Buttermilk Biscuits

Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits

Ahh biscuits!  These are my favorite!  You can do so many things with a biscuit, and they are so easy.  I do not ever, ever, ever buy refrigerated canned biscuits.  I think they are gross, especially when you compare them with the real thing.

So, I had an epiphany several weeks ago when my sister told me she made her biscuits sweet, for breakfast.  I make biscuits for lots of things, adding ingredients to complement the meal, but for some strange reason that had never occurred to me!

Of course I had to try it out.  I added 1 Tbsp of white sugar to my regular recipe, and a generous 1/4 cup of dried cranberries.  De-LISH-ous! (Yes, I know how to actually spell that word.)  My mother-in-law, whom I adore btw, said they were like Scones.  She's Scottish, like actually from Scotland, so she knows a good scone.  I also think the way she says scone -Skon- is fun.

It was great for breakfast with a side of eggs and bacon.  I think the white sugar added to the consistency of a scone, whereas honey would have kept the dough a little tighter, and more biscuity.  Food for thought, and another batch.

So after that very long intro, meet biscuits:

Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits (Makes about 8 biscuits): adapted from Pinch My Salt


1 1/4 c. cake flour
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/4 c. butter, cut into small chunks
3/4 c. buttermilk or milk (I usually don't have buttermilk, and hubby prefers the taste with just milk.)

Favorite Add Ins (stir in before adding liquid):
Sugar or Honey
1/4 c. dried fruit
1/4 c. cheese, especially parmesan or cheddar
1 T. herbs

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  This is important because it takes a long time for an oven to get to 500 degrees.  Open a window and turn on a fan too, because your house will warm right up!

Prepare ingredients: cut butter into small chunks, place in bowl in fridge.  Measure out buttermilk and set aside (or back in the fridge.)

Flour your workspace, and keep extra flour on the side for your hands and dough cutters.

Mix the dough: whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until very well blended.

Add butter, and cut into flour using pastry cutter (my preferred method) or fingertips, until mixture resembles course crumbs.

Make a well in the center of your mixture.  Pour in the milk and stir *lightly* until dough comes together in a ball.

This is my "ball" of dough.  Don't over mix.

Knead and Cut:

Dump the dough mixture onto floured work surface.  With floured hands lightly knead 5-10 times (just pull up a corner or side of the dough, tuck in into the middle, and pull up another, etc. Turning until the dough is tight.)

Pat into a circle (or gently use your rolling pin) 3/4 - 1 inch thick.

Super flattering hand pose

Dip cutter into flour.  Cut biscuits *without* twisting the cutter.

Form the scraps into a biscuit shape instead of re-kneading to cut another.

Bet you can't tell which two unfortunate pastries were hand formed.

Place biscuits onto baking sheet, or into pie pan (or in my case, a preheated cast iron skillet), with the sides touching as much as possible.  Brush the tops with melted butter if desired.

Bake in the middle of preheated oven for 8-10 minutes.  Brush again with melted butter if desired.  Remove to cooling rack for a few minutes.

Enjoy!

My modifications usually include doubling the recipe, then baking in a large (I think it's 12")preheated cast iron skillet.  I heat the skillet while the oven preheats, and add 1/4 cup of butter to the pan letting that melt while I knead and cut the dough.  I have also added buttermilk powder with the dry ingredients, and water instead of milk for the wet (according to the directions on the powder can.)  Then remove the skillet from the oven, place shaped dough into the skillet, starting from the center to make sure they all touch.  With so much dough, the temperature needs to be adjusted.  For the doubled recipe I bake at 400 for 13 minutes, and then 5 more minutes at 375.  The tops should not brown much, but the bottoms will be golden.

I also just saw a tutorial where they dip the cut biscuits in melted butter just before baking.  Seems like a healthy alternative to my plain ol' baking method, so I might give that a shot next time :-)

It really is easy, and only takes a few more minutes than opening those pre-canned ones and putting them in the oven.  Let me know if you try it!  Ten minutes of actual prep, twenty minutes if you're letting the dough relax before rolling out.

For a meal:
Use 1 pound ground sausage, like Jimmy Dean.  Brown It.

Grab your favorite country gravy mix, like Southeastern Mills or McCormick.  Follow directions on the bag.  Add a teaspoon or two of dried Rosemary.  (I occasionally make it from scratch, but really, this is just as good.)

Hire help.

Mix in the cooked sausage.

Pour gravy over warm biscuits.  I like to pull my biscuits apart and pour the gravy over the top of two halves.

Biscuits and Gravy

It helps to have such an excited onlooker!

Do you have a favorite adaptation or add-in for biscuits?  Did you try this?

Sweet White Bread

I love this bread!  It reminds me of something an old-fashioned grandma might make.  Sweet, warm, soft and perfect with jam and butter.  It is my husband's favorite choice for bread, and my kids prefer it to whole wheat.  It's like a treat for us.

I found the original recipe several years ago, and since then I've made it my own.

Sweet White Bread


2 c. warm water (really warm!)
2/3 cup white sugar or honey
5 Tbsp. yeast
1 1/2 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. vegetable oil (olive oil works great)
6 cups all purpose flour

Dissolve sugar or honey in water.

Add yeast, give it a quick stir with a whisk to get all the yeast wet.  Let that sit for 5-7 minutes until the yeast is foamy.

Add salt and vegetable oil.  Stir just enough to mix.

Gradually add flour.  I start with three cups.  Mix that with a spatula, and then add my dough hook and stir on low speed adding one more cup at a time.

Knead dough about 5-7 minutes, or until it is smooth, elastic and cleans the sides of the bowl.

Remove dough hook, and gently form dough into a ball.  Add 1 tsp. oil to the bowl and roll the dough ball in it to very lightly coat it all around.

Allow dough to rise, covered with plastic wrap or a warm kitchen towel until doubled in size.

Once the dough is risen, remove it onto a floured surface.  Cut the dough in half for two loaves (I did one full sized loaf and two half sized loaves baked in an 8x8 cassarole dish.)  It is important to cut the dough rather than to tear it.  Tearing it can make the finished dough tough.

Shape your loaves by gently kneading into a tube shape, or rolling flat and then rolling it up like you would a jelly roll.  Place seam side down into a greased bread pan.  (I always use parchment paper to prevent the middle from sticking.)

Let the dough rise again until doubled.  Covering once more with plastic wrap or a cloth.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.  Let the top get to a medium brown, and tap on the top crust to make sure it sounds hollow before taking it out.

I sometimes like to spread honey butter over the top as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Immediately remove from pans to a cooling rack.  Let sit at least five minutes before serving, as it's best to let some of the moisture evaporate before cutting. 

Enjoy!

I am determined to get good at yeast bread

As a result of that determination, I have been making a lot of bread.  See...

Potato Buns

Cinnamon Rolls

Sweet White Bread

French Bread

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

Biscuit Dough

I have learned a lot.  First of all, I really like the taste of home made bread.  Secondly, when I am good about thinking ahead, I'd rather bake the bread than buy it.  And thirdly, bread making is an art form!

I recommend reading about the process of sponging.  That article is pretty in depth.  There are plenty more.  Sponging the dough basically allows the process of fermentation to occur before the bread rises.  It adds a distinct and stronger flavor than just letting the bread rise by itself.  It also leaves you with only the need to rise the finished dough one time.  If you've ever had Amish Friendship bread, this helps make sense of the process a little bit.  A long time to ferment changes the taste.  Think in terms of beer.  A better fermentation, a better brew (or so I've heard, though nobody has been kind enough to spike my drink yet, so I may never actually know.)

This process is good for breads like sourdough, and French bread.  It is also helpful in a bread that takes a long time to rise because of a stiffer grain, like whole wheat flour.

My favorite new bread recipes:
French Bread (she has another of the same recipe, without sponging.  Do the sponged one!)
Honey Whole Wheat Bread (again with the sponging)
Perfect Cinnamon Rolls
Potato Buns
Sweet White Bread
Biscuits

I made the buns, following the recommendation to leave overnight.  This was the most time consuming of the recipes I tried.  Totally worth it!  They came out perfect both in looks (aren't they pretty?) and texture and taste.  I made some into hot dog buns, some into sandwich rolls, and some into dinner rolls.  They kept for four days and were really good every time.  I don't know how much longer they would have kept, because we ate them all!

I'll follow with a post on the Sweet White Bread and the Biscuits.  I can give pictures and step by step instructions.  These are both recipes that I've altered and tweaked so much over the years, I couldn't tell you where they came from or what the original looked like.  For me, they turn out perfect just about every time.

Do you like to bake bread?
Are you good at it?
What is your favorite yeast bread recipe?
Have you heard of sponging or tried it before?
Wanna see any of these in a step by step pictorial?


Go to Allrecipes.com, dealstomeals.blogspot.com, and pioneerwoman.com to find most of my favorite recipes.  

Tortillas

Who knew it was so easy to make your own tortillas?  My friend Hilary told me the other day that she was making her own, and I thought "Wow, Hilary's got a lot of time on her hands."  And then I gave my children cereal for dinner.

After I read on her blog how easy it was, I followed the link to the recipe she used.  On a side note, I ended up signing up for the food storage and shopping service that blog provides.

The tortillas took a little more time than I thought, I used the second recipe called Texas Flour Tortillas.  Yummy!  Really it took like an hour, but that might have been because I was multi-tasking and just let them rest a long time while I prepared the rest of dinner.

We loved them, they were great for tacos.  It makes a good flatbread.  I might use them for other flatbread stuff too.  Today I plan to try the first recipe which is supposed to make a thinner tortilla.  Try it!

Pillsbury Cinnamon Monkey Bread

The original recipe is here.

I changed it by leaving out the Hubby hated walnuts, and using Pillsbury cinnamon rolls instead of Grand's biscuits.  Instead of adding the cinnamon sugar coating in a bag, we stirred it in a large bowl.  I think that was easier. Then when it was done, we used the icing that came with the cinnamon rolls over the top.

I also added 1/4 cup of raisins.  We don't believe in adding nuts to baked goods around here, but for those of you who would do something so ridiculous, an additional 1/4 of chopped nuts would probably be nice too.

It was devilishly delicious!

Try it.  It's so easy and totally worth it.  Plus your house will smell good all day.

You could prepare it in the evening and then pop it in the oven in the morning for  quick breakfast treat before church or something.

White Bean and Cheese Soup - Almost Just like Mom's

The house smelled good, and I really liked the soup.  It was just the comfort food I needed after a completely sleepless night with a very cranky-unless-I-held-him baby.

Hubby, not so much.  He promised he wasn't trying to choke it down, but then he almost actually choked it down.  Subtlety and nonchalance are maybe not his strongest points.  He's adorable though, and knew how my day had been, so really he couldn't have given me another response.

Recipe:
1 bag navy beans (my bag said Great Northern Beans)
3 small to medium potatoes, shredded or diced
about 1/3 Velveeta log (not sure how else to say that so it doesn't sound gross.)
1 Tbsp. onion powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 cup diced ham

Soak beans in crock pot overnight, following package directions.  In the morning add seasonings and potatoes, then turn crock pot to high.  About an hour or two before eating, add cheese and ham.  Mine cooked for six hours and it was just right.  The beans were cooked after 4 hours.

Cornbread accompanied.  I made it with my fancy shmancy new food processor, to which I will dedicate a whole post when I have time.  First batch, not good.  Kinda brick-like.  Second batch much better.  What I learned from the first:
1 Tbsp. and 1 tsp. are two completely different measurements and make a difference when using baking powder.
Don't overmix cornbread batter.  Just get it all moist and stop messing with it.

Reicpe on the back of the cornmeal box.  I'll use another next time and probably also add honey.

Almost a Brisket

I wanted to do Brisket.  Then I asked my supermarket butcher if he had some.  He pulled out something weird from the 'back' and said it was $5 a pound.  I said never mind and bought another cheap roast like last week.  I had been planning to entertain some friends, but still that would have been about $15 just for meat.  We'll save that for Christmas or something.

So, basically same as last week.

1 3ish lb. roast
1Tbsp. montreal steak seasoning
1 bottle bbq sauce

Slow cooker (oven) on low.  Rub meat with seasoning.  Pour on BBQ sauce.  Used shallow roaster.  Covered with foil.  Put it in at 9am, pulled it out at 5pm.  Tender, and juicy.  I literally couldn't taste it.  I have a cold.  I could have eaten the venison liver I saw in the store fridge (which, by the way, is disgusting!) and not known the difference.

Hubby said he liked it.  I slow roasted potatoes with it in a separate dish all day.  Can't tell you what they tasted like, but they were definitely done cooking :-)  Next time I think I'll roast them the traditional way so they are more crispy on the outside.  I like a crispy potato.

I did also make rolls.  I need to make rolls for Thanksgiving dinner, but I don't love working in my mother-in-law's kitchen.  No one has ever said anything to make me feel that way, I just always feel like I'm in the way and making lots of noise while everyone else tries to watch tv.  So I made enough for 4 dozen.  I ended up with 5 dozen.  I froze 4 dozen pre-shaped rolls and baked the other dozen for dinner.  They were gone by the end of the meal.  Lil' Chef's love 'em.

Kim's Dinner Rolls: (From my friend Kim, who always has the best recipes.)

Bake at 400 for 9 min.

Makes 4-6 dozen

1 stick (1/2 c.) butter or margarine

½ c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 c. milk

2 Tbsp. yeast

2 eggs

7 c. flour

½ c. water

Place butter, sugar and salt in mixing bowl.  Warm or scald milk, pour into mixing bowl to melt or soften butter.  Let cool for yeast.  Add yeast and proof 10 minutes.  Add eggs.  Mix using paddle or whisk attachment.  Add 6 cups flour.  Mix using bread hook.  Add ½ cup water and remaining 1 cup of flour.  Knead 1 to 2 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.  Let rise until double.  Shape by rolling dough and cutting, or by pinching desired amount and rolling into a ball.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 9 minutes.

To freeze: shape rolls and layer over parchment paper.  One layer of rolls, one layer plastic wrap, then another layer of rolls in between, etc.  That way they can freeze all at once, and not stick together.  After they're frozen put them in a zip top bag all together. They'll keep for a couple of months.  To use, let thaw 2-4 hours depending on the temp. of the room they are in.  Keep covered with greased plastic wrap while rising.  Bake as usual.