sprinklefingers

wow. it’s all biscuits all the time around here right now, isn’t it?

because i’m unsure of when my biscuit obsession is going to wane, you should probably join in and make these for yourself. the beauty of these biscuits is that they taste just fine but - more importantly - you can whip them up in 5 minutes with 3 ingredients that you most likely already have on hand. they make the perfect quick accompaniment to a dinner salad or soup and work perfectly as breakfast (don’t forget the butter and jam!)

no, they’re not the most delicious biscuits you’ll ever taste, but they’ll work just fine in a pinch.

in a rush biscuits
from southern biscuits - with a few of my changes to the method
yields 12 2 1/2” biscuits

you need:

• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1/2 cup half & half
• 1/2 cup whole milk plain yogurt

make the biscuits:

preheat the oven to 400. have some good quality butter and jam on hand for serving.

1. put the flour in a large, shallow bowl. make a well in the center and pour in the half & half and the yogurt. using either a fork or a good spatula, turn your hand in big circles to combine the wet ingredients with the dry. stir until the dough comes together in a shaggy mass. if your dough is too wet, sprinkle in a bit more self-rising flour. too dry? sprinkle in some extra half & half.
2. flour a board or your counter and dump the dough onto it. sprinkle your hands and the top of the dough with flour, then fold the dough in half and pat it out into a 1/2” thick round. sprinkle more flour on the dough if it’s sticky. repeat the fold and pat and inspect the dough: still clumpy? then fold it in half a third time and pat it out into a circle again.
3. if you like thicker biscuits your final pat should result in a dough that’s 1/2” to 3/4” thick. dip a 2 1/2” biscuit cutter in flour and cut out the biscuits WITHOUT TWISTING THE CUTTER. place the cut biscuits either in a buttered 8-9” cake pan (crowding them so that they butt-up against each other) OR place them on a sheet tray. the biscuits baked in the cake pan will have softer edges than those baked on the tray.
4. bake for 10 or so minutes or until golden. brush with soft butter upon exit from the oven.

of course, these aren’t going to be your typical southern biscuits baked with loads of butter, lard and buttermilk. but they certainly do fill a biscuit void in a pinch!

i’ll be back tomorrow to discuss flour storage. i know you can hardly wait.

i’ll admit it. prior to steeping myself in the world of southern biscuits, i was completely against self-rising flour.

even after reading the southern biscuits chapter devoted to self-rising flour i didn’t believe i had any use for the stuff. even after remembering that my sister’s husband (a real, actual southern man) always uses self-rising flour when he makes biscuits, i didn’t believe it. and then i made a batch of biscuits using my own homemade self-rising flour…and i started to believe it. THEN went out and bought a small bag of commercial self-rising flour and made biscuits with it.

ladies & gentleman: sold!

from this point forward a bag of self-rising flour will have a home in my freezer. not for general baking, but simply for biscuit-making. a great biscuit definitely deserves floury real estate in the freezer. honest.

now, if you’re not sure about all this self-rising business, i’m going to share with you now a recipe for homemade self-rising flour. you can whip it up in anticipation for tomorrow’s post where we discuss the simplest homemade biscuits, ever. the self-rising flour (especially if you have it on hand) makes the biscuits come together with three ingredients and ONE STEP…so, not only does the stuff make great biscuits but it also cuts down prep time? amazing!

make this flour. store it in your freezer. make biscuits in a flash.

self-rising flour
from southern biscuits
(in the book the ingredients are listed by volume, but i converted the volume measurements to weights and then increased the batch sizes. you’re welcome.)
yields approximately 8 cups

you need:

• 17 oz AP flour
• 16 oz cake flour
• 1 1/2 oz baking powder
• 1 1/2 oz kosher salt

make the flour:

1. sift all four ingredients together.
2. repeat the sifting.
3. repeat the sifting.

now you have self-rising flour! store it in your pantry if you’ll use it right away. if you’re simply keeping it on hand for quick biscuit making, store it in the freezer.

note: always give your flour a good stir with a whisk before using in recipes.

oh, lord have mercy, i’m so tired. and i have only me to blame.

i’m not exactly sure if this is freakish or very handy, but, i can wake myself up at the same time each day without the use of an alarm clock.

it’s true.

i’m 99.9% positive i inherited this ‘gift’ from my father. that guy NEVER set an alarm clock. back when i was a teen (who had not a care in the world) i thought his internal alarm was so completely annoying…because the damn thing went off at like 5 am and once dad was up, everyone was up. grrr.

and now that internal alarm has planted itself firmly in my head…waking me up at (almost exactly) 5:15 am every day. (while the early-to-rise time is annoying, i do appreciate that there’s no need for an alarm clock on my bedside table. not being one for clutter, it really fits in with my design aesthetic. see! there is a bright side - even when getting up early is involved!)

and in taking this internal alarm thing a little bit further, i also have an internal snooze button. if i wake up at 5:15 and i’m not quite ready to get out of bed, i simply say to myself, “wake back up in 10 minutes.” i fall back asleep and then, no fooling, i magically wake back up 10 minutes later. i’m pretty sure if i was in a pageant, i would use this internal alarm business as my talent. because, seriously, who can deny the power of an internal alarm?

but the problem is, no matter what time i go to bed at night, my internal alarm still wakes me up at 5:15. so, this morning, i’m a little bit tired because i didn’t go to bed last night until after 10. i tried to go to bed earlier, but i got a txt message at 10 questioning bon appetite magazine’s (ridiculous) decision to put GP on the june cover…that kept me up for a bit. and then, at 1:40 am, the kid called me into his room because he had a bad dream. all of that and i still was up at 5:15.

still, rising early allows me time to do lots of stuff before the rest of the house is up for the day. and lately i’ve been spending time working on recipes for southern biscuits. see, my dad (the originator of the internal alarm) came from a long line of north carolinians and biscuits were pretty much always on his mind - especially if they were swimming in a pool of sausage gravy. it seems only fitting that i use my inheritance of the internal alarm as a way to perfect something he loved so dearly.

to guide me in my quest for southern biscuit perfection is a book called, amazingly enough, southern biscuits. this book is a crazy-useful tool - filled with recipe after recipe for biscuits. my next few posts will include some tips and hints i’ve learned from southern biscuits plus a recipe or two…one that’s so easy it only requires three ingredients!

now i’m off to drink a gallon of coffee. followed by a pot of black tea.