Strawberry-Shortcake-with-perfect-crunchy-biscuits_650x650.jpg' alt='How To Make A Dessert With Biscuits' title='How To Make A Dessert With Biscuits' />How to Make the Best Buttermilk Biscuits from Scratch. Youll say goodbye to canned biscuits once you realize how easy it is to make this fluffy buttermilk biscuit recipe. These biscuits are made from butter not shortening so they are full of flavor and made from real, wholesome ingredients. This is a long post filled with details and tips for biscuit success. Scroll to the very bottom of the post to find the printable recipe. Canned biscuits caused our ruinationThat was the subject of an e mail I received after my last biscuit post. Who knew biscuits could stir such passion Apparently, when canned biscuits made their debut, many women quit making them from scratch, even in the southern states. Even in Tennessee where Im from, when canned biscuits came out, women quit making homemade ones except for my grandmother who is 9. We live in Texas now and it amazes me how many people have never had a great homemade biscuit. Carmen, the reader who sent the e mail, went on to explain to me some of the real secrets of making great homemade biscuits and I am now forever in her debt The most important ingredient, of course, is the flour. Ive heard for a long time that White Lily brand flour is the best thing you can use for biscuits and Carmens passionate e mail confirmed it. White Lily flour is made from 1. I wont get too technical because for the purpose of this post, all you really need to know is this less protein better for quick breadsmore protein better for yeast breads. Not all flours are created equal. This is my very first time every trying to make biscuits, I followed the steps and they came out perfect Wow Hmm I think Im ready to go into business 14 Easy And Delicious Goodies You Can Make With Marie Biscuits All I want is an English Marie. Southern bleached all purpose flours are made from the soft winter wheat that grows well in the warmer southern climate while northern all purpose flours are made from the hard spring wheats that grow in the colder climate. Strains of soft winter wheat have less protein than the hard spring wheat and therefore southern all purpose flours are better suited for quick breads such as biscuits, cakes and muffins. Heres a quick rundown of some flours and their protein contents, taken from the book Cookwise by Shirley O. Corriher Cake flours Swans Down, Softasilk 7. Sample 1500 Calorie Meal Plan. Bleached southern all purpose White Lily, Martha White, Gladiola, Red Band 7. These simple cream biscuits are a take on the everdelicious and classic buttermilk biscuits. National brand self rising Gold Medal, Pillsbury 9 to 1. National brand bleached all purpose Gold Medal, Pillsbury 1. Northern all purpose Robin Hood, Heckers 1. Northern unbleached all purpose King Arthur 1. Bread Flour 1. 1. So, keeping in mind that less protein equals light and tender cakes and quick breads, the flours from the top of this list are going to give you the best results for those types of baked goods. And since more protein equals higher rising yeast breads, the flours from the bottom of the list will be best for those. Now that our quick flour lesson is over Ill be writing a more in depth post about flours at a later time, lets get back to baking some great southern biscuits As I mentioned before, White Lily brand flour is the flour of choice for biscuit making in the south. But what about those of us who cant run to the store and buy some White Lily flour Well, you can order it online. Or you use your newfound knowledge about protein content in flour to create your own version. Carmen was nice enough to e mail me the biscuit recipe from her bag of White Lily Self Rising flour so that I would have a starting point in creating my own version White Lily Light Biscuits. C. white lily unbleached self rising flour. Preheat oven to 5. Spoon flour into measuring cup and level with a knife. Measure flour into bowl. Cut in butter until mixtures resembles coarse crumbs. Blend in enough buttermilk until dough leaves sides of bowl. Knead gently 2 or 3 times on lightly floured surface. Cut with large biscuit cutter. Place on pan with biscuits touching. Brush tops with melted butter. Bake at 5. 00 for 8 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for a few minutes on wire rack. What struck me about this recipe was that its so simple Of course it gets slightly more complicated if you dont have the White Lily self rising flour, but it still doesnt take much more time to throw these together than to open a can of store bought biscuitsAfter doing some research both online and on my cookbook shelf, I decided to try to approximate a White Lily biscuit by substituting a mixture of national brand all purpose flour, cake flour, and leavening for the white lily self rising flour. For the first batch I tried using half all purpose flour and half cake flour plus 3 teaspoons of baking powder. The biscuits were alright but they had an off taste because of too much baking powder and I didnt feel like they were as light and fluffy as White Lily biscuits are purported to be. So for the second batch, I increased the proportion of cake flour and decreased the amount of baking powder. I carefully followed all of the biscuit making tips given to me by Carmen who in turn learned them from her 9. Success These were the fluffiest, most tender biscuits that had ever come from my oven Granted, I dont know whether I have ever tasted a true southern biscuit, so I dont know whether these compare. But these are good and theyre easy. And they dont come from a can Scroll down to the bottom of the post for my printable recipeTips for Perfect Biscuits. Make sure your baking powder, baking soda, andor self rising flour are fresh Start preheating the oven as soon as you start thinking about making the biscuits You want the oven to be completely preheated before the biscuits go in. Prepare your ingredients and tools in advance so that once you get started, you can work quickly and efficiently cut your butter in small pieces and put it back in the fridge, measure out the buttermilk, flour the counter, get out the biscuit cutter and baking sheet. Use very cold butter, keep it in the fridge until youre ready for it. Work the butter quickly into the flour so that it doesnt have a chance to even think about meltingWhen you add the buttermilk, stir lightly This can be done simply with a fork. You just want to get the dough to a point where the flour is all clumped together, not a smooth doughKnead lightly and minimally. You arent kneading this like bread dough, you are simply finishing the mixing process with your hands. You only want to knead a couple of times to finish dispersing the liquid through the dough. The more you knead, the denser your biscuits will be Even if you use self rising flour in the dough, dust the counter and dough with all purpose flour. Self rising flour can give the outside of the biscuits a bitter taste, due to the leavening it contains. Dont pat the dough out too thin. If you want high biscuits, dont roll the dough any thinner than 34 1 inch. When cutting biscuits, use a sharp cutter and press straight down and up. Dont twist This was the hardest tip for me to adapt. I have always twisted the biscuit cutter. But guess what, it makes a difference Place cut biscuits together on the baking sheet so that they are touching. Again, this is something I have never done. But I found that the biscuits do rise well and I really enjoy the texture of the soft sided biscuits Dont re roll the scraps. Since it is best to work the dough as little as possible, instead of gathering the scraps, re rolling and cutting into biscuits, just form the scraps into biscuit shapes by hand. I usually end up with scraps to form two extra biscuits. They might look a little funny, but they rise as well as the others and they taste just as good Cut butter into small chunks before adding to the flour. This makes it easier to cutrub it into the flour quickly. I prefer to work the butter into the flour using my fingers rather than a pastry blender. Wash your hands well before beginning then toss the butter cubes with the flour so that they are all well coated before you begin. Using only your fingertips, flatten the butter cubes and rub them into the flour. Dig your hands in and toss the butter and flour together while you are working the butter.