Let's Make Biscuits.
 

Okay I'm not the only person in the world that can make biscuits but here goes.
It is 18 pictures with comments along the way describing I hope everything.
Make these for your family or dog and they will love you forever.
Here is the recipe first.
2 cups of all purpose flour.
1 cup of milk.
1 teaspoon of salt, yes no doesn't matter your choice.
1 heaping tablespoon of fresh baking powder.
About 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cold shortening, butter or lard, this one was made with lard.
A big mixing bowl.
A pastry blender.
First you will put all dry ingredients in the bowl and mix up well.
Then put the lard etc in chunks in the bowl and start cutting into the flour.
At first you will need something to scrap the fat from the pastry knife.
But as time goes along you wont need to anymore.
Keep chopping mixing and stirring until it is completely mixed together with no lumps of fat.
What you now have is Bisquick you should be able to squeeze the mixture together and it should stay that way but fall right back apart again when you want it to.
Here come the pictures the first six will be from start to finished dough.
All dry ingredients mixed with lard on top.
[ATTACH]54140[/ATTACH]
Mixing and cutting in the lard.
[ATTACH]54141[/ATTACH]
This is how it should look.
[ATTACH]54142[/ATTACH]
The same thing here it should stand on it's own.
[ATTACH]54143[/ATTACH]
Now make a bowl in the flour and pour in about half the milk and mix it up but dont go crazy.
[ATTACH]54144[/ATTACH]
Now you will slowly add more milk until it is still wet but not runny.
as you see I have about 1/3 cup of milk left over.
Make sure the dough is sticky.
[ATTACH]54145[/ATTACH]
Now on to the next post where you can make the biscuits and you will have choices.

Worth

Here is where you have choices.
You can just spoon them in a pan in big lumps and bake them.
Drop them in a muffin pan or what ever.
Here is what I like to do sometimes and it is really easy.

First you will need to put some bench flour down so you can work with the dough.
This is why I suggested to make the dough wet and sticky.
The dough will take on the dry flour and be about right.
If the dough is already dry then it can and will become a rock.;)
When you spread the flour out on the bench just leave some on your hands so the wet sticky dough doesn't stick.
Now is also the time to preheat the oven from 425 to 450.
I like mine at around 425.
Here we go.

Cut the dough in half and roll out two on the bench as depicted.
About 1/2 inch thick or so.
[ATTACH]54146[/ATTACH]
Now lay one on top of the other like so.
[ATTACH]54147[/ATTACH]
Fold in half and roll back out to original size.
[ATTACH]54148[/ATTACH]
Now that is is rolled back out use a cutter to make evenly spaced biscuits.
Mine is about 2 1/2 inches across your choice.
You will see there are only five biscuits in the next pictuer you will see six.
The remainder of the dough from cutting out the first five is used to make the last biscuit.
Do not over work the dough.
[ATTACH]54149[/ATTACH]
All six biscuits ready to go.
[ATTACH]54150[/ATTACH]
Baking and serving suggestions in the next post.
Worth

Okay I'm back and we are now ready to bake the biscuits.

First grease a 10 inch skillet or what ever you have around.
I'm using a stick of butter.
[ATTACH]54151[/ATTACH]
Now place the critters in the pan like so and place in preheated oven.
I have no idea how long maybe 15-20 minutes more or less.
[ATTACH]54152[/ATTACH]
Here they are out of the oven.
[ATTACH]54153[/ATTACH]
Here is why I do what I do and why people will be flabbergasted.
You dont need to cut the biscuit it will open up on its own due to the folding.;)
[ATTACH]54154[/ATTACH]
While the biscuits are baking make six sausage patties so you can have a sausage biscuit.
I used my own home ground homemade sausage.
[ATTACH]54155[/ATTACH]

Serve or save for later.
Enjoy and Happy Halloween.:D
Worth

I am drooling. Where do you get your lard from?

[QUOTE=luigiwu;511364]I am drooling. Where do you get your lard from?[/QUOTE]

I just buy the Armour lard from the store it doesn't have any taste to me and is all I can get.
I also think it is better than Crisco and better for you.
My mother made lard and she had no idea how to do it as none of the other people did in the area either.
I didn't like it they over heated it while rendering.

By the way thank you.
Worth

I just saw a method of using your crockpot to render lard. The lightbulb went off for me when I saw it.
I am on a restricted gluten-free protocol right - it been okay but pictures like yours def. remind me of what I'm missing out on!!!

[QUOTE=luigiwu;511371]I just saw a method of using your crockpot to render lard. The lightbulb went off for me when I saw it.
I am on a restricted gluten-free protocol right - it been okay but pictures like yours def. remind me of what I'm missing out on!!![/QUOTE]

One word Rice flour, well two words. :)
Worth

Thank You Worth! I am going to give your instructions a try within the next couple of weeks. After I saw your gravy post, I bought some frozen biscuit dough at the grocery store today and I'm going to have biscuits and sausage gravy for supper one night next week. Keep the great posts coming, I really enjoy them!

[QUOTE=whistech;511375]Thank You Worth! I am going to give your instructions a try within the next couple of weeks. After I saw your gravy post, I bought some frozen biscuit dough at the grocery store today and I'm going to have biscuits and sausage gravy for supper one night next week. Keep the great posts coming, I really enjoy them![/QUOTE]

Your welcome.
I want to add a few things here that maybe folks dont know.
The baking powder I used up just today said, "Best if used by May 2014".:shock::lol:
If baking powder gets hard toss it it is junk.
This never got hard.

Also if you use something too acidic like buttermilk you might want to leaven things use baking soda not baking powder.
Baking powder is basically baking soda mixed with an acid.
I am also sure if my baking powder would have been newer the biscuits would have risen more.


Once you learn the chemistry things start to come together.
As a general rule you use one teaspoon of baking powder for every cup of flour.
This is how I am able to dream up recipes.
Here is a wiki site that tells more about it.

Baking powder.
[url]https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAAahUKEwiztr7d7-3IAhVDeCYKHTyZACc&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBaking_powder&usg=AFQjCNGKqZcFnQKU43oumGiTwqzFQ1VKxQ[/url]
Baking soda.
[url]https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAAahUKEwjhleyI8e3IAhWGWD4KHaQbCNg&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSodium_bicarbonate&usg=AFQjCNEoypN1KlNGNNXtdSw83mXJEcFIew[/url]

I just fed my sour dough starter today , I am planning on baking some stuff next weekend , tomorrow is booked for some fall fishing ;)

For those who are gluten free....KRUSTEZ: I just saw a bag of flour replacement they started marketing. No gluten grains in it. You use it cup for cup in exchange for flour.

Good job Worth. My family got soup and crackers for supper. nothing baked is going on here, but those biscuits sure looked yummy.

I learned how to make really good biscuits when I was married to my Arkansas husband, self rising flour, mayo and a little milk. Cant quite remember the proportions, it was kind of by feel but they came out quite good for being so easy. Think it was about 2 cups flour big heaping (cooking) spoon of mayo and half cup or so of milk.

Those look beautiful.

I made biscuits once. Just once. I got big beautiful biscuits. And hard as a rock. Sigh...

[QUOTE=Gerardo;511518]Those look beautiful.[/QUOTE]

Thanks I'm now down to my last two.:lol:

[QUOTE=Deborah;511526]I made biscuits once. Just once. I got big beautiful biscuits. And hard as a rock. Sigh...[/QUOTE]

So did I more than once, but I learned to figure out what I was doing wrong.
It sounds to me like you didn't have the oven turned up high enough and they just dried out before they got brown.

Double acting baking powder has two types of leavening agents in it.
One activates with moisture and the other with heat.
You cant fool around making this stuff and yesterday by stopping just the set things up and take pictures almost ruined them.
When you mix the fluid in with the dry stuff it should start to fluff up expand and get light.
That is the first one activating.
This is why you dont over work it.
If you have not over worked it and waited too long when you put them in the oven then the heat activated leavening agent takes over and you get fluffy biscuits.

I highly suggest that for people trying to learn is to make cathead or drop biscuits first.

Worth