Has anyone noticed when following a recipe that says anything about “Grandma’s Recipe” it often isn’t that good? It’s probably because “Grandma” didn’t write that recipe, because “Grandma” doesn’t measure anything and often cooks with slightly different ingredients. So, there isn’t really a recipe to be written.
One of those recipes that I have tried and failed at several times is my Mammaw’s homemade biscuits. Let me start by saying, I am a biscuit snob. Especially when it comes to biscuits and gravy. I will forever begrudge you if you try to serve me gravy with canned or frozen biscuits. What can I say, my Mammaw ruined me! She told me several times how to recreate her beautiful mountains of fluffy, buttery, heaven, but I failed. So. Many. Times. “It’s just self-rising flour, butter, and milk and a little salt.”, she told me repeatedly. What could I be doing wrong?!
Ratio and texture. That’s what I was doing wrong. I couldn’t get the buttery flavor right, then I couldn’t get the salt right, sometimes I couldn’t get the texture right until I ended up with enough dough to make 40 biscuits.
But, ALAS! I have finally mastered the biscuit recipe! 4 ingredients, 30 minutes, no mess, and you have yourself the best biscuits ever.
Mammaw’s Drop Biscuits | Yields: 8 biscuits | Prep Time: 5 min | Cook Time: 20 min
Ingredients
- 2 cups self rising flour- if you do not have self rising flour add 1.5 t of baking powder and .25t of salt to each cup of flour
- 2 sticks + 2 tablespoons of butter, softened
- Teaspoon of salt
- 1/3 cup of milk (more or less may be needed
Instructions
This is much easier to make if you have a stand mixer, but you can also do it by hand.
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly coat a large baking sheet with butter. Start by adding your flour and salt to a large mixing bowl. Stir to evenly distribute the salt. Cut 2 sticks of butter into small 1/4″ cubes and add to your salt and flour mixture. Mix using a pastry blender, whisk, or whisk attachment, begin mixing the butter into the flour. You will need to mix until the flour and butter combine to form what will look like pea gravel. Add a splash of milk to bring the “gravel-like pieces” together to form a tight dough. Also, I prefer to use buttermilk, but whatever milk you have on hand will do! The goal is to achieve a texture somewhat like chewed gum. Tacky, but not messy. If you add too much milk and your dough becomes loose and sticky, add a tad more flour. Once you have achieved the correct texture, scoop the dough out in heaping spoonfuls onto your buttered baking sheet. I try to keep my biscuits about 2″-2.5″ in diameter. If you like more uniform biscuits, you can roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface then cut them to size, but that’s too much work for me! Brush the tops and sides of each biscuit with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter before placing in the oven. Cook time will vary depending on your biscuit size. Mine usually take 12-15 minutes however larger biscuits or rolled and cut biscuits take longer. Once the biscuit peaks/tops turn the slightest light gold color, remove from the oven and serve!
Thanks for stopping by the Ridge!
-Kristen
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