This post has been a long time coming. A real long time. As in years.
I know that I’ve admitted before that there are two things that are my biggest failings in the kitchen. One is pie crust. Can’t make one to save my life. It was a really big day for me when they came out with those nice ones in the dairy section at the grocery store. But pie crust isn’t such a big deal, really. Lots of people have trouble with pastry dough. I could get over that one. The other one, however, was my biggest shame. Biscuits.
Who ever heard of a Southern cook who couldn’t make a biscuit? It was just unbelievable. And it’s not like I haven’t tried. Over the years I’ve wasted enough flour trying to make a decent biscuit that you could have baked a dozen of the royal wedding cakes with it. Honestly. I tried every biscuit recipe I could find following each one to the “t.” I sifted my flour just so. Had the buttermilk at room temperature. Cut in the shortening till it was the perfect consistency. Nothing worked. They were a complete disaster every time. The tops cracked. They burned on the bottom. They were dry and they fell apart. And it frustrated me to no end.
The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that I was trying to make the wrong kind of biscuit. What I was longing for was the biscuits I grew up with. And they were nothing like the tall, flaky, light biscuits everyone raves about. Not at all. The biscuits that I grew up eating and which were produced by nearly every cook in my little corner of south Georgia were not light. They weren’t flaky and they surely weren’t tall. They were moist! They had an almost chewy texture and they never, ever fell apart. You could slice them open, put a piece of ham or sausage in them and close them back up like a sandwich. Those biscuits had substance!
After all these years I’ve finally realized what made those childhood biscuits different. The difference was oil. Believe it or not – oil. My childhood biscuits were not made with solid shortening at all. Our south Georgia cooks made up their biscuit dough using soft winter wheat flour, buttermilk and vegetable oil. There was no cutting in involved at all. They just dumped the ingredients into a bowl, mixed it up a little, formed the biscuits and popped them in the oven. And guess what else – I have made baking sheets full of perfect south Georgia biscuits! I cannot explain to you how relieved I am that I can now make a biscuit. Whew. I thought for a while there that I was gonna have to give up my Southern cook credentials.
If you’d like to try my version of buttermilk biscuits, one of the things I’d recommend is to try finding some White Lily flour. It’s a Southern flour made from soft red winter wheat and it makes a tremendous difference in your baked products. If it’s not available where you live, any self-rising flour will work. Your biscuits just won’t be quite as tender :-)
Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl (or not – most flours don’t really need sifting these days). Make a well in the center of the flour and add the buttermilk followed by the oil and the salt.
Mix the ingredients together just until all the flour is moistened. Try to avoid over mixing. You’ll have a fairly rough, shaggy dough. That’s okay – it’s supposed to look like that.
Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface and gently knead it just 4 or 5 turns. That’s all you want to do – just enough to bring the dough together.
Now, for these biscuits instead of using a cutter, you’re going to roll them like you would a yeast roll. Just pinch off a portion a little larger than a golf ball and roll in between your palms a few times. Be gentle. Then flatten it into a disk.
Place the biscuits on a greased baking sheet with the sides touching. That will help them rise a little more.
Place the baking sheet in the upper third of the oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes. Check a couple of minutes before the end of the cooking time and if the tops are not quite brown enough, turn on the broiler briefly to finish browning.
While the biscuits are cooking, melt a little butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Remove the biscuits from the oven and brush immediately with melted butter.
If you really want to experience a south Georgia treat, split one of these biscuits open while it’s still good and warm. Add a pat or two of butter and drizzle it with a little cane syrup. Oh, yeah.
And there you go – the biscuits I remember from childhood. I was afraid I’d never figure out how to make them. I feel all grown up and everything :-)
Enjoy!
The buttermilk biscuits I remember from childhood - moist and substantial. Ingredients Instructions
http://www.lanascooking.com/2011/05/13/another-buttermilk-biscuit/
Other biscuit recipes you might enjoy from around the internet:
- Ezra Pound Cake’s Hot, Crusty Buttermilk Biscuits
- Touch of Grace Biscuits from White Lily web site
- King Arthur Flour’s Angel Biscuits
- Sweet Potato Biscuits from The Kitchn
- For the Love of Cooking’s Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
This is one of those recipes I never thought about posting, I almost thought it was wrong somehow, although i do make them pretty often. Nothings better is it?
I thought about you Angie when I was writing up this post. Knowing that you’re from that same general area I thought you might have had these kind of biscuits. Guess I was right!
these look fabulous!
Thanks, Claudia.
I do wish you had confessed this earlier. I feel so much better. Reading all of your cooking escapades made me feel so inadequate about my lack of cooking in the past few years. However, to vindicate all of my prior feelings of inferiority as it relates to Southern cuisine and the maintenance of the best of those traditions, I am proud to say that I have mastered biscuits. And, I use shortening. And whole fat buttermilk, not some skimpy low fat stuff. And I cook them in a cast iron skillet.
So there.
Miss P
Yes, I should have confessed this failing sooner. Glad I could help :-) And I don’t like any skimpy low-fat stuff, either. In my biscuits or otherwise.
Aren’t they just wonderful – so easy to make and so fluffy and yummy! I also made some last month :-). I love how you are shaping yours :-)
It took me years to get this right, but I finally have it down pat!
I swear Lana, you and me have so much in common, I can’t make a decent crust nor biscuit either… now maybe I can, have not tried one with oil, always tried it the way my grandmother’s cook did, flour, buttermilk, shortening all coming together so effortless with her using only one hand… me, nothing but two hands and a big sticky mess… thanks for the recipe…
Yep, I can remember my grandmother making this same dough using just her hand to coax all the ingredients together. I haven’t gotten quite that good yet, but thank goodness I’ve finally gotten a decent biscuit out of my oven! On to pie crusts next :-)
I like White Lily Flour but it is not stocked in my area. However whenever we travel south, I try to load up on it. I particularly like the White Lily Unbleached flour!
I love White Lily. You can even feel the difference just touching it. So soft and light. BTW Michelle, I think you can have it shipped if you get desperate for some :-)
I’ve never heard of a recipe like this. I really like the light, fluffy, tall biscuits that most people post about, but something with more substance sounds great too! I can’t wait to try this.
This one will be quite different, Lynn. In thinking about it, I suppose this biscuit is more or less a cross between a biscuit and a yeast roll – no yeast though. So good with that tangy buttermilk in it.
Bravo!!!! Your Daddy would be so proud of you. I remember that Gama made these and when she rolled them out , she made an imprint of her knuckles on the top. Her signature.
Oh, yeah. I had forgotten about that. Hers had three little “tracks” across the top from her knuckle prints :-)
I have to agree with you about the wonders of White Lily flour. I actually posted a side by side biscuit comparison with White Lily and other brands and the White Lily difference was dramatic!
Hi Kathy. I looked up your comparison – very interesting! White Lily is just fantastic flour.
The real secret behind great southern biscuits is – lard. Yep, that artery clogging stuff that became taboo several years back. It didn’t cause too much damage to previous generations because they did so much hard manual labor. But if you want the real deal, now you know the secret.
Yes, I know. I’ve tried them with lard many, many times. Never worked out for me.
Lovely looking biscuits Lana!
I use oil for biscuits off and on if I’m in a rush. I like that I can dump, mix, and bake, with little fuss when using oil. I oftentimes add grated cheddar also. Makes them a bit denser but they still disappear in no time.
One thing you might want to try on your next biscuit experiment, is to use lard in place of the butter or shortening or oil. Believe me, you’ll find you have the fluffiest and flakiest biscuits ever. If you can find leaf lard, all the better, its the creme de la creme of lard!
Lard was always the baking fat in my Grandmothers home, and my Mothers home whilst I was growing up, and its been the main baking fat in my own home for well on 50 plus years.
I bet if you research far enough back in your Southern Georgia roots, you’ll find old family recipes for biscuits & sweet pastries made with lard. : )
I have to giggle at how some people who are not familiar with lard in baking, instantly say, ewwww, lard? Yuk! No way! at the mere mention of trying it. Yet those same people don’t think twice about frying hash browns etc in bacon fat, or using a man made chemical fat called shortening for baking!
Oh and ps. No White Lily flour to be found where I live, but I do buy Brodies Self Raising Cake and Pastry flour all the time. Its a wonderful flour for baking, and I suspect would be much like your White lily flour.
A recipe from my baking folder you might find interesting.
From not quite June Cleaver.
Love her idea of buttermilk AND heavy cream!
http://notquitejunecleaver.wordpress.com/2008/01/06/recipe-of-the-day-best-biscuits-so-far/
Oops! Post before mine and your reply was missed. Just ignore my post on trying your biscuits with lard!
Nothing like the perfect biscuit! Love your recipe, Lana.
Your biscuits look light and fluffy. I am planning to make biscuits today and I think, I should change to your recipe.
Practice makes perfect, I say :) These look lovely!! I love making biscuits and scones! :)
That’s so interesting. I never would have thought to add oil in a biscuit. They look really good and I love that you said they have more substance to them.
These look great. I use butter in my biscuits and they turn out fine, but I get what you mean. Sometimes there is just something that should be so easy but is not — for me it’s gravy. I just cannot make good gravy and have watched my mama and granny make it many times. I am just lacking the gravy gene!
Love this one! True comfort food to me
These are the same kinds of biscuits I grew up with as well, although I often us softened butter in mine instead of oil as I like the flavor butter adds. Nothing like a good biscuit with an egg in the morning. I’ll have to give your version a go soon!
PS – adding an egg and a dash of vinegar to your pie crust makes a world of difference (my grandma taught me how).
I have been looking everywhere for a recipe for the type of biscuits I ate growing up – we always called them spoon biscuits because you don’t cut them, you just spoon them out on the pan! I’m so glad I came across your site – I have a batch in the oven right now! I can’t wait to eat them with some butter and molasses just like when I was a kid at Grandma’s house!
I made these biscuits and they are similar to the biscuits my grandmother made. When I went down south I grabbed two large bags of white lily flour just so I could make these.
My grandmother, one great aunt, and the half-dozen of my mother’s female siblings made biscuits like these. Left over Christmas ham on one of these with a fried egg and some fried potatoes would be my absolute favorite breakfast ever. I may have to ask family back in Kentucky to send me some White Lily flour (my grandmother used it too). Ah…. memories. :)
They are really good biscuits, aren’t they? So moist compared to those taller, flaky kind. I’m thinking I need to make a pan of biscuits and some ham this weekend.
They’re like the soul food version of Italian ciabatta bread with just enough buttermilk tang to keep it interesting. Perfect for everything from sandwiches to mopping up gravy. It does make me wonder how well a longer sub-roll loaf made from this dough would hold up. *imagines experimental breakfast hoagies*
Biscuits are in the oven right now. Recently heard about making biscuits with oil, googled and found your recipe. Must say that I do love the texture of the dough. I used an ice cream scoop to portion them all out on to my sheet pan first then went back and hand rolled and flattened. Such a fast recipe, much better than cutting in the lard or butter. Almost melted some bacon grease to add, maybe next time.
Biscuits turned out excellent! Didn’t brush the tops with butter, had to mix my own self rising flour, only had skim milk but not enough so added a spoonful of greek yogurt – very forgiving recipe. Daughter ate the last two with fried eggs for breakfast. Can only imagine how great they are when you follow the recipe exactly. Writing the recipe down in my keeper file. Thanks!
I have had the same exact problem. Could NOT make a biscuit. My great aunt makes the best buttermilk biscuits and I couldn’t make them because she couldn’t tell me a recipe. She just throws everything in a bowl. I tried this recipe after trying many others..this one is EXACTLY like my Aunt Barbara’s!! I am so glad that I found this. I will be using this recipe every time I make biscuits. The vegetable oil really does make all the difference. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Brooke! You wouldn’t believe how many years I tried making the flaky biscuits with shortening and they just never came out the way I wanted. Then I finally realized what I was doing wrong and started making this recipe. It’s quite different from the other style of biscuit, but it has always been my favorite.
It’s 11pm and I may not sleep a wink. Cannot wait to try this biscuit. For the past year, I’ve been makin’ biscuits at all hours of the day & night. Tryin’ to come up with the “smooth top” ones my Mother used to make in Eastern TN. Have tried it all. Lard, butter, half-n-half, sour cream, mayonnaise. None of them felt like the ones in my head. I can tell from the picture and your descriptive words, THIS IS IT! Yeah, bravo…….Thank you! Like you say, it’s a shame for a southern girl (who can make a killer pie crust _ ICE cold water and worked just till it will stick together) not to be able to make a decent biscuit for sausage & gravy! Thanks, again.
Hi BillieSue – it took me years to figure out this recipe. My grandmother, of course, never used a recipe. She just poured the buttermilk and oil into a huge bowl of flour and started mixing. I really hope these are the biscuits you’re looking for and I’d love to know how they turn out for you.
ahhhhhhh……….perfect! Look right. Feel right…….and can take the middle out of it to make a home for strawberry, blackberry, and apple jelly. Covered the middle with white gravy. I’ve just got to invite somebody over for breakfast, or maybe sausage & biscuit sandwiches will be served at my next girlie get together. Now I’m goin’ back to see all the other good stuff on your website. You are the queen of biscuits, and I’m bowing at your feet! Thanks, Queen Lana.
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BillieSue – I’m just thrilled that you enjoyed the biscuits! Now you’ve got me thinking about them and I just might have to go in the kitchen and make a batch :-)
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