Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a preoccupation with the 1950’s and southern belles, I just love the thought of being in my kitchen and making biscuits for my family and I imagine that it happened regularly in the 1950’s and still happens today in the Southern U.S.  There is something so loving and homey about a dinner table with fresh biscuits.

I make these biscuits quite regularly, my family loves them and they double as a breakfast item the next morning. You can make them plain or make them as cheddar and green onion biscuits as I did for this post.

Making biscuits well is simple with regard to ingredients, it’s essentially butter, flour baking soda and buttermilk. It’s the technique that makes the difference between light and flaky and tough little hockey pucks. Don’t worry, I’m going to walk you through it…

First off, don’t buy buttermilk unless you plan to make a lot of biscuits, make your own buttermilk. The ratio is simple, for every 1 cup of milk, add 1 tbsp. of  white vinegar, let it stand at room temp for 5 minutes to do it’s magic (thicken) and you’re ready to go.

 

Country Supper Biscuits

Makes 12 big biscuits or 18 average

 

5 ups All Purpose Flour

4 Tbsp Baking Soda

2 Tsp. Granulated Sugar

2 Tsp. Kosher Salt

8 Tbsp. Salted Butter

8 Tbsp. Vegetable Shortening

150g Cheddar Cheese, shredded

75g Chopped Green Onion

Method:

Preheat oven to 425F. In a bowl add flour, sugar, salt and baking soda, use a whisk to distribute everything evenly. Add pieces of butter and shortening. Using your very clean hands, rub the butter/shortening and flour between your hands to break up the pieces and create flakes in the mixture.

Add your pre made buttermilk and gently stir with clean hands or a spoon until it just comes together, it’s important not to overmix here because as soon as the buttermilk hits the baking powder all the mixing will start to deflate the gas that has already started.

Empty the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and form the dough into a rectangle about 1.5″ high. I like to cut my biscuits into squares because you get waste with rounds and the more you re-work the dough, the tougher it will get. Butter the top of the dough and cut into 12 r 18 even pieces.

 

Place the biscuits on a parchment lined baking sheet and get them into the oven immediately for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden. Enjoy!

Tip –

If you want to make these ahead and bake them later you will need to freeze them quickly after cutting them into biscuits, freeze them on a parchment lined baking sheet, once frozen, place them into a zip top bag and bake from a frozen state in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.