Nana's Biscuits

Nana’s Biscuits

Image, but not recipe, from acozykitchen.com.

These biscuits are simple and they just can’t be beat. It's a very traditional, basic Southern biscuit. Of course, I’m biased as, to me, this recipe pretty much defines what a biscuit is supposed to be. Less is more—that is, the less you work the dough, the better the biscuits.

Using more buttermilk makes a soft, sticky, difficult dough and will result in soft, delicate biscuits, but they are apt to fall apart. Drier dough will result in firmer biscuits that are a little easier to make sandwiches with, but they can be too dry and taste floury.

I’ve had some success with baking them half-way and freezing them for later use. Freezing the raw dough definitely doesn’t work.

Recipe courtesy: Merle “Nana” Hancock

Ingredients

• 1 c (~60 g) self-rising flour (plus extra)

• ~½ c (~120 g) buttermilk (plus extra)

• ¼ c (48 g) Crisco (or lard)

Preparation

Check out this amazing guide to volume/mass measurement conversion from King Arthur Baking..

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Measure and sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Measure out the Crisco and scoop the lump into the flour. Cut the Crisco into the flour with a fork until the peices of shortening are about the size of butterbeans and are distributed evenly in the flour. Add most of the buttermilk and fold into the flour. If the dough is dry and crumbly, add a little more buttermilk 1 tsp at a time. If it’s really sticky, add a little more flour 1 tsp at a time.

Flour your hands, work surface, and biscuit cutter. Turn the dough onto the work surface and knead it once or twice--just enough so that it comes together. Roll or press the dough out until it’s about ½ inch thick. Cut out the biscuits and place them on a baking pan lined with parchment.

Bake the biscuits at 425 °F until lightly browned: about 10 minutes.