My beautiful southern Mom, an amazing home chef, made biscuits every morning.
She had it down to a fine art, and it took at most 25 minutes from the time she started until she pulled the golden brown flaky delights from the oven.
We ate them every morning and sometimes in the evening if they went with what she was serving, and we were always healthy and never overweight.
Making biscuits is a southern art that seems to have died away in this era of frozen or fast food restaurant biscuits. That's a shame because they're easy to make and better than any you'll get elsewhere.
I AM MY MOM'S BISCUIT-BAKING DAUGHTER
My daughter who discovered biscuits which she called "bikkits" when she was a toddler often asks me to make them for when she and her husband join us for breakfast.
She's said, "They're delicious, but not as good as Nanny's."
I'm okay with that because I think the same thing even though I know that's just because I miss my Mom.
Let's make my Mom's biscuits today!
I have a cast iron round griddle that I use to bake biscuits. It's similar to the one to which I linked, but mine is probably heavier because it's about 50 years old. I use it only for biscuits.
However, you can use any heavy baking pan. Just make sure it's thick enough on the bottom that the biscuits won't burn. Butter or spray Pam on the pan you intend to use.
1 cold stick of butter (That's half a cup. Mom used shortening. I use butter which is healthier than hydrogenated shortening.)
3/4 cup milk (I use whole milk as did Mom.)
2 tablespoons melted butter
Directions
1. Turn on the oven to preheat to 450° F. (232° C.) Using a box grater, grate the stick of butter into a mixing bowl. Do it quickly so the butter doesn't soften or melt and stick to the grater. Get all the bits into the bowl.
2. Sprinkle the self-rising flour over the butter. With a spoon or your very clean hands, gently mix the flour and butter until butter seems evently dispersed into the flour.
3. Add the milk and use a spoon to stir the mixture together. You want to combine it but not compress the dough too much.
Using a round cutter like the one shown or a glass dipped in flour, cut out the biscuits.
5. Place the biscuits into your baking pan so their sides are touching.6. Depending on the size of the round cutter you use, this makes 10-12 biscuits.
7. If you have any odd fragments left, use your fingers to shape them into a smaller biscuit that is the same thickness as the others and place it in the pan. This is what my Mom always called the Baby's biscuit and would be for the youngest child present in the house.
(This is from an old Mother Goose nursery rhyme of which there are variations. My Mom's version was: "Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man, bake me a cake as fast as you can. Roll it up, roll it up, throw it in the pan, and mark it with a B for baby and me." That's what I sang to my daughter when I made biscuits.)
8. With a pastry brush or a teaspoon, brush the melted butter over the biscuits or spoon it over each before baking them.
9. Bake 10 - 15 minutes depending on your oven. It takes my gas oven 12 minutes. The biscuits should be golden brown on top. Since ovens may vary, if you need to put the biscuits under the broiler to get that golden brown look, keep watch on them and make a note of the time required in your oven for the next time you make biscuits.
10. They should be crusty and golden on the bottom and the top and fluffy in between.
TAKEAWAY TRUTH
Take the biscuits out and place them in a napkin-covered basket or bowl. Serve them to acclaim. Let me know if you try these and like them.
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