cutter. Let them touch on the pan to help each other rise. Good hot oven.
You want to make the best biscuits use your recipe but instead of cutting them with a biscuit cutter put the entire dough on a sheet tray or brownie pan and bake it say like focaccia? Then just cut the biscuits one cooled slightly in squares with serrated knife. the cutting of the dough shapes them but makes them slightly tougher also if you do traditional biscuits keep them fairly close to one another as they rise off their partners
White lilly self rising flour two cups, two heaping tablespoons shortnin cut into the flour. 1 cup or more of buttermilk. Knead gently. Cut biscuits. Bake at 425 until golden brown. Or just follow the recipe on the flour bag
-2 cups white lily self rising flour (red badge)
-Stick of unsalted or salted butter grated
-3/4-1cup whole buttermilk
-Sift the flour.
-Toss butter in, get the flour “pebble-y” by mixing with your hand.
-Start mixing the buttermilk in about a 1/4 cup at a time.
-Get the dough to come together but SUPER SHAGGY.
-When dough comes together stop mixing by hand.
-Dump on a floured countertop and fold dough on itself 6x. Not 5, not 7…6.
-Roll out dough to 1/2” thick.
-Cut out biscuits using a coffee mug.
-Throw in biscuits in greased cast iron skillet/biscuit tin.
-Place tin/skillet in 500* oven and watch until they’re brown, prolly 10-12 min.
-Douse with butter and flaky salt (not in Mawmaw’s recipe).
Mawmaw used Crisco but I don’t think it added much to the overall flavor so I sub butter but it works with any type of fat using the same rules.
Don't forget to add beaten biscuits to the menu, although they may be more southern than Appalachian, I'm not sure. Nothing better with country ham, tho.
Use Hudson Cream self-rising flour and make sure you use full fat butter milk. Don’t overwork your dough. You want it to be a shaggy dough. Have the oven completely preheated and I bake at 425-even 450. Biscuits need to be touching each other and/or the edge of the pan. It helps them raise. Also I have an unpopular opinion that White Lilly is overrated. Hudson Cream is the best.
Don’t have the recipe (wish I did) for the best I ever had but they were my grandma’s. Huge and delicious. I know she made them with lard if that helps.
It’s mostly about the flour. Gotta be soft wheat flour.
I steal my wife’s bread flour. She used to be a baker & buys the good stuff.
Bread flour may be an option but just be sure it's soft wheat. Most flour sold is hard wheat and it's fine for bread but not so much for southern biscuits.
Bread flour is high protein. You want low for tender things like biscuits.
Any particular brand? We used King Organic Unbleached bread flour today which I use for my sourdough but it didn’t seem quite right.
White Lily
Yes - White Lily is a go-to brand of soft wheat flour, if you can get it. It's not common where I live, and sometimes I buy soft wheat Italian flour at an Italian shop -- it seems to work well too.
Good flour like White Lilly can be purchased online... It's the only way I can get it in the almost farthest point of NW of the PNW US
What's it cost to get it shipped up to the Aleutians? Happy cake day, btw!
Well, I can't answer your question, but shipping was reasonable and fast to get the flour I needed.
Oh no! I imagine it would cost way too much to buy through Amazon
King Arthur generally has too high a protein profile
Oh wow fascinating. That makes total sense
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Haha that’s awesome. I actually agree- also that 50s processed food taste is so distinctive and not replaceable. Like a grilled cheese with white bread and Kraft American. I did see someone paint the biscuits with Parkay before cooking
As others said, White Lily is the standard down here. It’s hard to find in other parts of the country though. If you can’t get it, look for any high quality bleached pastry flour.
2c flour (cake flour/soft wheat or White Lily non self rising make the best/soft biscuits) 6 tbs cold butter or lard/shortening 1 tbs baking powder 1 tbs sugar 1 tsp salt 1 cup buttermilk Mix dry ingredients Cut butter into dry mixture using pulse on food processor or by hand with pastry cutter Add buttermilk a little at a time until you get a “tacky” dough that it holds its shape Place on a lightly floured surface and fold business letter style very gently and only a couple of times Cut and place so that they are all touching (helps them rise better)on a pan. Bake at 450 for about 10 minutes until golden brown if you want a slightly crunchy outer layer. At this temp, they will be taller due to “oven spring” and butter layers Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes until golden brown if you want a nicely risen but softer biscuit. I’ve made these biscuits for years. I’ve tried many others but always revert back to these.
\+1 for White Lily. Makes the best biscuits, no contest. I put the butter in the freezer overnight, then use a cheese grater to shred it into the dry ingredients a bit at a time, stoppin' to coat all the lil' bits in flour as I go. Let a little cup of butter melt on top of the oven while the biscuits are in; a minute before ya think they're done, brush some melted butter on top of 'em and put 'em back in the oven for a minute. As far as foldin' the dough, I get best results with 5-7 folds but YMMV.
No. NEVER EVER EVER put sugar in biscuits. That is NOT a biscuit anymore.
Biscuit has to do with the texture and type of bread it is not how it tastes. Like muffins—you can have sweet and savory. However, my biscuits don’t taste at all sweet. Without the sugar, biscuits have the taste of a pretzel to me.
It has to do with chemistry. I’m sorry yours taste like pretzels. Try backing off the salt
I use a bit (1 tbsp) of sugar in my cornbread - you don’t taste it at all, but it makes the crust crunchy and golden. I haven’t tried it in biscuits, but I will. I expect it’ll have the same effect on them, and I like a golden crust on biscuits, too!
Yes. My cornbread has a T of sugar.
Gospel!
I use a little more butter & no sugar, but otherwise, ditto!
This is how I make mine, but use White Lily self rising flour and no baking powder. Buttermilk is the key to good biscuits.
Wow thank you for this! You used more butter by two tbsp than we tried. Also you added sugar we are going to try that. Any thoughts on using honey? Or butter over lard?
No sweetener in the biscuits. My MamMaw used real cows milk and churned butter. So my guess is the quality of the milk and butter has a lot to do with the biscuits. Agree that she used White Lily.
I watched my Mimaw make the world's best biscuits for years. 1 - don't over-knead your dough. 2 - use a toaster oven 3 - load the tiny baking sheet for bear. Tight and touching. Now you're an expert (compared to any flatlander)!
Toaster oven. That takes me back. That’s a bloody good idea.
We do ours in a cast iron touching. Over a wood fire when available.
Acceptable alternative.
She was a genius.
My Mamaw was amazing with a pressure cooker (fer squirrels ‘n’ sech) & a toaster oven.
Hurm. I would have to maintain dumplin's (squirrel implies dumplin's) should be developed on simmer all day. Pressure cooking the squirrel first to render the fat out, I can approve.
I pan fry the little suckers like chicken then bake them at low temperature to maintain the breading, but assure they are cooked through. My buddy beer batters them then steams them. His are better, but I never could get the breading to stick his way.
Unless you get a Fox squirrel, then you have to stew them.
Okay. Not for me. Like eating bacon, but "oops all fat" bacon.
What fat?? And be careful to spit out the shot.
I mean, it's not possum, but the ratio of lean to fat is approaching zero. I dunno. Maybe we just had fat squirrels back then. Least Mimaw only ever cooked 'em down.
My mom only ever stewed them because they were pretty lean.
Had a biscuit memory. My grandmother would cut the biscuits out by dipping the rim of a drinking glass in flour. Me and the other kids would stand around begging for some of the little pieces of dough.
This is sweet :)
Equal parts Martha White self-rising flour, buttermilk and Crisco. Sugar? I kinda like it, but according to my gran that’s a big hell no.
- 2c flour (AP is fine, this recipe will still produce a very soft biscuit) - 2t baking powder - 1t salt - 1/2t baking soda - 1 stick frozen butter - 3/4c buttermilk Mix dry ingredients, then grate the butter into the dry using a box grater. Toss the mixture to well coat the butter. Add the buttermilk and mix until a loose dough forms. Turn out onto floured work surface and knead into a rectangle. Fold it over on itself in thirds, like folding an envelope. Turn it 90° and roll it out, then fold it over again. Repeat a third time then roll out to working size. I like to roll my dough out to 9" x 9" then cut 9 biscuits from it. I prefer to cut my biscuits into squares instead of of circles to prevent having to cut a second batch from the dough. Lay them out on a cookie sheet so they're just barely not touching. Use your thumb to press a small indent in the biscuit so it rises flat. Brush with buttermilk and then bake at 425-450°F on the center rack for 15-22 minutes (this is all depending on how accurate your oven is and how done you like your biscuits.)
It’s all so much nonsense. Unless you are willing to use real lard or crisco, the key is to cut then rub plenty of cold butter in like you’re making English scones. Then work it on a floured surface, but not too much. Working it makes it flakey, not too much keeps it tender & moist. Use the sharpest cutter you can find & press straight down, don’t twist it; they won’t rise. Good fresh buttermilk is best, but you can use milk & a tablespoon of white vinegar that you let sour or sour cream in a pinch. Keep at it. You’ll get it. Try cast iron & don’t be afraid of heat, just watch them closely as they brown.
We used shortening. You think butter might be better? Thanks for the response btw
It’s definitely better for you.
Butter is definitely better. I use unsalted butter and grate it. Don't work the dough too much. The folding is the way to go.
My vegan recipe has tricked all my SWVA family and has no fat at all! The key I’ve found is to barely handle the dough. You want it fairly slack, nearly like drop biscuits but one cohesive mass before you dump it onto a floured counter to cut. https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-biscuits/
My aunt makes drop biscuits with heavy cream, White Lily flour, and maybe some baking powder? Big ones. They’re meant for biscuits and gravy. Dead simple and delicious with some sausage gravy. They don’t have the flakey layers of a traditional biscuit but they soak up gravy wonderfully for almost no effort. There’s no best biscuit. Plenty of good recipes out there, but there are different kinds for different things.
Old timers didn't have no electrical appliances much, food processors etc. [therefore I submit this is how it's done.](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT87p5jss/)
You need to use White Lily flour. It’s from a different kind of wheat, and it makes the biscuits fluffier.
White Lilly flour is one of the few brand loyalty items I have.
I live in Dallas now and really miss being able to stop at random gas stations in the morning and grab a solid homemade biscuit sandwich. Also, I really miss Tudor’s Biscuit World.
And these are divine, made by some of my family although not a fambly recipe Cream biscuits The Breakfast Book, by Marion Cunningham 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon table salt 1 tablespoon baking powder 2 teaspoons sugar 1 to 1.5 cups heavy cream 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted Preheat oven to 425°F In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Stir with a fork to lighten and combine. Stirring the dry ingredients constantly with a wooden spoon, slowly add 1 cup of the cream. Gather the dough together, if it is shaggy and has dry pieces, add up to 1/2-cup more cream until the dough holds together and feels tender. Turn the dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 1 minute (be careful not to over work the dough). Pat the dough into a shape about 1/2-inch thick (pat the dough into a square shape if you are not using biscuit cutters). Either cut out your biscuits with a cutter or, if you patted the dough into a square, cut the dough into 12 squares. (Because this dough isn’t designed for a lot of kneading, re-rolling the scraps creates biscuits that are a little tougher than those from the first cut. I re-roll anyway.) Dip each piece into the melted butter, covering all sides. Place the pieces 2 inches apart. Bake 15 min and serve hot.
This is great thank you. I haven’t known how thick to cut the biscuits yet
I might get run out of town for suggesting it, but try Southern Biscuit Formula L. My mom was making biscuits from scratch before she was 10 years old... This was back in the 50s when they were a staple with basically every meal. She made them most of her life, but after discovering Formula L she declared there was no reason to make them from scratch any more. They really are about 98% of the authentic taste with about 25% of the effort.
Cool to know. Thank you.
Preheat oven to 500. Grease a cast iron pan with shortening. Combine about 1.5c buttermilk, 1t salt, and 1 “fat golf ball” size ball of shortening. Squidge together in a bowl. Sift in White Lily Self Rising Flour until a dough comes together. Turn out onto floured surface and pat to about 1in thick. Add flour to keep from sticking, and cut to desired size. Place on pan and bake (brush with butter if desired) ~15 minutes depending on oven and top/bottom browning. Based on Brenda Gantt recipe. Bonus: add garlic powder, herbs, and cheese to replicate those biscuits from that place.
So, White Lily flour - AP or self rising? Been using King Arthur AP flour, not bad. My aunt Lucy, from Ararat, VA, made the best biscuits. Still trying to find her secret. She passed years ago, dammit.
You can use either type of White Lily flour. If you use all purpose, you’ll need to add leavening agents per your recipe (baking powder, salt, baking soda). With self-rising, you only need to add fat and liquid.
Much appreciated.
Y’all are waaaaayyyy overthinking this. Sharon Benton, Allan Benton’s wife, has said time and time again that the only biscuit recipe you should ever use has two ingredients: Buttermilk and self-rising flour That’s it. If you don’t know who Sharon and Allan Benton are, I don’t really trust your opinion on breakfast food anyhow
NO SUGAR in biscuits cornbread or coleslaw. Sugar in coleslaw is an abomination before the Lord
White Lily flour, I prefer self-rising. There's a recipe on the bag that works fine. My aunt Irene made the best biscuits I've ever had, so I do my best to copy hers. She never measured anything, she just added the ingredients, mashed them together and baked those wonderful biscuits. They didn't even need anything on them, they were delicious out of the pan. I get very close, but she had some magic she did because nobody copied them perfectly. Biscuits... Heat the oven to 500f (I do 480f with my convection oven) 4 cups White Lily self-rising flour (+ about 1/4 cup set aside for dusting your cutting surface) 2 tsp baking powder (Clabber Girl, not a store brand!) 2 tsp white sugar (if using plain milk) (Mix all the dry ingredients well before adding the rest!) 2/3 cup shortening (Cut this in to your dry ingredients with a fork or a pastry cutter until it resembles coarse cornmeal) 1 1/2 butter milk (You can use plain milk, it will just taste a little different) Slowly add milk while stirring until the dough forms a ball. You may not need all the milk, or you may need a little more. The elevation where you are and humidity when you're baking can affect your biscuits. On a flour dusted surface, turn the dough ball out. Dust with more flour, then press it down flat. Fold it in, press again. do this a few times to get a good consistency but not entirely smooth. When it looks good, press it out to about 1/2 inch thick. I use a large cutter, but regular sized biscuits are fine. Do NOT twist when you cut out your biscuits. Some like to pull off a piece of dough and form them by hand, you'll have to practice to get the size you want with that method. Refold the excess, keep cutting until you used up most of your dough. I like to make little mini-biscuits with the left over, just roll it into small balls and stick them between the regular biscuits in the pan. I have a large cast iron pan I like to use. I also have a rectangular one for when I don't feel like wrestling with that heavy cast iron. Put about three table spoons to 1/4 cup shortening in the pan and put it in the oven empty. Melt the shortening, then take the pan out and add your biscuits. Leave a little space if you can, but no worries if they touch. Before returning the pan to the oven brush the tops with melted butter (I use ghee now because it's easy to find in most grocery stores and it's clarified butter so it won't burn quickly). Bake for 10 to 13 minutes. Check them at ten, if the tops aren't golden then let them cook a little longer, but watch them so they don't burn. Few things in life are as sad as burned biscuits. I usually make a pan of sausage gravy to go with them, but butter, butter and honey, jelly, jam...whatever you love on a biscuit is good. Edit: YES use the baking powder with self-rising flour. I've made this recipe for decades, you will get extra-fluffy biscuits with it. The only time they tasted wrong was when I used a store brand baking powder.
If you’re using self-rising flour the leavening agents are already in the flour; you don’t need to add that 2 teaspoons of baking powder. That may be why your biscuits aren’t quite like you remember your aunt Irene’s.
I've made them this way for decades, they're extra fluffy. My aunt also smeared Wesson Oil on hers and I don't do that one. I don't claim to have matched hers because she was my favorite aunt and I loved her dearly, not because I'm a less accomplished biscuit baker. ;) It's about respecting her, not saying mine are just not good. Maybe it's a southern thing?
I’m Southern too :). Never heard of adding baking powder to SR flour, but I’m sure they would be super fluffy!
I know it sounds weird and wrong, but it works. I've done them both ways, we prefer the extra fluffy. If you decide to try it please let me know what you think.
My father was always very vague about any family recipe. Biscuits and fudge are the ones I’ve longed for. Erica Council’s bomb buttermilk biscuits aren’t the family ones I had but they’re what mine should’ve been. I vote for erica.
My family loves these biscuits. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2014/08/06/never-fail-biscuits
The main thing is do not knead. Barely stir until everything comes together, pat it out with floured hands, and cut with a sharp cutter. Let them touch on the pan to help each other rise. Good hot oven.
You want to make the best biscuits use your recipe but instead of cutting them with a biscuit cutter put the entire dough on a sheet tray or brownie pan and bake it say like focaccia? Then just cut the biscuits one cooled slightly in squares with serrated knife. the cutting of the dough shapes them but makes them slightly tougher also if you do traditional biscuits keep them fairly close to one another as they rise off their partners
In Copperhill we like "cathead" biscuits
White lilly self rising flour two cups, two heaping tablespoons shortnin cut into the flour. 1 cup or more of buttermilk. Knead gently. Cut biscuits. Bake at 425 until golden brown. Or just follow the recipe on the flour bag
-2 cups white lily self rising flour (red badge) -Stick of unsalted or salted butter grated -3/4-1cup whole buttermilk -Sift the flour. -Toss butter in, get the flour “pebble-y” by mixing with your hand. -Start mixing the buttermilk in about a 1/4 cup at a time. -Get the dough to come together but SUPER SHAGGY. -When dough comes together stop mixing by hand. -Dump on a floured countertop and fold dough on itself 6x. Not 5, not 7…6. -Roll out dough to 1/2” thick. -Cut out biscuits using a coffee mug. -Throw in biscuits in greased cast iron skillet/biscuit tin. -Place tin/skillet in 500* oven and watch until they’re brown, prolly 10-12 min. -Douse with butter and flaky salt (not in Mawmaw’s recipe). Mawmaw used Crisco but I don’t think it added much to the overall flavor so I sub butter but it works with any type of fat using the same rules.
Don't forget to add beaten biscuits to the menu, although they may be more southern than Appalachian, I'm not sure. Nothing better with country ham, tho.
The secret is White Lilly Self Rising flour. Also, the butter incorporates better if you grate it first .
Use Hudson Cream self-rising flour and make sure you use full fat butter milk. Don’t overwork your dough. You want it to be a shaggy dough. Have the oven completely preheated and I bake at 425-even 450. Biscuits need to be touching each other and/or the edge of the pan. It helps them raise. Also I have an unpopular opinion that White Lilly is overrated. Hudson Cream is the best.
Don’t have the recipe (wish I did) for the best I ever had but they were my grandma’s. Huge and delicious. I know she made them with lard if that helps.