Directions: |
Directions:1. Preheat oven to 525º.
2. Grease cast iron skillet with shortening.
3. Combine flour and salt in a bowl.
4. Create a hole in the middle of your flour mixture, like a well.
5. Pour the buttermilk into the hole, followed by the shortening.
6. Mix the buttermilk and shortening using your hands and just squish between your
fingers until there are no visible lumps. A little at the time begin to incorporate the
flour into the buttermilk mixture until your dough is formed.
7. Clean your hands, and then rub some flour on them.
8. Sprinkle your work surface lightly with flour and transfer your dough to the work
surface.
9. Massage the dough softly and gently. Do not overwork it, just until you have a
good ball of dough. This step has always been the hardest for me. I tend to
overwork the dough.
10.Roll the dough out with a rolling pin and cut the dough into one-inch thick
pieces,using a biscuit cutter or you can pinch off the dough and roll it into your
hands and press down with your fingers into the greased skillet (this is how mom
would always do it). I like to add a little pat of butter to each biscuit before baking.
11. Place the skillet into the preheated oven and reduce the heat to 500 degrees.
12. Bake until your biscuits turn golden. |
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: Learning to bake biscuits was a rite of passage at our house growing up. You were not ready for the big world out there, unless you had mastered the art of baking mom's biscuits. I can honestly say, I still have not mastered the art at all, but I have given it my best shot. Baking biscuits or really any type of baking teaches you a lot about life. It teaches you that practice is essential, a good recipe that has been passed down through generations is the best, the taste and love of food is more than a physical need or requirement. Food well prepared is an act of love and that love comes straight through your taste buds.
As many times as I watched my mom make these biscuits, for some reason I never wrote down the recipe, because she really didn't have one. She just eyeballed her ingredients, because she knew it so well. I would watch her put the flour in the bowl and making a well out of the flour, then she poured the buttermilk in, followed by a big scoop of solid Crisco shortening. I was amazed that the biscuits always turned out perfect.
After mom passed away, I knew the ingredients she used, but I was unsure of the amounts. After some trial and error, and looking through many similar recipes, I finally found the perfect recipe with precisely the right amount of ingredients. I was so excited the first time I successfully baked the biscuits! I did share them with our dinner guest, but I ate every leftover biscuit all by myself! I can't begin to tell you the comfort it gave me to eat everyone, and the memories that came flooding back to me over one batch of mom's buttermilk biscuits.
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This recipe for Granny Luke's Buttermilk Biscuits is from