People are quick to buy a can or two of Pillsbury Biscuits, but no one really discusses the fact that very few people make homemade biscuits.
Since I was around 7 years old, my mother has made biscuits from scratch. While I still eat Pillsbury canned biscuits at times, my mother makes fresh biscuits at any time of day. She has baked them many times over the years, and with many circles on cookie sheets at a time, think about the dough my mother saved just by making dough.
Okay, let me stop being corny. Seriously though, my mother has made so many biscuits throughout the years for herself, family dinner, or other occasions. She has said that biscuit making is a lost art. So today’s article will be on the art of making homemade biscuits! And after seeing photos of the process and the finished product, you’re going to think twice about buying canned biscuits so much.
When it comes to the dough, my mother uses all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, shortening (Crisco brand is best), and buttermilk. That’s really all there is to it! My mother says that using buttermilk makes the biscuits really soft with a good taste. However, she uses the buttermilk when thick for the best effect. A side note is that for making cheese biscuits, she puts the chopped cheese with flour and shortening. From there, those ingredients are mixed together BEFORE the buttermilk is added.
After that comes the giant rolling pin. Okay, not giant, but regular sized rolling pin. Obviously the dough was rolled out, but then comes the circular dough cutter. After cutting out circles the first go-round, my mother continued rolling out the dough until she produced all the circles she could get. If there’s any remaining dough left, she makes it into whatever shape you want. My mother makes what she calls a “hot dog biscuit” with the remaining dough. Although, I prefer to call it a stick biscuit. Though this time, sugar biscuit balls were made with some of the dough. I helped with that, and all I had to do was coat them in brown sugar before placing them in a pan.
After all the cutting and shaping, they went into the oven. You know some good work gets performed in there.
After around 15 minutes of baking, they came fresh out the oven! Look at the photos of those biscuits! Look at them! Whew girl, they look like they are truly homemade.
After the cooling stage, it was time to dig in! I ate a plain biscuit, while my mother used blueberry preserves that she calls “Smurfberry jam.” Of course the biscuits can be eaten plain, with honey, preserves, marmalade, butter, jam— the list goes on.
As for the sugary biscuit balls, there had to be glaze on top of them. Don’t worry. It was very simple to make. In general, all it takes is confectioners’ sugar (aka powdered sugar) and milk. The glaze on top of the sugary biscuit balls made them a standout. Oh my lord, the sweetness was so satisfying!
Let me close by saying this: Rome was not built in a day, so homemade biscuits aren’t made in a day either. It takes practice to create really good biscuits, and even after that, it takes consistency to preserve the goodness of them. My mother has baked biscuits for years, so she knows what the process takes. Although, she’ll poke fun at me for eating a Cracker Barrel biscuit instead of her homemade biscuits. Then again, I hardly eat the remaining Cracker Barrel biscuits I carry home.
And my mother made biscuits today! I’m eating a biscuit as I create this article. Coincidence? Maybe. But the texture is really good and I love the fluffyness of it. The addition of buttermilk makes all the difference.
External Note: My mother stated that the biscuit recipe truly doesn’t matter, because nearly all of them are the same. One of her notes is to use good quality shortening like Crisco, because the brand of shortening you use will make a difference in the outcome. Another one is that a buttermilk biscuit recipe will come out really good, so be sure to use one that involves buttermilk. She’s made biscuits so much that she doesn’t even look at a recipe anymore. However, here’s a recipe that my mother has used to help get you started: https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/angel-biscuits/153e3d3e-9fb0-4593-bba8-12111dbaf6b8
