The Supermom Chef

As you may have read in the “About Me” section of this blog, I’m a Southern girl and come from all the way down in Central Mississippi in God’s country. Mississippi is, after all, the nation’s best kept secret. People say that the South is full of a bunch of dumb people that talk slow and can’t do much of anything other than farm. I say let them keep thinking that because that just means fewer people down here to be bothered with.

Anyway, a Southern cook’s recipe collection can never be considered complete without a good ole Southern homemade biscuit recipe. I grew up in a family that, strangely enough, never seemed to make our own homemade biscuits. I only remember eating biscuits on one occassion, and that was always when my “Mae Mae” would make her tomato gravy. My husband, though, grew up in a family that apparently made homemade biscuits quite often with homemade chocolate gravy. After his coaxing, I finally decided it was high time that I found a recipe for biscuits to call my own. I still to this day have never tried chocolate gravy, but will have to do that just to perfect the recipe and serve Matt a food that brings back so many great memories. In the meantime, though, the plain biscuits here will have to do. I hope you enjoy these as much as our family does!

Start by getting all of your ingredients together. You’ll want your cold items (buttermilk and butter) as cold as you can possibly get them without them being frozen. Be sure to get out all of the cooking utensils you’ll need as well because once this process gets started you will most likely have dirty hands and won’t want to be reaching in your kitchen drawers dirtying everything in them. I am missing my pastry cutter and biscuit cutter in this photo and didn’t realize it until my hands were already dirty.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut the butter into small cubes by slicing once down the middle, and turning it and slicing again. Then slice cross-ways into about 1/2″ slices. Place the butter into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Using a pastry cutter (or a fork), cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse meal. You DO NOT want the butter completely mixed with the dry ingredients. The little pockets of butter are one thing that makes these biscuits so buttery-delicious.

Make a small well in the center of the bowl and gradually add the buttermilk, pouring slowly and mixing with a fork as you do. Be careful not to overmix the ingredients or you will wind up with dry biscuits, and that’s definitely not good. (Just ask Matt…he has no problem telling me when things don’t taste good!) Only add enough buttermilk to make sure the ingredients are just moist, you don’t want them really wet because then your dough will be too sticky to roll out.

Place the dough onto a floured counter or pastry mat and with a heavily floured rolling pin (and hands), roll the dough out until it’s about 3/4″ thick. Using a biscuit cutter, cut your biscuits and place them on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. With the pile of dough that you have left, roll it out again and cut more biscuits until you are almost out of dough. I usually have a tiny bit left that won’t make a whole biscuit so I just throw it away. Bake at 450 degrees until the tops are light brown, about 10-12 minutes depending on your oven.

Serve immiately, while they are still really hot for the best flavor. We like to top ours here at home with either butter, homemade jelly, or syrup. Yummy!

Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups Self-Rising flour

3/4-1 cup buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick butter

1 teaspoon sugar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix together dry ingredients in a medium bowl. After cutting it into chunks, cut butter into flour using a pastry cutter or fork. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and gradually add the buttermilk, stirring with a fork to incorporate. Add only enough buttermilk to slightly moisten the dry ingredients so that your dough doesn’t get too sticky to roll it out; you probably will not need the entire cup. Roll out dough onto a floured work surface to about 3/4″ thick. Place on baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, continuing to roll out remaining dough until it’s all gone. You may have end up throwing away a small amount. Bake until the biscuit tops are light brown, usually about 10-12 minutes. Serve hot!