This week’s Works for Me Wednesday was a Backwards Edition where the bloggers post questions rather than tips.  Bringing Good Home asked how to make homemade biscuits.  I decided to copy the comments I made on her blog to my own blog as a recipe. 

My Nanny taught me to make fried chicken and biscuits. YUM!!  When I was a freshman in college I decided to spend a weekend at her house with her and my granddaddy.  The goal of the weekend was to learn how to make her biscuits and fried chicken.  I am so glad I sought this knowledge out before she died. I am the only grandchild who can make the biscuits now.  I am glad at least one of us knows how.

The ingredients are similar to the back of the White Lily bag.  White Lily Flour is a must!!

Rough Estimates of Ingredients:
2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup buttermilk
pinch of baking soda

Directions: 

• Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
• Probably reading the back of the bag and doing what it says is better than me trying to explain what I do, but I will try anyway.
• Sift the flour into a wooden dough bowl.  If you do not have a dough bowl, a large stainless steel or glass bowl will work as well.
• Make a well in the flour.
• Add the shortening and the buttermilk.
• With your hands, gently begin mixing the shortening and buttermilk together and slowly incorporate the flour.
• The dough will be ready to roll when it is still slightly sticky but really not very tacky at all. You may not use all of the flour. When you go to roll it out, if it is too sticky, you can go back and incorporate a little more flour. If you have too much flour, (obviously, you cannot take the flour out of the mixture) the biscuits will be too hard.
• Roll the dough onto a lightly floured surface.
• I usually roll the dough to about 1/3 – 1/2 inch thichness, fold it over several times and then roll it again a second (and sometimes a third time). This seems to help create “layers” in the dough.
• Cut the dough with a biscuit cutter.
• Place the biscuits on a greased baking sheet (or I use an ungreased baking stone from Pampered Chef).
• Bake for 8 – 10 minutes.

Notes: 

• If the biscuits are too yellow-ish, you used too much baking soda.
• If they are too hard, you used too much flour or not enough buttermilk and shortening.
• It takes time to get the hang of it and practice makes perfect.
• Oh, and this recipe freezes very well. I usually make several batches at one time. I bake enough for one meal and then freeze the rest to have later. Flash freeze the cut biscuits and then move them to a freezer bag once they are frozen.

If you try it, let me know how it turns out. I will try to answer any questions you have.

Good luck!

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