Thank a Veteran and Bake a Biscuit

They honored the Vets at church today, we still have 3 WWII Vets attending service every single Sunday.  I made sure I thanked each and every one on this Veterans Day.

That being said - since we are busy coordinating things in CA for my family that lost everything in the Paradise fire, writing will be short - specifically a recipe.

For those of you poor folks who eat your biscuits out of a CAN, this is what a real homemade biscuit looks like (this was just half of one).  I lived in the South for almost 10 years, so one thing I got a lot of practice with was making biscuits so I've included some tips.

The picture above is just the "stunt biscuit".  This is the whole thing.

Brigid's Biscuits (y'all better  not make any jokes about that, my Dad reads my blog).

2 c. self-rising flour (use White Lily brand, it makes a tremendous difference in the height of the biscuit as it's a soft winter wheat, low protein - if you live up North and your store doesn't carry it, you can buy on Amazon which is what I have to do because one thing you never hear anyone say in Chicagoland is "I hear this city makes a mean biscuit!". If you don't want to buy from Amazon use pastry or cake flour but DO NOT use all purpose flour.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup lard (don't even think of using Crisco)
2/3 cup cream to which you've added 2 Tablespoons lemon juice or use 2/3 cup buttermilk.  You may need an additional Tablespoon or two as it comes together.

Step by Step Instructions:


Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.  (I've also cooked at 475 F.which works fine, the biscuits are just a little paler).

Let liquid sit while this happens, you want the liquid and butter to be warmer than icebox temperature. Cut the butter into the self-rising flour with a fork until it is in small flakes or balls. Don't mix the butter in completely if you want a really flaky biscuit. 

Stir in the liquid, stirring JUST til it pulls away from the side of the bowl. If it hasn't pulled together as a soft dough, add another Tablespoon or two of liquid and very gently mix with a fork.  If it's too wet add a Tablespoon or so of flour.

Turn out onto a floured cutting board and, with hands dusted with flour, knead very gently 3-4 times. No more than that. 

Gently pat out about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick and cut using a 2-inch biscuit cutter or drinking glass, dipped in flour. Cut straight down, do NOT twist the biscuit cutter and put them top down on your baking sheet.  This will ensure that you don’t seal the edges any more than necessary and that the most sealed edge–the side you cut from–will be at the bottom so they will rise as much as possible. Put them closely together on an ungreased cookie sheet, even touching if you like. Biscuits don’t spread, and they feed off of one another’s heat so I put mine very close together, even touching sometimes for the highest rise.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, checking at 8 minutes as they are usually done then. 1/2 inch thick dough will give you about a dozen biscuits. I make mine a little thicker and get about 8 biscuits. This easily cuts in half for two people