Saturday Morning Biscuits

Ah! The weekend, and with it comes more opportunities to cook for my family. I try at least one morning during the weekend to make breakfast.

This morning it was biscuits.

Now biscuits are a southern tradition. They are the bread of the south no doubt about it. Every restaurant you go to the main breakfast always ALWAYS comes with biscuits. I love biscuits the savory softness of the dough just makes a day perfect.

My favorite topping for a biscuit? Strawberry Rhubarb preserves , especially this Danish brand.

Biscuit ingredients are simple and putting them together is easy also. For a long time I treated the dough like I would bread dough, and lemme tell you that's wrong.

Instead treat your dough like you would with pie crust. The key is to not work your dough too much.

I mix the dry ingredients with the butter, make sure the butter is incorporated. Only after the mix looks crumbly (like that very top layer of sand down right where the tide has retreated from) do I add the milk.

I give the mixture a few quick stirs to combine it all and then I either pour it out onto my cutting board and pile it all up and press it together (no kneading! Just compression) or I pour it all into a resealable plastic bag squeeze it all down together and let it sit in the fridge for a bit. What this process does is let all the flour hydrate with the milk and what ever tiny little bit of butter has melted.

Give it all about 10 minutes to rest (clean your mixing utensils at this point) and then press it out on the cutting board to the appropriate thickness. I like thick biscuits so I go about an inch thick. Now cut it into rounds and bake.

My favorite biscuit cutter is a mushroom can that I salvaged one night. I cut both ends off (I have one of those can openers that doesn't leave an edge) and it cuts the perfect size biscuit. You know when you cut biscuits, you push straight down no twisting right? When I put the biscuits on the baking sheet I crowd them all together one right up next to each other it helps them rise up higher.

Ingredients -

• 2 cups sifted AP flour


• 1/2 stick butter (or other shortening)


• 1 tablespoon Baking Powder


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 3/4 cup milk (cream .. 2%, whatever)

Preheat oven to 450, bake for 10-12 minutes.

Oh! A little trick on the butter .. The night before, put the butter in the freezer for about 10 minutes and then coarsely grate it. Leave it in the freezer until you are ready to make biscuits.

This helps incorporate the dough much quicker and helps create layers in your biscuit.

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