Country Biscuits Recipes

SOUTHERN BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.
• Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that's life.)
• Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

HOW TO MAKE COUNTRY GRAVY

Steps:

• Melt butter in a large skillet or saucepan over medium heat; cook sausage and bacon in the hot butter, stirring to break the sausage up into small pieces, until sausage is browned and bacon is almost crisp, about 10 minutes. Mix 1/2 cup green onion into sausage mixture and saute until onions are soft, about 3 more minutes.
• Stir flour into meat mixture, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time, until thoroughly combined and mixture is pasty. Cook, stirring often, 2 to 3 minutes to remove raw taste of flour.
• Whisk milk into meat mixture, about 1 cup at a time, until combined. Continue to whisk until gravy begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Turn heat to medium-high, bring gravy to a simmer, and season with a pinch of cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low.
• Continue to simmer gravy until flavors have blended and gravy is thick, 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon green onion and a pinch of cayenne pepper for garnish.

REAL, "DOWN HOME" SOUTHERN COUNTRY BISCUITS AND GRAVY:

Steps:

• FOR THE BISCUITS:.
• Wash Hands.
• Sift flour into a medium or large mixing bowl. Shake the bowl side-to-side lightly to even out the flour.
• Beat the eggs slightly to blend yolks and whites.
• Combine oil and egg with half the buttermilk and pour into the flour. Mix thoroughly with a large spoon or fork, or use your hand to squeeze the dough through your fingers, until the dough is well blended.
• Add the remaining buttermilk, a little at a time, blending into the dough after each addition, until the right consistency is achieved.
• The dough should be just firm enough to form into balls but light enough to slump slightly when placed onto the baking sheet. Experience will enable you to tell from the feel of the dough. If dough is too light, add flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing thoroughly each time, until the dough is the right consistency. If dough is too dense (stiff), add buttermilk, 1 tablespoon at a time, blending well into the dough after each addition, until the dough is the right consistency.
• Clean the dough off your hands, then rinse and dry them. Flour the palms and fingers of both hands to prevent the dough from sticking to them.
• Pinch off a handful of dough roughly 2/3 the size you want your biscuits to be and roll it between your hands in a circular motion, using just enough pressure to form a ball. Shaping the dough will flour the outside of the biscuit.
• Place the ball of dough onto an ungreased baking sheet and press down with fingers just enough to flatten the dough slightly and form the biscuit shape. Repeat, flouring hands after each dough ball is formed and placing biscuits about 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch apart, until all the dough is used up.
• Cathead Biscuits.
• For cathead biscuits, use about half again as much dough for each biscuit as you would use for regular size biscuits, leaving them thicker than for regular biscuits. Place cat-head biscuits about 3/4-inch apart on the baking sheet.
• Place the pan of biscuits as close to the vertical center of the preheated 350-degree oven as your rack guides will allow and bake for 20-30 minutes. Check biscuits after 20 minutes and periodically thereafter until done. Biscuits will be done when the tops are golden brown. Cathead biscuits will take longer to bake. The lower edges of the biscuits may be slightly lighter than the center.
• Remove biscuits from oven when done. Serve hot.
• Makes 8 to 10 biscuits, or 4 to 5 cathead biscuits.
• FOR THE GRAVY.
• Mix evaporated milk and water and set aside within reach.
• In a large, cast iron skillet, combine oil (or meat fat), flour, salt, and pepper.
• Over medium-high heat, stir in flour until blended with oil. With a fork, tines flat against the skillet's bottom, stir the mixture constantly, using a back-and-forth motion, until it begins to brown very slightly. Do not allow the flour to scorch or burn.
• When flour has browned slightly, pour in milk, all at once, stirring constantly.
• Continue to stir, scraping the bottom of the skillet as you stir, in the manner previously described, to keep flour and milk from scorching and to keep lumps from forming. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
• As soon as the mixture boils, marked by a sudden foaming up of the mixture, reduce heat to medium so that mixture simmers but does not boil over. Briefly lift pan from heat if necessary to keep contents from boiling over. Don't forget to use a pot holder to avoid being burned.
• Continue to stir vigorously, as described above, until gravy achieves desired thickness, usually within a minute or two after boiling. When the gravy is the desired thickness, immediately remove from heat. Serve from the skillet or pour into a serving bowl.
• Add additional salt and pepper if needed.
• Serves 4.

KENTUCKY BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Cut in 1/2 cup butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in the buttermilk. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead 2 minutes. Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet, roll into a 6x6 inch square, and cut into 12 even sections. Do not separate.
• Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center of the square comes out clean. Separate into biscuits, and serve hot.

EASY BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450°. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk; stir just until moistened., Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead gently 8-10 times. Pat dough to 1/2-in. thickness. Cut with a 2-1/2-in. biscuit cutter., Place 1 in. apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, 10-15 minutes. Serve warm.

COUNTRY BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375F and grease baking sheet.
• Soften yeast in water.
• Sift flour sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium sized bowl.
• Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse meal.
• Pour buttermilk over cereal; mix well.
• Add to dry ingredients with yeast mixture.
• Mix just until well-moistened.
• Drop by heaping tablespoons two inches apart on prepared baking sheet.
• Bake 12 to 14 minutes, or until golden.
• Serve warm.