Confessions of a Non-Biscuit Maker & Two Biscuit Recipes
Don’t tell, but it’s true. I am a Non-Biscuit Maker and I previously made horrible biscuits. Thanks to these two Biscuit Recipes, I am no longer ashamed of my lack of baking skills!!
My own Momma makes the best little biscuits you ever put in your mouth. Light and fluffy on the inside, with just enough brown crust on the bottom to give it texture. As a matter of fact, my Nannie, Mammaw, and Great Granny all made amazing biscuits. They each made different kinds. And mine were not like any of them! It was always my personal shame.
I’ve tried tons of recipes over the years. I’ve tried watching and learning from the biscuit baking masters in my family. All to no avail. My biscuits were always too heavy, too hard, too burnt, or too doughy. I tried to come to terms with it and just stop. I bought refrigerator biscuits and freezer biscuits and boxed mixes that you just add liquid too. They all taste fine, maybe a little bland, but mostly they lay like lead in my stomach after I eat them. YUCK!
Giving up isn’t really an option for me though and I’ve tried several biscuit recipes through the years. I especially love the 7-Up Biscuits, but they are better suited to dinner than they are to gravy or sausage and my husband says they are the worst in the world for putting jelly or apple butter on.
But I don’t always keep 7-Up on hand and I ran out of canned biscuits one day… And I really wanted some biscuits. Well, what I really wanted were my Momma’s biscuits, but she lives too far away to just run over and get some. I didn’t want to make them completely from scratch, but I decided to try using All-Purpose Baking Mix (generic store brand, thank you) and doctoring it up a bit. If you ever use the recipes on the back of the box (I’ve tried it), it’s just mixed with milk. They are a little dry and don’t have much flavor, so I added a few extra ingredients to try and give it that “homemade” something. I figured the worse that could happen is I would have to throw a few away or the kids could use them for batting practice!
I was very pleased with the way they turned out. Measuring isn’t my forte (which is why I suck as a baker), but I did for this little experiment! This first biscuit recipe only needs four ingredients and they are what I’ve we’ve always called “drop” biscuits–because I’m just lazy that way.
I’ve also become a huge fan of the two-ingredient cream biscuits, so I’ve included that recipe as well. Honestly, I make these most often because I don’t keep buttermilk on hand most of the time, but I always have cream!
Here are the recipes for both. Try them out and let me know which one you like best!!
Easy 4-Ingredient Biscuits
Ingredients:
2 and 1/4 Cups Baking Mix (I used the store brand, All-Purpose)
1 and 1/2 Tablespoons of melted butter
1/2 Cup of Milk
1/3 C Buttermilk
Heat oven to 450 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients until dough forms. (If it’s runny or totally gloppy, it’s too wet–add more baking mix. If it’s powdery, it’s too dry–add more milk. I used the measurements above and my dough was just right. Just call me Goldilocks.) The recipe on the box has directions for rolling it out, blah, blah, blah. I just dropped them by the spoonful on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.
This made about 12 biscuits, but you could make them bigger or smaller depending on your spoon and your preferences! My husband says these are also not good biscuits for jelly because he couldn’t get it to split apart the right way. Drop biscuits usually aren’t known for that. I suggested he use his fork.
Cream Biscuits
1 and 3/4 Cups Self Rising Flour
1 Cup Heavy Cream
3 Tablespoons melted butter (to brush the tops)
Heat oven to 500 degrees. Pour flour into a bowl and mix with the cream until moistened. This is going to be pretty sticky! Flour a surface and transfer the dough to it. Fold it a couple of times to form a ball. (Sprinkle a little more flour on top if you need to.) Pat or roll out to about 1/2 inch thickness. Keep in mind, if you roll it, you’ll have to add flour to your rolling pin to keep it from sticking.
Cut your biscuits with a biscuit cutter (straight down, never twist!) and put them on a cookie sheet. Gather the leftover dough, roll it again, and cut out more biscuits or do like we do and make “alligators” and “baby biscuits.” (Alligators are just long, fat pieces of rolled dough and baby biscuits are small balls of dough that get crunchy on the bottom.) Brush the tops with butter (this is optional, but why would you skip butter?) and bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
Other recipes say this yields 8-12 biscuits, but I think that’s because they regather the dough and cut out more. Since I generally make odd shapes out of the leftover dough, I usually get 5-7 biscuits out of one batch. Also, if the kids are home, I double my ingredients!! (It’s hard to get used to cooking for two after you’ve cooked for five all these years.)
Do you make biscuits at home? What are your favorite biscuit recipes??
