My love for biscuits has been well and truly established.  And though I will never turn away from a classic Southern buttermilk biscuit, piping hot, slathered with butter, I do occasionally like to veer off the path a bit – but not too far! But with summer blueberry bounty in full swing, I decided to combine my love of biscuits and blueberries for a trip away from the standard muffin.

Blueberry Biscuits

I like a nice big biscuit, but feel free to cut them into smaller squares, just adjust the cooking time accordingly and watch carefully.

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup sugar

1/3 cup cold shortening

¾ cup buttermilk, well-shaken

1 egg

½ cup fresh blueberries

3 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Grease a baking sheet.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.  Cut the shortening into pieces and drop in the mixer. Mix until the flour and shortening are blended together and look grainy.

Measure out the buttermilk and crack in the egg.  Beat lightly to blend.  With mixer running, add the buttermilk to the dry ingredients and mix until the dough comes together.  It will be a soft, floppy dough.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board and sprinkle a little flour over the top.  With well-floured hands, knead in the blueberries, doing your best to distribute them throughout the dough.  If the dough is too wet to work with, you can work in a little more flour, but this is meant to be a sticky dough.  With floured hands, gently pat the dough into a rectangle about 4 by 8 inches.  Flour a knife or bench scraper and cut the dough into eight squares.  Carefully transfer the biscuits to the greased baking sheet. 

Bake the biscuits until risen and golden on the edges, 8 – 12 minutes, watching closely.

While the biscuits are cooking, melt the butter in a small saucepan or the microwave.  Stir in the sugar and nutmeg until you have a thick paste.  The sugar will not dissolve completely.

When the biscuits are done, remove from the oven and immediately brush the tops with the butter and sugar mixture.  Coat the biscuits well, but you may not use all the topping.  Leave to cool on the pan.

Because of the sweet buttery, sugary topping, these biscuits do not keep well, so it’s best to make them the day you plan to serve.

Makes 8 biscuits

I have waxed poetic about my love for fresh blackberries before, with my Tennessee Blackberry Jam Cake, and at this time of year, when the big juicy berries are all over the farmers markets, I can hardly resist.  I find that I buy way more than I can consume on their own, sprinkled with a little sugar.  Luckily, they are amazing in baked goods like these tender muffins.  A generous grating of orange zest and a good dose of orange juice are a perfect foil for the sweet-tart berries, subtle but not overpowering.

Turbinado sugar is a large-grained raw light brown sugar that is perfect for spinkling over baked goods, as it gives a sweet, crackly finish.  You can find turbinado sugar in bulk at many stores, so buy just enough to keep on hand for baking.  You can use plain white granulated sugar here, but it won’t give the same crunchy, rich top.

Blackberry Orange Muffins

Paper liners are best with these muffins, as some berries will stick to the side of the pan.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Grated rind of one orange

1 egg

½ cup butter, melted and cooled

½ cup fresh orange juice (from 1 – 2 navel oranges)

2 cups fresh blackberries

Turbinado or granulated sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, nutmeg and orange rind together with a fork to combine and aerate.  In another bowl, lightly beat the egg, then add the melted butter and orange juice.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients and gently fold until just mixed.  For a light muffin, don’t over mix.  A few streaks of dry ingredients is okay at this point.  Gently fold in the blackberries.

Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups.  Sprinkle the tops of each muffin generously with a nice topping of turbinado sugar.  Bake the muffins for 15- 20 minutes, until puffed and golden and a tested inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it.  Cool the muffins in the pan for 3 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool.

 Makes 12 muffins

I remember a delicious quick bread popular when I was kid, sweet and cinnamony with nice pockets of gooey strawberry.  I think I even remember making it myself at some point.  So I went looking for recipes, and they all contained frozen berries in syrup – some even used cake mix or pudding mix.  But I thought surely I could do better than that.  Fresh, in-season, local strawberries are one of life’s great pleasures, so why muck them up with chemicals and additives and fake gunk.

So here is my new result – sweet, fresh, spiced bread perfect for breakfast, or tea, or even dessert. 

Fresh Strawberry Bread

10 ounces stemmed and sliced fresh strawberries

1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 eggs

½ cup vegetable oil

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Sliced the strawberries and place in a bowl.  Sprinkle over the 3 Tablespoons of sugar and toss to thoroughly coat the berries.  Leave to macerate for several hours, until there is plenty of juice at the bottom of the bowl. Drain the berries, reserving the juice.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 3 inch loaf pan.

Mix the flour, remaining 1 cup sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.  Add the eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla and mix until just combined.  Fold in the drained strawberry slices, distributing evenly.  Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a tester inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

Remove the loaf from the oven and poke holes all over the top with a skewer or thin knife.  Drizzle about ¼ cup of reserved strawberry juice over the top of the bread, allowing it to soak in.  Loosen the cake from the sides of the pan with a thin knife and leave to cool in the pan.

Makes 1 loaf

I believe that my mother’s favorite dish may well be stuffed eggs.  That’s what we always call them, not deviled eggs, because deviled somehow implies spicy and my mother does not do spicy. Stuffed eggs have always been an essential part of a family gathering, particularly Sunday after-church lunch at my grandparents’, with tomato sandwiches and fried chicken. We never had a real stuffed egg plate that I am aware of, but it is considered by most a Southern essential, and features on many a wedding gift registry.  I bought my own recently; it’s very modernist, but it’s the only one I’ve ever seen that holds 24 stuffed eggs, and if you are going to make stuffed eggs, use the whole dozen box!

But in my family, the real key to stuffed eggs is paprika.  Stuffed eggs without a generous sprinkling of paprika would have been considered inedible.  Stuffed eggs without paprika look nekkid.  Sweet paprika I should specify.  This tradition originated in the days before the variety of paprika now on the market was available; no pimenton, no smoked paprika, no ten degrees of Hungarian hot or sweet.  Just Paprika, in the McCormick jar with the green screw-top.  The folks at McCormick once wisely put out a series of ads in magazines charting the history of their spice packaging so you could figure out how old your spice collection was, and throw out those over two-decade old bottles.  That paprika jar at my grandmother’s house didn’t even make the chart.

I never thought paprika had any flavor until I went to Hungary and got a little punch-drunk ordering paprikas.  Now my pantry is stocked with imported Hungarian sweet and hot, smoked Spanish in a variety of depths, and they all figure regularly in my cooking.  But there is also still a simple jar of just plain Paprika in case some relative should stop by to inspect my full family credentials.  And of course, to sprinkle over stuffed eggs.

Stuffed Eggs Béarnaise

Classic stuffed eggs are usual made with jarred pickle relish, but I can’t stand the stuff, so I came up with the flavored with the tastes of classic Béarnaise sauce, and I have to say this is now the family standard.

1 dozen eggs*

2 -3 Tablespoons vermouth or white wine

1 small shallot

4- 5 sprigs fresh tarragon

3 sprigs parsley

2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard

1/2 cup mayonnaise

salt and pepper to taste

paprika

parsley

Place the eggs in one layer in a large saucepan.  Cover with water by about 2 inches.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat and boil for 7 minutes.  Remove from the heat and leave to cool until you can comfortably reach into the water and take them out.

Peel the eggs and rinse away any extra shell bits.  Pat dry.  Cut the eggs in half and gently scoop the yolks into a bowl.  Place the white halves on a platter (if not serving immediately, line the platter with paper towel).

Break the yolks up with a fork and sprinkle with the vermouth.  The yolks should absorb the vermouth with no liquid left in the bowl.

Chop the shallot very finely.  Chop the tarragon and parsley.  Toss into the bowl with the yolks and mash with a fork.  Add the mustard and continue to mash. Add the mayonnaise by spoonfuls, mashing after each addition until you have a thick but smooth filling.  You may use more or less mayonnaise than called for.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Spoon the yolk mixture into the white halves, pressing gently to fill.  Sprinkle with paprika.

These are best made shortly before serving.  You can boil the eggs as much as a day before, and several hours ahead separate the eggs and make the filling.   Store both in the fridge, the whites covered in paper towels to prevent condensation. Stuff just before serving.

*If you store the eggs in the carton on its side until you boil them, the yolks will come out perfectly centered every time. And eggs that are a bit older peel easier, so buy the eggs days before you want to stuff them.

Makes 24 stuffed eggs

Breakfast for Dinner.  Who doesn’t love the thought?  I particularly like a good breakfast for dinner, because I am NOT a morning person, and generally way too lazy to cook a good, hearty, classic breakfast first thing.  I have developed a repertoire of night-before recipes for when the need to cook a morning breakfast arises, but morning is not my best time in the kitchen. So early morning waffles, pancakes, hollandaise sauce for eggs benedict are out. In the morning.  But for dinner, it’s a whole different matter.  You could spend all day working on breakfast. Use every tool in the kitchen.  Pull out waffle irons and griddles. I have several friends who make “breakfast for dinner night” a big occasion for their kids, and they all love it.

So I propose these fluffy, pillow-y corn cakes for your next breakfast for dinner experience.  Of course, you are more than welcome to make these for breakfast in the morning.  In fact, the batter will keep overnight if you whisk it well before frying.  And these would make a real treat for a Sunday brunch.  Add the salty bacon and a drizzle of sweet syrup, and I don’t care what time of day it is, these will make you happy.

Fluffy Corn Cakes with Bacon and Maple Syrup

Crispy bacon and maple are syrup are my favorite way to serve these, but they are also good with butter melting over the top, or with a dollop of sour cream.

2 large eggs

1½ cups buttermilk

Salt and pepper

1 (16-ounce) can cream-style corn

3/4 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen

1 ½ cups self-rising flour

2 Tablespoons yellow corn meal

Canola oil for frying

1 pound thick-sliced bacon, cooked

Maple syrup

Lay out a baking sheet covered in two layers of paper towels and set close to the stove.

In a large skillet, preferably non-stick, heat ¼ inch of canola oil.

While the oil is heating, combine the eggs, buttermilk, salt and pepper and corn and mix together well. Mix together the flour and cornmeal and add to the wet ingredients until thoroughly incorporated.

Test that the oil is hot enough – drop in a little batt, and if it sizzles wildly, you are ready to go.  Drop ¼ cup of batter at a time into the hot oil.  I use a measuring scoop and slowly pour into the oil, swirling into a nice round shape.  Fry 2- 3 minutes per side until golden brown and crispy.  Depending on the size of the skillet, you can do about three at a time.  Remove the cooked cakes to the paper lined baking sheet to drain.

Serve immediately with crispy bacon and maple syrup.

Makes about 18 corn cakes

Most of my time is spent thinking about food.  Or eating it.  Or cooking it.  And since I have been blogging about food, I follow a lot of other food lovers. On Facebook and Twitter and other sites.  I learn all about food trends and food foibles.  And right now, bacon is hot.  In my opinion, bacon has always been hot – but it keeps showing up on all sorts of in-the-know food sites.  In cupcakes, in chocolate, in ice cream.  Everywhere.  And I am a believer that there is no such thing as too much bacon.  So I thought I would pull out and oldie but a goodie and add my voice to the bacon gospels currently being preached.

This is really more of a guide than a recipe – I worked out some measurements, but I think we all know you want more than a dozen pieces of bacon. Certainly great for breakfast, but this sweet, tangy bacon also takes a BLT to a new level.  Or go with my favorite way to serve – broken into pieces and served with cocktails.

Mustard and Brown Sugar Glazed Bacon

12 slices thick cut bacon

¼ cup Dijon mustard

½ cup light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with several layers of foil for easy clean-up.  Place a wire rack on the sheet and spray lightly with cooking spray.

Separate the bacon slices and pat them dry with a paper towel.  Sprinkle the brown sugar onto a wide, flat plate or dish. Using a palate knife, spread a thin layer of mustard on one side of each bacon strip. Press the mustard covered side into the brown sugar.  Shake off any excess, or sweep it off with your fingers.  You want a nice coating of sugar, but no big clumps.  Lay each strip on the wire rack.  Close together is fine, but not overlapping.  You can sprinkle a little extra sugar on any bald spots.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and cook for 20 – 30 minutes until the bacon is crispy and shiny and glazed.  A quick word of warning: some of the sugary glaze will melt off onto the baking sheet and burn, so don’t be worried if you smell burning.  Also, that burned glaze will smoke, so turn on the extractor fan and/or open a door or window when you open the oven to check on the bacon. This is all just part of the very worthwhile process.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 12 slices of bacon

Ready to go in the oven

It’s easy to forget the pleasures of something as simple as a good quiche.  Just a basic pie, full of goodness, and easy to prepare, but delicious and decadent all the same.  Cary Grant as John Robie in To Catch a Thief serves it at his French villa, perhaps thoroughly proving that real men do eat quiche.  Hey, if it’s good enough for Cary Grant, it’s good enough for me.  I recently put this classic back into rotation, after my niece and I made quiche in preparation for the family trip to France, as part of our “traditional French dinner” which also included vichysoisse and salad with vinaigrette.  We told my younger nephew that it was cheese pie and he ate it up, getting very excited when he discovered there was bacon in it.

Obviously, you can very your fillings to taste.  Blue cheese and bacon, roasted vegetables, mushrooms and herbs – get creative!

Quiche Lorraine

I use a purchase rolled pastry crust for this, but feel free to make your own.

1 (9-inch) pasrty crust

9 strips of center cut bacon

4 green onions (scallions)

6 eggs

1 cup of heavy cream

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground pepper

1 ¾ cups grated Swiss cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Fit the pastry crust into a 9 – inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom.  Dock the crust with the tines of a fork, line it with parchment paper, fill it with beans or baking weights and blind bake for 12 minutes, until beginning to brown.  Remove from the oven and discard the paper and weights.  Set the crust aside.

Meanwhile, cut the bacon strips into small pieces and cook in a skillet over medium-high heat until crispy.  Stir the bacon pieces during cooking to make sure they are separated and cook evenly.  Remove the bacon to paper towels to drain cool a little.  While the bacon is cooking, finely chop the white and some of the light green parts of the green onions.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and the cream until thoroughly blended.  Whisk in the nutmeg and the salt, then stir in the bacon, green onions, and 1 ½ cups grated cheese.  Pour this filling into the prepared crust, spreading out the ingredients so they are evenly distributed.  Sprinkle over the remaining ¼ cup cheese and carefully transfer the quiche to the oven and bake until golden brown and puffed in the center, about 25 – 30 minutes.  The quiche should not jiggle in center.

The quiche is best eaten slightly warm, not just hot out of the oven, but can also be eaten at room temperature or even cold.

Serves 8

Every time I buy rhubarb at the grocery, at any store, the cashier has to ask me what it is and then struggles to find it on the produce code chart.  Is it a vegetable or a fruit (technically a vegetable, by the way)? Once a cashier suggested I memorize the code to make it easier on everyone.  Inevitably, this leads to the question “What do you do with it?”  And on the occasions I have prepared a dish with rhubarb for people, I generally get a somewhat skeptical look.

I love rhubarb, but it is a relatively new introduction into my life.  I have friends who grew up eating their grandmother’s strawberry and rhubarb pie, but it never much figured in my life.  I first remember tasting rhubarb in England, in a fool.  A fool is basically simple dessert of whipped cream and fruit and rhubarb seems to be a favorite British incarnation.  It was many years later that I even noticed that rhubarb was available in the grocery store here, though I imagine it was there all the time.  I don’t know much about rhubarb’s natural growing climate, but I have never seen it at a farmer’s market or produce stand here in Memphis.  I do think it must be growing in popularity though, because I now find a regular supply of lovely, red stalks at groceries here, both winter forced and spring-fresh.

So over the years, I have expanded my rhubarb repertoire – though I still have a long way to go.  I frequently buy it, chop into chunks, sprinkle it with sugar, bake it until it’s soft and mash it into a stringy puree.  I keep this in the fridge and stir into yogurt drizzled with honey for a breakfast treat.  I also make a lovely Rhubarb and Vanilla Jam.  If asked nicely, I might even share that recipe with you.  But my favorite incarnation so far is this classic crumb cake with tangy pieces of pink rhubarb studding the sweet, cinnamon-y cake.  It’s great for breakfast, with a good English cup of tea or as dessert.  So please, give rhubarb a chance.

Rhubarb Crumb Cake

For the Crumb Topping:

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ cup cold butter

 For the cake:

12 ounces fresh rhubarb (to produce 4 cups chopped)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup butter, softened

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a 10-inch round cake pan.

Cut off the dried ends of the rhubarb and cut the stalks into chunks about a ½ inch thick.  If the rhubarb is fat, cut them in half lengthwise first.  A quick note: rhubarb will turn what it touches pink, so use a washable cutting board and wash your hands immediately.  Wear gloves if you have just had a manicure so you don’t ruin your polish.

For the crumb topping: In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Transfer to another bowl and set aside.  Wipe out the mixer bowl.

For the cake: Combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder in a small bowl.  In the bowl of the mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla.   Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk and mix until combined.  Stir in the chopped rhubarb.  Spread the batter in the prepared pan.

Sprinkle the reserved crumb over the cake batter and spread out to an even layer.  It may look like an awful lot of topping, but that’s what makes this so good.  Bake the cake for 40 – 45 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the middle come out clean.  Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Serves 8 – 10

So, now you have, I am sure, studied the primer for making good Buttermilk Biscuits.  And you’d like to know all the many ways you can serve your beautiful creations. Here are two of my favorites.  I once had some friends by for a biscuit bar, serving baskets full of homemade biscuits, homemade preserves, tomato gravy, sausage gravy and lots of good butter.  I even made chocolate gravy, but I am saving that for another time.

Tomato Gravy for Biscuits

½ pound bacon

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 (14 ½ ounce) can finely diced tomatoes

3 cups tomato juice

Ground black pepper

Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry in a large skillet until crispy.  Remove the bacon to a paper-towel lined plate, then drain off all put 2 Tablespoons of bacon grease.  Fry the onion in the drippings until soft, then add the canned tomatoes and the tomato juice, scraping up any browned bacon bits from the bottom of the pan.   Season with some good grinds of black pepper.

Bring the gravy to a boil over medium high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer until the gravy thickens and reduces, about 15 – 20 minutes.  Stir in the reserved bacon. You can save some of the bacon pieces to sprinkle over the gravy if you like.  Spoon over hot, split biscuits.

Sausage Gravy for Biscuits

I like my gravy really peppery, so I go to town with the grinder.  Depending on the sausage, you may need very little or no salt.

½ pound breakfast sausage

¼ cup flour

2 ½ cups milk

Salt and ground black pepper

Crumble the sausage into a large skillet and cook until no longer pink in the middle and nice and browned.  Break the sausage into small chunks as you cook it.  Remove the sausage to a paper towel lined plate with a slotted spoon, leaving the dripping behind.  There should be about 2 Tablespoons of dripping left in the pan.  If not, add a little oil to make that amount and heat up. Sprinkle over the flour and cook, stirring and scraping, for about 2 minutes until the flour is lightly browned.  Slowly whisk in the milk, continuing to scrape the bottom of the pan.  Cook, whisking frequently, until the gravy is thick.  Stir the sausage back in and heat through, seasoning with salt and black pepper to taste. Serve over hot, split biscuits.

Heaven is a Biscuit

I love biscuits.  Love them.  I could eat a whole batch at one sitting, even without butter or jam or gravy.  I say I could, because believe it or not I do possess the restraint not to.

And I should probably clarify, I love good buttermilk biscuits.  Sure, I have been known to eat a fast food sausage biscuit or a chain restaurant puck covered with gravy.  If a menu has a biscuit on it, I find it hard to resist.  But my true passion is for good, down home, fresh made buttermilk biscuits.  Some people have grandmothers who make these, or live near a mom-and-pop country restaurant that produce hundreds of from-scratch, by-hand biscuits.  Someone forwarded a newspaper article to me recently about the wide variety of frozen biscuits available that are good enough that many Southern cooks have given up biscuit making altogether.  And I’ll admit, they are not all bad.

Here’s the thing though.   I make biscuits.  And I love doing it.  I think it may be because I have an image of myself as some one who can do things.  The truth is – not so much.  I can’t make fluffy white bread, or my own puff pastry, or good old-fashioned dinner rolls.  But I can make biscuits.  I like being someone who can do something that most people don’t bother with anymore.

Learning to make a good biscuit takes practice, and trial and error. Even the most experienced biscuit cook has a batch that just doesn’t work.  Maybe the weather was wrong, or the flour just wasn’t in the mood, or the cook didn’t have the right love to put into that batch.  So today I made a big batch of biscuits and carefully made notes about every step.  The recipe below may look long, but don’t be intimidated. I have tried to put in as much detail as I can to get the dough rolling.

So here are some starting tips:  I do truly recommend using soft Southern wheat flour, like White Lily (my choice) or Martha White.  I am sure you can order it online if you can’t track it down.  I use White Lily as my flour always, so I don’t have two types of all-purpose flour in the pantry. If you use regular all-purpose, you’ll still get biscuits, but if they don’t taste exactly right, that’s why.  I used to be a little afraid of shortening and made biscuits with all butter, but now I know that the shortening is really a must.  I use a combination because the boost in flavor the butter adds.  Both must be cold – right out of the fridge before you use it.  Same with the buttermilk.  I prefer cold whole buttermilk, but low-fat works as well.   Make sure you shake the bottle very well before measuring.

Buttermilk Biscuits

4 cups flour (all-purpose White Lily)

2 Tablespoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

¼ cup cold vegetable shortening

¼ cup cold unsalted butter

1 to 1 ½ cups cold well-shaken buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Line a baking pan (about 13” by 9” with 1-inch sides) with parchment paper or grease it well with shortening.

Measure out the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl that gives you lots of room to work.  Mix gently with a fork to combine and aerate the flour.

Cut the shortening and the butter into small cubes.  I cut the butter from the stick three times down the length, turn it over once, cut it three times down the length again, then across the short way.  I buy Crisco shortening in sticks as well and do the same. 

Separate the shortening and butter into cubes and sprinkle over the top of the flour mixture.  Use the fork to toss the cubes lightly in the flour to coat.  Then dip your clean fingers into some flour and mix everything together, squishing and rubbing the mixture together to combine the fats and the flour.  Don’t spend too long doing this, gentle handling is the key to a tender biscuit.  It’s okay if there are some lumps of butter or shortening left.  Many recipes describe the result of this process as looking like breadcrumbs or fine meal, and that’s okay.  I think it looks like lumpy flour.  When you pinch a bit of flour between your fingers, from anywhere in the bowl, it should stick together.

Measure out the shaken buttermilk, then pour about ¾ cup of it over the mixture.  Use the fork to fold the buttermilk into the dough, carefully incorporating the liquid.  Keep adding the buttermilk a bit at a time until you have a cohesive dough.  You may not need all the buttermilk.  Again, you don’t want to work the dough too much, but don’t leave much loose, dry flour in the bottom of the bowl.  You can use your hands to get that last bit of dry flour into the dough.

Lightly flour a work surface.  I find the counter top to be best; a board tends to slip around.  You do want to use a light hand to flour the surface, because too much will leave an unpleasant floury coating on the biscuits.  Sprinkling flour through a wire sieve is a great way to do this.

Turn the dough out onto the surface, and turn it over on itself once or twice to bring the dough together.  I do not say knead, because you don’t want to work the dough that hard.  Press the dough into a rectangle about ½ inch thick.  Just press it out lightly with your hands to an even thickness.  This method makes the top of the biscuits slightly textured, which looks very homemade, but if it bothers you, roll a lightly floured rolling pin lightly over the top.

Cut the biscuits with a round cutter or a thin rimmed glass, always cutting as close to the edge of the dough and as close together as possible to get as many biscuits as possible.  I get a good dozen in the first batch using a 2 ½ inch cutter from this recipe.  Just press the cutter down and pull back up; don’t twist or the sides won’t rise up as nice.

Place the biscuits very close together on the prepared pan, just touching each other. This helps them rise while cooking.

Now the big debate: to re-roll or not re-roll.  There will be some leftover dough.  Some people say that this dough is not worth using again, but I disagree.  Gently press the remaining dough together and press out into a ½ inch thickness and cut – you’ll get maybe three more.  Place them on the pan with the rest of the biscuits.  The first-roll dozen are the company biscuits, the last ones just for you, so remember which are which.  Any leftover scraps can be cooked separately, or rolled in cinnamon-sugar and baked off, or frankly just eaten raw.

Bake the biscuits in the hot oven for 8 – 9 minutes, rotating the pan about 6 minutes through.  Watch the biscuits carefully so they do not over-brown. These may not get too brown on top, but will be nice and soft inside.  If you want a brown top, turn the broiler on a few minutes, watching all the time with the door open until lightly golden. Take the biscuits out of the oven, then brush the tops with melted butter (about 2 Tablespoons should do it). 

Leave the biscuits to cool slightly and then eat ‘em up.  They will keep a day or so tightly wrapped, but are better toasted when not eaten fresh.

Makes 12 – 15 biscuits

Serve your fresh, hot biscuits with Tomato Gravy or Sausage Gravy.