Pretentious Buttermilk Biscuits

I told my mother I was going to do a blog tutorial on how to make buttermilk biscuits, a staple in the south. She said "Oh, you HAVE to do those from Southern Living!". Now, admittedly, they are awfully good. So good, in fact, that my mother has abandoned the long taught family method in lieu of this one. The finished product is lighter and more tender than our usual biscuit and it is worth the effort, but I'm worried that some of you might not try making biscuits if I make it out as if they *must* be this complicated.

~sighs~ the guilt. Alright, I'll go on with the pretentious biscuit tutorial and then later on tell you the easy way (but these truly aren't that hard).

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The cast! Featuring milk from Piggly Wiggly and WHITE LILY FLOUR. White Lily is essential if you live below the Mason Dixon line. Bakers around the country have gone wild for it as well. Its a super fine flour made from soft winter wheat, rather than the usual hard winter wheat. The texture of the flour and the baked goods it produces is remarkable.
So basically, you need butter or margarine, millk with a tablespoon of lemon juice added (because I never have buttermilk in the house so this is a homemade concoction), and self rising flour. Thats it! (The actual recipe is at the bottom of this page)

For those of you who have no idea what self rising flour is....

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You'll also need salt and baking powder to make your biscuits rise :). This is only IF you don't have self rising flour available where you live. White Lily is also available in all purpose :)

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Put your flour in a bowl (With the salt and baking powder stirred into it if you don't have self rising) and toss in the margarine. Now you need a pastry cutter or fork with long tines , which is what I use.

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Begin by simply cutting the butter into the flour. Sit down and turn on the tv, this will take a few minutes (make sure your butter is cold).

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when it looks like this and you can't find any lumps of butter, you're good to go :). Stick this bowl in the fridge for ten to fifteen minutes. If this is your first time making biscuits with this method, I recommend fifteen. The colder it is, the easier the next step is going to be.

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Add a tablespoon of lemon juice to your milk before you go get your bowl out of the fridge. Stir it around and let it sit a minute or two.

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Pour milk into flour mixture and stir until just moistened.

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This is a lot looser than your typical biscuit dough, but it should look something like this.

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Flour a surface. I like to roll out waxed paper or do this on a large baking sheet so I don't have such a hassle with the counter top. Most folks just use the counter top though. Be generous with the flour, you're going to need it.

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Dump out your dough onto the floured surface and sprinkle more flour on top of it.

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Brush some flour on your hands and then wipe down your rolling pin really well. This is a family heirloom. My great grandmother bought it with green stamps for my mother when she was twelve. Once you have flour on your dough and on your hands, knead the dough with your hands two or three times. Don't over knead your dough!

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Roll it out until it is about 3/4 of an inch. Then lightly square it off with your hands. It should be about 9x5 inches at this point. you are going to have to stop after rolling it the first time and wipe down your rolling pin with flour again, as well as sprinkle some more on the dough to keep it from sticking.

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Here is where these little suckers take on a bit of arrogance in my book. Normally, you would just roll it out and cut them, but in this recipe we want tender little pillowy biscuits, so we're going to put a little more effort in them. Take one side of your dough and roll it over to the middle. Repeat with the next side until you have something like this.

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Now pat or roll that out with your hands back to the original 3/4 inch and gently shape it back into a rectangle.
Repeat this process of folding over and patting out two more times. Don't be afraid to dust your surface and your dough  with a little more flour if need be. Oh, and you didn't really have to use the rolling pin, you could have just patted it out all along with your hands, but I wanted to show you my heirloom rolling pin!

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Now we're ready to cut our biscuits. Most folks would use a biscuit cutter for this, but diehard southerners know the only way to do it is to use a swanky swig! Tin can is also acceptable as is a drinking glass. I used a smaller mouthed swanky swig because I prefer a bit smaller biscuits. I have small people in my house. :)

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Cut out your biscuits by pushing straight down with your glass, don't twist it. I didn't really waste all of this dough but I was trying to make it look a little more uniform for the picture. Normally, we cut them suckers one right on top of the other, then wad up the leftovers, pat it out, and cut again.

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Place these on a well greased baking sheet and make sure the sides touch, This helps them rise evenly and higher.

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Bake at 450 for thirteen to fifteen minutes.

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Until they look like this.

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and this....

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While still hot, brush with melted butter.

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Now you're done!

Alrighty, here is the actual recipe and I promise I will put an easier one up on my blog but after doing all of this work to get the tutorial posted, I'm thinking these aren't that pretentious after all.

Buttermilk Biscuits

1/2 cup cold butter or margarine
2 1/4 c self rising soft wheat flour
1 1/4 c buttermilk (or whole milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice added)
flour for dusting
melted butter for brushing baked biscuits
*To make your own self rising flour, simply add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt for EACH cup of all purpose flour.

1. Cut butter with a sharp knife or pastry blender into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Sprinkle butter slices over flour in a large bowl. Toss butter with flour. Cut butter into flour with a pastry blender until crumbly and mixture resembles small peas. Cover and chill 10 minutes. Add buttermilk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.

2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead 3 or 4 times, gradually adding additional flour as needed. With floured hands, press or pat dough into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle (about 9 x 5 inches). Sprinkle top of dough with additional flour. Fold dough over onto itself in 3 sections, starting with 1 short end. (Fold dough rectangle as if folding a letter-size piece of paper.) Repeat entire process 2 more times, beginning with pressing into a 3/4-inch-thick dough rectangle (about 9 x 5 inches).

3. Press or pat dough to 1/2-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface; cut with a 2-inch round cutter, and place, side by side, on a parchment paper-lined or lightly greased jelly-roll pan. (Dough rounds should touch.)

4. Bake at 450° for 13 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven; brush with 2 Tbsp. melted butter.

VOILA!! I'm done!!!!
Tomorrow, fried green tomatoes!