Buttermilk Biscuits

Is there anything more perfect to go with any meal at any time of the day than a biscuit with a soft, fluffy interior, lightly crunchy, buttery exterior? I'm going with no. And I'm serious, they go with any meal. There's so many ways to eat them. Some people like them drenched in honey; some love jellies and jams; some use them to sop up gravy; some like them savory with cheese and herbs. My favorite is just a perfectly cooked buttery biscuit. It really doesn't get much better than that. Sometimes I'll have two for breakfast or bake one up to go with dinner... wait, I forgot to tell you that part, the best part. You can mix these up and fix an entire tray for your family, but what I'm going to show you here is how to prep them for freezing. Then you can bake however many you need whenever you need them. Depending on how thin you pat out the dough, you can get from 10-15 biscuits out of this recipe. I'm still working on hitting the right thickness to make consistently a dozen biscuits... maybe I'll get there one day. I found this recipe on Pinterest, Fluffy Southern Buttermilk Biscuits, but I figured out how to freeze them for individual use while maintaining quality.

3 c. all purpose flour
5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup frozen unsalted butter
1 - 1 1/4 cup buttermilk
4 tsp melted salted butter

If you want to bake your biscuits now, preheat oven to 450 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper. If you're going to freeze the biscuits, ensure your baking sheet will fit in your freezer, and then line it with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Use a cheese grater and grate frozen butter into the dry ingredients. Coat the butter in flour, and keep recoating the end you're grating. I also recommend flipping which end you grate every five or six swipes. The warmth of your hand will warm up and melt the butter as you're grating, so flipping it keeps you from warming up one end too much.

Use your hands to blend butter into flour. Again, tread lightly and use your fingertips. 

This won't take long with the grated butter. You should be able to grip the flour and butter mixture and get it to stick together after just a minute or two.

Slowly pour in 1 cup of cold buttermilk to your mixture while using a fork to blend it in. Add in the remaining buttermilk just until the crumbs are moistened. 

Dough should not be wet, but you may find there is still some flour mixture in the bowl. Gently knead dough in the bowl (no more than six or seven times) to incorporate what remains. Once dough is fully together, place it on a lightly floured surface and pat out to about 1-inch thickness.

Use a 2-inch cutter (fluted or plain) to cut biscuits.

Place biscuits about 2 inches apart on baking sheet in you're planning on baking them now. Place close together, but not touching, if you're planning on freezing them. My picture below is for freezing them.

Melt butter in small dish, and using a pastry brush, cover each biscuit liberally.

If baking now, bake for 13-15 minutes. When perfectly golden brown and puffed, remove from the oven and brush with additional butter.

If you're not baking them now, place in the freezer at least an hour until they are frozen and set. Then place in a bag and enjoy at your leisure.

When you're ready to bake some up, put what you want on your tray (if you want easy clean up, use parchment or aluminum foil underneath), and then starting with a cold oven, put them in and THEN turn the oven on to 400 degrees.

Bake 20-25 minutes until biscuits are golden brown and puffed. If you want to brush them with more butter, go ahead, but they're pretty darn good just as they are. Enjoy them however you prefer!

Cloud Biscuits

I almost feel like a traitor sharing this recipe. I grew up a Bisquick girl. That's what my mom used to make biscuits, and that's what my daughter has grown up eating. While looking through my recipe box a while back, I saw this recipe for cloud biscuits. I have to give credit where credit is due... this recipe came from my ninth grade home economics teacher Mrs. Caffo. I guess I liked them so much that I copied the recipe and put it in my box, and then apparently promptly forgot about it. I decided to try them out (again) last weekend when I made chicken and dumplings, and oh my gosh. They were so good! So here you go... a tribute to Mrs. Caffo's home economics class.

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup shortening
4 tsp baking powder
1 beaten egg
2/3 cup milk

In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients. Cut in the shortening until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Combine milk and beaten egg.

Add milk and egg mixture to flour mixture.

Stir until dough follows fork around the bowl. Do not over mix. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface, and knead about 20 strokes. The key to light fluffy biscuits is to handle the dough as little as possible.

Roll dough to 3/4 inch thickness, and cut out biscuits.

Place on ungreased sheet, and bake in 450 degree preheated oven for 10-14 minutes until golden brown.

Chipped Beef and Gravy with Biscuits

My daddy was a pretty good cook. He would make the turkey, beans, and stews, and he was the sole griller in the family. But when he had weeknight dinner duty, chipped beef gravy and biscuits was one of his go to items. Technically, you could probably make this for breakfast, I guess. I just have never eaten it for breakfast, so now my daughter associates this with dinner too. And to save you any trouble - if you already know how to make a white gravy, you can stop reading. Just add some shredded chipped beef to your gravy, and make some biscuits and you're done. lol But if you're a newbie, read on, and I hope you enjoy this quick 15 minute dinner as much as we do!

Butter (3-5 Tbsps)

Flour (1/4 to 1/2 cup)

Milk (2-3 cups)

Jar of dried beef

Biscuits of your choice (I'm still a Bisquick girl)

First things first. Get your biscuits ready to cook. Whether you're using canned biscuits, frozen biscuits, Bisquick biscuits, or homemade, get them prepped and on a baking sheet ready to go in. This really is pretty easy and quick, so you'll need to know when to put your biscuits in the oven and have them ready to go. 

Begin by melting several tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over med-high heat. While the butter melts, open your jar of dried beef and start shredding it.

Once the butter is melted, add enough flour to create a thick paste.

Then you'll want to add enough milk to cover the bottom of the skillet, and then whisk, whisk, whisk to make it smooth and get out any lumps. This will thicken rather quickly, because you are clearly not at the right milk ratio for the butter and flour you've used.

Keep adding milk a little at a time and whisking until your mixture is smooth. Reduce heat to med-low and simmer, stirring frequently. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add your dried beef and spread it throughout using a spoon. Serve over warm, fresh biscuits, and enjoy!

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