North Meets South 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.

DIRTY SOUTH BISCUIT

Steps:

• Combine the buttermilk, hot sauce, kosher salt and black pepper in a bowl and add the chicken tenders. Allow to marinate, refrigerated, for at least 2 hours or, for best results, overnight.
• Fill a large cast-iron pan with enough oil for deep-frying; heat until the oil registers 350 degrees F on a deep-frying thermometer. Set a cooling rack over a baking sheet. Stir together the flour, iodized salt and white pepper. Remove the chicken from the marinade, letting excess drip off, and roll in the flour mixture to coat. Fry in batches until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Drain on the cooling rack. Serve with biscuits and sausage gravy.

GREG'S SOUTHERN BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet with 1/2 teaspoon of lard.
• Mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl. Grate the frozen butter and 2 tablespoons frozen lard into the flour mixture with a cheese grater; stir lightly 1 or 2 times to mix. With your fingers, make a well in the middle of the flour mixture, and pour the bacon drippings and buttermilk into the well. With just the tips of your fingers, stir lightly and quickly to just bring the dough together before the butter and lard melt. Dough will be sticky.
• Scrape dough out onto a floured surface, and gently pat the dough flat. Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour, and fold it in half; pat down, fold again, and repeat until you have folded the dough 4 or 5 times. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a square about 1 inch thick. Cut the biscuit dough into rounds with a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter or the floured edge of a drinking glass by pushing straight down (twisting the cutter will seal the edge and keep the biscuits from rising). Lay the biscuits onto the prepared baking sheet so the edges just touch.
• Bake in the preheated oven until risen and lightly golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.

SOUTH GEORGIA BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender or by rubbing between your fingers until the lumps are smaller than peas. Pour in the milk all at once, and stir with a large spoon until dough is evenly moist. It should be sticky.
• Flour your hands, and knead the dough lightly for 3 or 4 turns, adding just enough flour so that it doesn't stick to your hands. Let the dough rest for a minute or two.
• With well-floured hands, pinch off pieces of dough (about 12) and pat lightly into balls. Don't over work the dough. Place about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. With floured knuckles, press each ball down to about 1/2 inch thickness.
• Bake for 11 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until browned on the bottom. Serve hot with butter.

NORTH-MEETS-SOUTH BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Cut butter into small chunks and return to the refrigerator to keep cold.
• Put 1 tablespoon cider vinegar in the bottom of a measuring cup and add the heavy cream to equal 3/4 cup. Set aside.
• Combine the dry ingredients in a food processor bowl.
• Add the butter and pulse until no chunks of butter are obvious (kinda crumbly, but will be mostly flour).
• Pour in the heavy cream which will appear curdled, pulsing until mixed. You'll have to use a spatula to scrape the curdled cream from the cup.
• Once the dough looks more combined and almost forms a ball, remove from food processor bowl to a floured surface.
• Pat the dough out to about 1/2-inch thickness. Try not to overwork the dough.
• Cut biscuits with sharp biscuit cutter; do not twist the cutter, just punch down and remove. You'll have to re-roll the dough but keep in mind, the less working of the dough, the flakier the biscuit will be. They'll still taste just as good.
• Place the biscuits in a round baking pan, with sides of biscuits touching each other as much as possible and/or touching the sides of the pan (do not grease pan).
• Bake for about 10 minutes or lightly browned.
• Serve with pepper gravy, sausage gravy, chocolate gravy or simply butter & honey, plain butter, or butter and sugar!