Ms. Sam Makes Biscuits (with Video!)

Are you needing a little something to go with the jams and jellies you learned how to make in my last tutorial video? How about a hot fluffy biscuit stacked with flaky layers? My Grandma Tommy was born in Madison County, Arkansas, and she called it making a pan of biscuit, singular. She once said that she used to make biscuit every morning, but that it was like making pie crust- once you stopped doing it you lost the knack. So, Dear Reader, I'm fixing to show you how to make some biscuit!

And you know what one of the beautiful things about this is? Yes, you're right, one of them is the joy of eating a steaming biscuit right from the oven that makes the butter an instant pool of golden and then starts to make the jelly so runny that it threatens to run down the sides... I got side-tracked by the very idea of it! Another beautiful thing is that all the techniques you learn in making biscuits are ones that you will need for making pie crust. Gasp! Can you hardly bear it?! Watch my video and get to making you some biscuit. Then I'll get back with you and we'll go on to the Holy Grail of cookery- the awe-inspiring pie crust.

Would you like to just see pictures of the steps while you read through the recipe? Look at my post here http://areasonforhomeschool.com/flaky-foolproof-biscuits/ , that I wrote for the A Reason For Homeschool group.

Shoo, go on now! I want to smell some biscuit cooking...

Fool-proof Flaky Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

¾ tsp salt

2 ½ tsp baking powder

5 Tbsp lard or shortening

¾ cup of sweet milk

Put the first four items in a medium bowl and toss with hand to combine the dry ingredients and coat the lard. Use a pasty cutter to “cut” in the lard, incorporating until there is a combination of large and small bits of fat mixed with the flour. Pour in the milk and use a spoon to mix in the liquid, turning so that all the flour underneath is combined. Use your hand to gather the dough to the side and press into a lump.

Knead the dough 8-9 turns. (Kneading consists of folding the dough over on itself and pressing, then turning the dough a quarter turn and repeating. Do this 8-9 times.) Place the now smooth dough on a piece of waxed paper or a counter top. Roll out gently to between ½ and ¾ inch thick. Cut with a biscuit cutter and place on a ungreased cookie sheet. DO NO twist the cutter. Press the remaining scraps into lump equal thickness to the other biscuits.

Place in a 400 degree oven and bake about 8 minutes for convection, 10-12 for a regular oven. Cooking time will vary due to biscuit thickness and the size of the cutter. My cutter is 2 and 1/2 inches wide.

Break open your gorgeous biscuits and slather with butter and jelly. If you are interested in learning how to make jams and jellies to go with your new biscuit mastery, please look at my post Jelly Canning with Ms. Sam, it includes a video on the basics of canning. Keep your eyes peeled, lovey, a pie crust video will appear. Until then, work on those biscuits. They are the gateway to great things!