Lazy Biscuits...best I've made in a long time, although I made the mistake of using too small

C

curious1

Well-known member
a pan and they ran together so baked them 3 minutes longer. I used the month past date buttermilk I have and White Lily self-rising flour. First time using self-rising flour, that I remember. The melted butter should be cooled enough it will clump when added to the cold buttermilk. They were easy, fast to make and delicious.http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/lazy-biscuits

 
Best Drop Biscuits with 3 Variations...almost the same recipe that doesn't use self-rising flour.

* Exported for MasterCook 4 by Living Cookbook *

Best Drop Biscuits with 3 Variations

Recipe By : Cook's Illustrated Nov/Dec 2007

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp table salt
1 cup cold buttermilk*
8 Tbs (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
-- (about 5 minutes)
2 Tbs (1/4 stick)melted butter for brushing biscuits

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in large bowl.
Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons melted butter in medium bowl, stirring
until butter forms small clumps.

3. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula
until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. Using
greased 1/4-cup dry measure, scoop level amount of batter and drop onto
parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (biscuits should measure about 2 1/4
inches in diameter and 1 1/4 inches high). Repeat with remaining batter,
spacing biscuits about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until tops are golden brown
and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes.

4. Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter. Transfer
to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Black Pepper & Bacon Drop Biscuits
1. Cut 6 strips bacon in half lengthwise and then crosswise into 1/4-inch
pieces; fry in 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp, 5 to 7
minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towel-lined plate and
cool to room temperature. Follow recipe for Best Drop Biscuits, adding crisp
bacon and 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper to flour mixture in step
2.
Cheddar & Scallion Drop Biscuits
1. Follow recipe for Best Drop Biscuits, adding 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded
cheddar cheese and 1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions to flour mixture in step
2.
Rosemary & Parmesan Drop Biscuits
1. Follow recipe for Best Drop Biscuits, adding 3/4 cup (1 1/2 ounces)
grated Parmesan cheese and 1/2 teaspoon finely minced fresh rosemary leaves
to flour mixture in step 2.

Cooking Tip: *If buttermilk isn't available, powdered buttermilk added
according to package instructions or clabbered milk can be used instead. To
make clabbered milk, mix 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and let
stand 10 minutes.

Cooking Tip: A 1/4-cup (#16) portion scoop can be used to portion the
batter.

Cooking Tip: To refresh day-old biscuits, heat them in a 300-degree oven for
10 minutes.

Comments:

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated Nov/Dec 2007


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I love White Lily flour. Can't get it on the West Coast. smileys/frown.gif It makes the best biscuits.

When we used to visit my in-laws in FL, my husband would bring some bags of it home with us in his golf bag.
smileys/bigsmile.gif

 
It may be the anal-retentive side of me, but WHY do biscuit makes always use

a ROUND cookie cutter and then ADD the warning that reusing the cutout remains will result in less than optimal biscuits?

Why not just cut SQUARES? Then there is NO leftover dough to worry about. I mean, it's not like an egg cooks to the exact diameter of the round biscuit.

I have simply never understood this.

Now pardon me while I clean out the lint between the letters on my keyboard.

 
Excellent question! My guess is that a glass was originally used to cut out biscuit dough. I can

remember my grandmother saying how I should press the glass straight down and come straight back up--no turning of the glass when a person was cutting/forming biscuits back in the day. We would also sometimes use an empty soup can (that had been washed & dried after completely removing its "lid") for this job because the sides were sharper so you supposedly got a cleaner cut.

 
I read somewhere that it's because the uncut sides don't rise well,so the biscuits are lopsided.

not sure that is a good reason. I've wondered if it had to do with the iron skillets they were baked in. Round fit better than square.

 
Then call me a criminal.

When I make biscuits, I always pat the dough into a square and then just cut straight lines to make the biscuits square.

And the way I heard the adage was...
Pi are Square?
Pi are not square, pi are round.
Cornbread are square!

 
If the biscuits are cut close, there is probably only one biscuit left over to re-roll. Drop biscuit

are also good, as mentioned.

One thing about the square biscuits shape and their cutting could be dragging the knife through the dough. When cutting round biscuits there is a warning about twisting the cutter that makes the biscuits not rise as well as if cut straight down.

 
Thank you, that looks delicious. Sadly, I've not made a cake in 25 years or so. Any other recipes

less involved?

 
That's true--if you do that it will work well, but the tendency might be to drag the knife or

use a pizza cutter to do the cutting. ;o)

 
Curious1, I nearly fell off my chair to read that! Would that I had yr will power to steer clear of

cakes--not only do I make them, but I eat them.....along with every other dessert known to mankind. I am royally impressed w/ what you just wrote. I think maybe I could go for a month without making or eating cake, but not much longer than that! Smile. Maybe I should go have our dentist pull out my sweet tooth. Sigh.

 
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