You Are Making Your Biscuits Wrong!

Follow the recipe on the side of a Bakewell Cream can and you'll get perfect biscuits every time.
If Bakewell Cream is unavailable in your neck of the woods:
http://www.newenglandcupboard.com/
 
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lleechef

The only time I make biscuits is after I've made chicken fried steak......that's because I have left-over buttermilk.  They are quite easy to make from scratch and are very light and lovely.  You must not overwork the dough.  I would love to taste the famous biscuits at the Loveless Cafe.

The Loveless Cafe has received mixed reviews lately on Roadfood. The original owners sold the place and as often happens when ownership changes, things change.

If I renamed mine hockey pucks, I make them perfectly.

You can also buy Bakewell Cream from King Arthur
 
Am I the only one who makes baking mix from scratch? 

My mom makes the best biscuits-lard, buttermilk, Lily White four.  My dad liked his biscuits a little crisp so my mom would place the biscuit pan with about 1T of lard  in the oven while it was preheating.  After cutting out the biscuits Mom would turn them over once in the hot pan to coat them on both sides with melted lard.  The best.

Here is my grandma's recipe, tweaked to make it even better...made this today...lightest, fluffiest biscuits ever!
 
2 cups all purpose flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 heaping TBSP pancake mix
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup milk (I used nonfat because that's what I drink)
1/3 cup buttermilk
 
sift dry ingredients into bowl, add wet ingredients, and mix with fork til combined.  Knead very lightly 10 times.   Pat into square and divide into 8 equal portions.   Place in very well oiled metal pan, making sure that top and bottom of each biscuit are greased with pan oil.   Bake at 450 degrees F for 14 minutes.
 

I get a six-grain flour from the Amish bulk store.  I've been experimenting with adding that to my biscuit recipe so that they have great flavor but also rise.  I've also found that a butter/shortening mix works best. 
 
My biscuits are getting better each time and eventually I'll have something worth sharing.  But until then, I'm eating a lot of mistakes. 

I make biscuits a lot, since I learned how to many years ago in Jr. High Home Ec class.  Mine tend to be a bit heavy and crumbly (that White Lily flour is kinda hard to find for us Yankees) but they are still good, and very easy to make.  Buttermilk really works better than regular milk,  it gives them tenderness and a bit of a tang.  I'm about to make sweet potato biscuits for the first time, for Thanksgiving tomorrow.  I bought a church cookbook from someone at work and he keeps bugging me to make something from it, so I will give them a try.  I've had them before with ham and red-eye gravy and liked them a lot.  Will report on how they turn out.

Sweet potato biscuits are a hit!  Made 'em early this morning because they needed a higher oven temp. than the rest of the meal, and will heat them up at dinnertime.  But I sneaked one for breakfast, and they were great!  Easy to make, too.  They will now be a part of my biscuit repetoire.

Extra Light Angel Biscuits

This makes a tender, cake like, non-flaky, delicious biscuit that has a slight yeast flavor. These are really a cross between biscuits and dinner rolls. These are the lightest biscuits that I have ever tasted. They almost fall apart when buttered.

The secret of this recipe is to create a substitute for Southern soft-wheat flour (which is similar to cake flour). This is done by combining all-purpose flour with cornstarch. Most Southern biscuits use Southern soft-wheat flour, which is usually not available in the rest of the U.S.

If you can imagine a cross between baking powder biscuits and Parker House rolls, that's an Angel Biscuit.

Ingredients
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (or 1/2 packet)
4 Tablespoons lukewarm water (105ºF to 115ºF )
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup corn starch
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I used butter flavor Crisco)
1 cup plain yogurt (or buttermilk) - I make homemade yogurt, so that's what I use
Nonstick cooking spray
2 Tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:
Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water in a small bowl or cup. Set aside until the yeast looks foamy, about 10-minutes. Reserve until needed.

Sift together, in a large bowl, flour, corn starch, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking soda. Mix well.
Using your fingertips, cut in the shortening until the mixture pieces are about the size of peas.
Stir the yogurt into the dissolved, foamy yeast. Mix well.
Stir combined liquids into the flour mixture using a fork. Stir just until moistened.

Knead the dough lightly to finish mixing, about six turns. Use a little additional flour or water to make dough workable, if necessary. Don't over mix.
Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/2-inch in thickness.

Cut out biscuits with a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter. Gather up dough scraps, roll out, and cut into additional biscuits. Or just cut out square biscuits.

Lightly coat a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
Arrange the cut biscuits, with their sides touching, on the prepared baking sheet. Pack them together tightly, this causes them to rise higher. Cover with a damp paper towel.

Let the biscuits rise in a warm place until they have doubled in bulk, at least 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 425º F.

Remove damp paper towel and bake the biscuits until they are lightly browned, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Brush the tops with the melted butter and serve hot.

I wouldn't know a proper biscuit if it bit me. So agreed...I am doing something wrong.

Good biscuits don't bite. Good biscuits are bitten.   Come down south sometime, and I'll show you.

I learned to fry a pie. I am due for a biscuit lesson.

Biscuits equaled cookies in my house.

Get Poverty Pete to take you to the Loveless Cafe outside Nashville. I'm sure he can find it. They have pretty good biscuits. Of course, you can make some fine biscuits yourself using Bisquick and following a recipe right on the box. Sure it's cheating, but they're good.

The difference is the protein the flour contains and this affects the final product.
Southern biscuits contain soft Southern wheat - see White Lily, below:
 
It's the variety of wheat grown and used in the South that makes their tender biscuits.
In the North or West, you either have to get Southern flour (White Lily, etc) or doctor the 
flour you have to make it lighter. Either use cake flour for biscuits or add 2 Tbsp of cornstarch
per cup to regular flour to make a substitute for Southern flour. This makes a real difference.

Here’s a list of some flours and their protein contents, from the book Cookwise by Shirley O. Corriher:
 
Cake flours (Swans Down, Softasilk): 
7.5 to 8.5% protein
 
Bleached southern all-purpose (White Lily, Martha White, Gladiola, Red Band):
7.5 to 9.5% protein
 
National brand self-rising (Gold Medal, Pillsbury): 
9 to 10% protein
 
National brand bleached all-purpose (Gold Medal, Pillsbury): 
10 to 12% protein
 
Northern all-purpose (Robin Hood, Hecker’s): 
11 to 12% protein
 
Northern unbleached all-purpose (King Arthur): 
11.7% protein
 
Bread Flour: 
11.5 to 12.5% protein
 

So, Antelope, are you saying flour with less protein makes better biscuits?  Would that be because of a lower gluten content?  That make sense.

Yes, that's the difference, lower protein and gluten for tender biscuits.

The other key, then, is to not overmix the batter. The more you mix, the more gluten you create.

Right, use the right flour and don't overmix. It's okay to mix away when adding the shortening, but once you add the milk or other liquid, just stir enough and lightly knead to make the dough stick together. A wet dough with a little dry flour added to the outside so you can handle it is also better.

Biscuits + bacon - coffee - pecans - with some orange!

That sounds like a wonderful Breakfast in Nashville.

Make some bacon gravy (same recipe as sausage gravy) and serve over biscuits with crumbled bacon on top! 

I LOVE SOS with cream gravy. Never had it over a biscuit. Just rye or white toast. I need to learn biscuits!

While I love a good buttermilk biscuit, these cream biscuits from James Beard are light and delicious and very easy to make. 
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Cream Biscuits
Recipe courtesy of James Beard
Ingredients

• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3/4 to 1 cup heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions
Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a bowl. Add heavy cream to make a light dough. Pat or roll 1/2 inch thick. Cut into rounds with a floured cutter 1 to 2 inches in diameter. Dip in melted butter. Place on baking sheet. Bake in a preheated at 450 degree oven 12 to 15 minutes, or until light and brown.
 

Two-Ingredient Southern Cream Biscuits 

from Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart 

2 cups White Lily Self-Rising Flour (or other Self-Rising Flour that uses soft Southern wheat) 
1 cup whipping cream 

Mix until just moistened, don't over mix. 

Turn onto counter and pat into a 1/2 inch high rectangle. Fold dough in half, on top of itself and pat again into a 1/2 inch high rectangle. 

Cut out with 2 1/4 inch biscuit cutter. Stack scraps and press into another 1/2 inch high rectangle. Cut out until dough is gone. 

Bake for about 12-minutes at a 475° oven: bake for 6 minutes, rotate the pan, then check back after an additional 4 minutes or so to check if they're golden brown on top. Brush with melted butter and serve warm.

After you put all the ingredients together, lightly mix till a soft dough forms.  Then pour it out to knead.  I knead about 4 times, thats it, really, on a surface.  Then pat it out and cut it with a biscuit cutter.  I think its the kneading.  You can see how JoyofBaking.com makes her biscuits to see how to do it right.  She does it right.