Biscuits, baby! Yes, I said biscuits.

 

Because several people have asked me for the recipe. Because I'm too lazy too look up everyone's email addresses. And most importantly, because I have a dream to become a famous blogger- can't you tell by the fact that I have two previous posts and they both occurred in 2011?

I am going to add a post with my super easy biscuit recipe. It can be frozen ahead of time, and it tastes remarkably like a certain company's frozen biscuits that have a cute little blob of giggling dough advertising them.

Easy? Check! Freezer friendly? Check! Tastes delicious? Check!

I actually revived this recipe a couple of years ago from an old "Victory" cookbook. I got it at Goodwill for half off. It is missing its cover, probably several pages, is currently held together by some 1960's style O-rings, and has questionable "spots" sprinkled through out it. The spots may or may not be from my kitchen.

The business advertisements go something like this:

WILLIAMS HARDWARE
H. A. Webb, Mgr.
Rantoul's Most Complete Hardware
and Gift Department
Phone 24

You read that right, the phone number is 24. As some of you know, I have a bachelor's degree in history. (I know, you don't have to say anything.) However, this is one time that this valued portion of my education comes in handy. I can give a professional opinion on the age of this cookbook.... its been around a while.


On to the important part, with pictures coming soon! Here is the original recipe:


Biscuits
4 cups self rising flour
3/4 cup shortening
1 2/3 cups soured milk

Grease a large baking sheet. Place flour in a large bowl and cut in shortening until it resembles coarse crumbs. Slowly add in milk until you have a soft dough that is pulling off of the bowl. Dump out onto a lightly floured surface and gently work smooth. Pat out the dough to 3/4 inch thickness and cut into biscuit rounds. Place on the baking sheet and bake in a hot oven until golden.

I do have to give credit where credit is due, so thank you for the recipe: 

 Mrs. J. S. Barnes.

Don't click away yet! I have the modernized translation for you, along with some bonus instructions.

Modernized "Old Fashioned" Biscuits
4 cups self- rising flour
3/4 cup shortening
1 2/3 cups soured milk OR buttermilk (see notes below)

1. Preheat the oven to 450*
2. If your baking sheets aren't seasoned, grease it or use a liner.
3. Place flour in a large bowl and cut in shortening until it resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Slowly add in buttermilk, mixing as you go, until you have a soft but slightly sticky dough.
5. Dump out onto a lightly floured surface, and gently knead, adding a bit of flour if necessary, until the dough is fairly smooth.
6. Pat or roll until it is 3/4 to 1 inch thick and cut into biscuit rounds.
7. Place on a baking sheet so that they do not touch.
8. Bake for 9-12 minutes, until they are golden brown on the tops.
9. Serve as they are or brush with melted butter.


Ok, for those of you who are like me and don't keep self-rising flour in the house, here's the conversion for this recipe:
4 cups all purpose flour + 6 tsp baking powder + 2 tsp salt
Gently blend together in the bowl or sift for even consistency.

The original recipe calls for soured milk. I regularly use soured milk in recipes, and the conversion that I use for this one is not an exact science. I'll try to explain it though. I place 1 cup whole milk in a glass bowl. I then use a 2/3 cup measuring cup and then fill the 2/3 cup about 3/4's of the way full of whole milk and top it off with vinegar. Allow this to sit for about 5 minutes. I generally just measure this out first and then start on measuring out the other ingredients. By the time I finish measuring everything out, cut in the shortening, and get interrupted 777 times by the kids (that might be a slight exaggeration) the milk is soured and ready to add into the dough.

You can use skim milk, but the taste and texture is just not quite as good. Buttermilk is also very acceptable and tasty in this recipe, if its something that you keep around the house.

As you can see from the pic, I have a mixer. I LOVE my mixer!
I do NOT use my mixer to make biscuits!
I can make a triple batch by hand in not much longer than a single run. I could probably even make a bigger batch than that, except I don't own a bowl large enough to allow me to evenly work more. These biscuits are not arm muscle intensive in the least little bit.



Freezer Notes!
These biscuits freeze very well. If you want to freeze them, just skip the baking step. You can just place the cut out biscuit dough rounds on the baking sheet, pop them into the freezer for an hour or two, and then place the frozen biscuit rounds in a Ziploc bag to be baked on a busy morning.

When you are ready to bake the frozen biscuits:
1. Preheat the oven to 400*F
2. Place the required number of frozen biscuit rounds on a baking sheet.
3. Bake for 12-16 minutes.

Be sure to watch your from 12 minutes on the first couple of times you bake from frozen until you have a better idea of how long the biscuits will take at YOUR house. I have found that depending on which freezer I have stored these biscuits in (regular fridge freezer or full size deep freeze) changes the amount of time they need to thaw and bake properly.


Just something extra...
These biscuits don't grow a lot in diameter, as they mostly rise vertically. This means that you can cram quite a few biscuits onto a baking sheet without worrying about them "spreading" into each other. You can see what I mean in the pictures, although please ignore my hideously seasoned baking sheet. I meant to hide it with a sheet of parchment- oops!

The little "baby" biscuit is the leftover bit of dough when you finish cutting all of your biscuits. I always just throw it in too. Why waste it? My youngest is still of an age that she is thrilled to eat a "baby" biscuit.

I have also had a lot of success making cinnamon rolls with this dough, so if you are interested I can post the directions for that as well.

I will be adding my easy pizza dough recipe shortly. This pizza dough can be frozen ahead of time, but is so easy you may not want to even bother...