Winter is a time when you really want to carb it up.  For me, that can be any number of things but every now and then I’m craving Southern diner fare … like some homemade biscuits from scratch. They are perfect partners for a breakfast dinner, a bowl of soup … or, breakfast.  And let’s not forget how even more seductive they become once the supporting cast of condiments comes into play:  butter, preserves, honey, gravy, country ham.

Sadly, I believe scratch biscuits are no longer common household fare anymore.  Don’t get me wrong – homemade biscuits are still alive and well, just not so much in the home kitchen. I expect folks still have mothers or grandmothers that roll their own; even so, maybe only for special occasions.  Otherwise, I’d hazard a guess that the majority simply zip over to the local eatery when they get a hankering for them these days – or they commit gourmet treason and pick up a CAN of biscuits at the Piggly Wiggly to bake up on their own.  Unfortunately, this dowager of golden flakiness has gone the way of most edibles over the decades: mass produced and hyper-marketed for urban convenience.  As such, my conjecture is that the scratch biscuit may qualify as a foodie endangered species!

CONSUMER ADVISORY:  If your only biscuit experience is associated with that iconic, animated doughboy on American TV that giggles when a mysterious finger pokes his belly, then this post is for you.

Biscuit Types:  The 411

Geez, there must be hundreds of biscuit types and recipes.  Remember Bubba of “Forrest Gump” fame?  The one Forrest went into the ‘shrimpin’ business with after Vietnam, and could recite shrimp recipes like a savant?  Well, we could do the same here: angel biscuits … cheddar biscuits … sweet potato biscuits … black pepper cream biscuits … jalapeno corn biscuits … beaten biscuits … “touch of grace” biscuits … cat head biscuits.  You get the idea.  I’ve tried to categorize them in a neat fashion, but no can do; they all have varying ingredients, multiple leavening agents for rising as well as their own mixing method.   In fact, you might say that Southern pride is what gave “rise” to the biscuit movement, and such diverse options.

According to Maryann Byrd who compiled The Biscuit Dive Guide following the release of her documentary “The Rise of the Southern Biscuit,” the South took the flat, lackluster biscuit of its English descendents and tinkered with the formula to improve taste, rise and looks.  Then, we assume good old fashioned competition kicked in since that’s where each faction — region, state, plantation and farm — tried to make its biscuit better or more unique than its neighbors’. Inevitably these nibbles became “the hallmark of the Southern homemaker” whereby trademark receipts were handed down for posterity with some still being closely guarded today.

So where do we start?  Selfishly, we’re going with MY top pick:  the basic buttermilk biscuit!  Is the buttermilk variety better than others?  Not necessarily, but personally I think it gets extra merit points for tangy dairy flavor and lightness.  You want them to rise high enough to pull apart.  Also, its structure must be solid enough to support fixings without crumbling, while balancing the fat and liquid so as not to become a greasy sponge.  Buttermilk biscuits generally clear all of those potential hurdles, and are my favorite even though I haven’t met a scratch biscuit I didn’t like (with the exception of drop biscuits, which I exclude due to personal bias). With that said, the recipe of which I’ve recently become enamored is from Damon Lee Fowler’s New Southern Baking. He has an arsenal of biscuit recipes which I’ve yet to fully sample, but the one I am showcasing here is his “Southern Breakfast Biscuits.”

Now before we get onto the execution, best I share a few notes on general ingredients and terms that I’ve schlepped from Mr. Fowler’s book:

• FLOUR:  Most recipes, including this one, call for Southern soft-wheat flour.  It’s considered a light, low-gluten flour which yields a tender dough [tin´- dur].  You might have heard of the brand name White Lily banded about which is a winter soft-wheat flour ideal for pastry, muffins or quick breads; it’s a popular pantry item down South.  Since I’m way outside of the White Lily distribution zone, I use King Arthur Flour and found it to be a dynamite addition to the baker’s pantry.
• MOISTURE:  Apparently, the more ‘wet’ or soft the dough, the lighter the biscuit.  Of course, balancing out the moisture is a moving variable as each bag of flour, to the home pantry environment all have varying moisture & humidity levels that will factor into the wet equation.  Did you ever wonder how those little granny types could dump out ingredients without measuring and then proceed to bake the perfect specimen?  That’s because they “got their hand into it” … which translates into feeling the moisture level with your hands and adding the necessary amount of liquid based on the feel of the dough.  It’s a practice makes perfect sort of situation.
• LIGHT LEAVENING:  The upshot here is that baking powder can be abused!  Most of today’s powders are ‘double acting’ whereas 50 years ago we were using a lower grade ‘single acting’ powder (or yeast).  Overuse apparently results in baked goods being too puffy, as well as having a metallic aftertaste.  So, practice restraint you crazy biscuit bakers!
• LIGHT & QUICK HAND:  Biscuit dough is not to be overworked.  No need to knead it to death; the more you futz and play with the dough, the more developed the gluten becomes – which means tough hockey pucks for your hungry masses. And, best pull the dough together quickly, as the leavening agents will cease to react if too much time elapses from the mixing stage to the point of oven entry.
• FAT:  There are three camps when it comes to the type of fat in pastry goods.  One camp is old school and says that pure, rendered leaf lard makes the tastiest, tender pastry.   Another camp squeals at the thought of pig fat in its biscuits and pie crusts; instead, it advocates vegetable shortening (aka Crisco in a can).  And yet another group prefers butter.  There are pros & cons to all with dueling calories and fat gram counts.  Mr. Fowler is on team lard and I’ll happily follow him and little ‘Arnold Ziffel’ to the biscuit shack!

Without further ado, here is the recipe.  BUT, don’t miss next week’s sweet & savory follow up to the buttermilk biscuit!  Look for “A Tale of Two Gravies” ….

“Southern Breakfast Biscuits”

Adapted from Damon Lee Fowler’s New Southern Baking: Classic Flavors for Today’s Cook

Ingredients to make 12 biscuits:

• 10 ounces (roughly 2 cups) Southern soft-wheat flour, pastry flour or unbleached all purpose flour
• 3 tsp single acting baking powder OR 2 tsp double acting
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp chilled lard (or vegetable shortening for the lard squeamish)
• about 1 cup whole milk buttermilk, or plain whole milk yogurt thinned with milk to buttermilk consistency

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat it to 450°F.  Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl.  Add the lard and cut it in with a pastry blender, fork or two knives until it is the texture of very small peas.  Do not over blend — small lumps of shortening are what make the biscuits flaky.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in 3/4 cup of the buttermilk (you may not need all of it  — ambient humidity and the moisture content of each bag of flour will vary virtually every time you make bread).  Mix with as few strokes as possible until all the dough clumps together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, adding more buttermilk by spoonfuls until all the dry ingredients are incorporated into a dough that is no longer crumbly.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat it flat (about 1 inch thick).  Fold it in half and pat flat again [this technique helps to build layers that will rise and create the much sought after flakiness].  Repeat this twice more, then lightly flour the surface and roll or pat it out to 1/2 inch thick.  Using a sharp, round 2-inch biscuit cutter dipped in flour before each cut, cut the dough straight down without twisting the cutter, into 12 biscuits.  When you are cutting at the edges of dough, be sure that there is a cut side all the way around the biscuits or they won’t rise evenly.  You will have scraps of dough left over and you won’t want to waste them.  They can be re-worked if you use extra care.  Gather the scraps together, lightly fold the dough over itself, and pat flat about three times – until the scraps just hold together.  Then pat – don’t roll – the dough until it is 1/2 inch thick and cut into additional biscuits.  Put the biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet and bake until they are risen and golden brown, about 8-10 minutes.  Serve piping hot.

PERSONAL NOTES:  The business of lard is a mysterious if not scary thing for most people, as it was for me until recently.  To help you mentally process the pros to using this fat, please check out this article link from Slate Magazine which speaks to some history, current trend as well as cites some nutritional sources that better help rationalize its use (“Lard:  After Decades of Trying, Its Moment is Finally Here”)

So where do you get lard?  Don’t pick up the hydrogenated version at the grocery store – no, no, NO!  If you have a special butcher shop, they may provide rendered leaf lard, but odds are you’ll have to do it yourself.  It’s not hard, but will take some planning and time.  I was able to procure some high grade leaf lard (frozen) at my local Whole Foods Market – you’ll have to ask one of the butcher boys for it and they pull it from the back freezer.  Next, find a recipe.  There are two that I found from other food bloggers that will do the trick, so I will simply point you their way since they did a great job in sharing the basics.

• Homesick Texan:  How To Render Lard
• Not Without Salt:  Rendering Lard

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