Friday, November 4, 2011

Granny's Biscuits

A while ago, I made some homemade chicken noodle soup (for the first time!) in the crock pot and while perusing online for a good recipe, everyone said that you have to have biscuits with chicken noodle soup.  I’m pretty decent at rolls, but I’ve never made a biscuit in my life. 
I researched and compared and researched some more and found, what I think, is an amazing recipe.  And easy!  Which we all know I’m a big fan of.  :)


Granny’s Homemade Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder (aluminum free if you have it)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup milk


Combine all dry ingredients and blend well with a whisk. Cut in butter (if you don’t know how to do this, click here) until resembles coarse bread crumbs. Stir in milk until all comes together to form a dough ball. Turn out dough ball onto a well floured surface. Let set for a couple of minutes and pat out to about 1/2 thick. Cut biscuits with floured biscuit cutter and place into ungreased baking pan. Form remaining dough into ball and repeat until all dough made into biscuits. This recipe will make approximately 12 biscuits. Bake in 425-450 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. 

Note: This recipe freeze well too. Just place your cut biscuits onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper or parchment paper and place cookie sheet into freeze making sure to keep level. Once frozen remove and place into a freezer bag and place into freezer. When ready to use just follow baking directions and bake only the amount that you need, you do not have to bake all of them at one time. 

Some personal notes from experience:
It says to use a floured biscuit cutter-I didn't.  I used a metal, fondant cutter I have and I never floured it.  Worked like a charm.  You could also use a metal canning lid or anything you have laying around!  Also, a lot of different women said that, with biscuits, the less you handle the dough the better.  Just FYI.  A few sites said to use aluminum free baking powder, others didn't specify.  I happened to have it on hand so that's what I have been using the last couple of months that I've been making these.  And lastly, it really does only make about 12-14 biscuits.  You will think that sounds like plenty...until you taste them.  If you have a big family (meaning more than two people) you'll want to double the recipe.  Just know that it does take a lot longer to cut the biscuits out with double the dough.





Oh!  And one more thing - another blogger said that the biscuits should always have their sides touching while baking.  She said that it helps them rise better...don't ask me why.  This pic is from the first time I made the recipe and since then I have tried it with ALL of the sides touching and it works great.  So, make sure they're all connected.  :)  Enjoy!