Buttermilk Biscuits marydukecooks.com

I can remember my aunts making biscuits daily. I had no idea that this wasn’t normal…that others ate biscuits from a can, freezer, or fast food restaurant. Trust me there is nothing wrong with that… I got spoiled as a child and just love a homemade biscuit!

I’ve discovered that you can make homemade biscuits in the time it takes to bake frozen ones by making your own biscuit mix and keeping it in the freezer. The process is actually very simple. Measure self-rising flour and cut in shortening.  Place flour and shortening  mixture in a zip-top plastic bag. Write how much buttermilk to add, oven temperature, and baking time on bag. Store in freezer. When ready to make biscuits; pour biscuit mix in a bowl, stir in buttermilk, pat 1-inch thick, fold, cut, and bake.  Keeping the flour and shortening mixture frozen and the buttermilk ice-cold makes these biscuits extra moist and flaky. I keep several bags in the freezer so I can have biscuits anytime I want!

Freezer Biscuit Mix

2 cups self-rising flour (I use Southern Biscuit self-rising flour)
1/3 cup butter flavor shortening
2/3 to 3/4 cup whole buttermilk (Whole buttermilk is thicker than low fat buttermilk and works better)

Stir flour with a fork to fluff. Gently spoon flour into a 1-cup measuring cup then level with straight edge of a knife. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender or 2 knives until  pieces of shortening are the size of peas. Freeze. 

When ready to make biscuits: Preheat oven to 450ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lightly flour parchment paper. Reserve.

Remove zip-top bag of frozen biscuit mix from freezer and pour into a bowl. Pour in 2/3 to 3/4 cup cold Whole buttermilk. Using a fork, gently lift (don’t stir) flour mixture until there are no dry spots of flour. If you still have a dry spot, add drops of additional buttermilk to it. Dough will look shaggy and be sticky. Scrape dough from bowl with a rubber spatula onto lightly floured parchment paper.  

Lightly flour fingertips and top of dough. Pat dough to flatten slightly then fold in half. Repeat 2 more times adding more flour as necessary. Pat dough into a 1-inch thick rectangle. At this point I just flour a knife and cut the dough into 6 pieces, with sides touching. 

Alternately, if you wish, cut biscuit dough using a 2-inch floured, round biscuit cutter. Cut dough as close together as possible. Do not twist cutter or pat sides of biscuit dough when placing on baking sheet (twisting the cutter and patting the sides makes the biscuits not rise as high). Place biscuits on a baking sheet with sides touching (with sides touching, biscuits can rise higher because they provide structural support for each other). Reroll scraps once.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 6 biscuits. Enjoy!

Tip: For thinner biscuits: roll dough 1/2-inch thick and cut 12 biscuits. Adjust baking time. It will be shorter.

Published in The News and Neighbor on June 28, 2023.