Day 14 | Fancy Biscuits

I am just barely getting Day 14 in there!  We have company in town for the weekend - and let's just say that when the husbands do the planning often times wires get crossed.  So my company arrived at 10am...not 10pm.  *big smile*  Good times.

In addition to not having the guest bathroom or guest linens cleaned {ha!} I also did not have lunch planned.

I totally rocked tuna salad on kaiser rolls...and forgot to take pictures!  They were dang good though for a meal on the quick - with bits of apple, hard boiled egg, and red pepper flakes adding extra flavor.

So instead of tuna salad sandwiches, I give you this.

Everyone and their mama {and their grandmama} has a biscuit recipe.  We all think ours is the best.

Growing up, no one could hold a candle to my Mema's biscuits.  Even today, no one can hold a candle to my Mema's biscuits.  There are a TON of biscuit recipes out there and I can't resist reading every biscuit recipe I come across, because I have yet to find one which shares the same ingredients as my Mema's.  This just reinforces in my mind that her's are the best.

Biscuits are the country cousin of scones.  Good ones are flaky, flavorful, and melt in your mouth.  I actually prefer biscuits to scones.  And I love to "dress up" my biscuits - playing with cheese and herbs so that my humble biscuits hold their own at the dinner table.

Biscuits from scratch are just as quick and easy as using a baking mix.  If you've never tried them before, you can find recipes here, here, here, and here.  I added a generous handful of shredded parmesean and about a palm-full of minced fresh sage to mine.  You might prefer something like cheddar and dill.  It's easy to make your biscuits fancy using what you have on hand.

No matter what recipe you're using, your biscuits will turn out best if you use the tools God gave you.

I take short cuts most of the time with my biscuits, but if I really want them to shine there is no substitute for using your hands.  Also, if you've seen The Help, Minny is right about Crisco.

Another tip: don't measure your liquids.

You want your dough to be nice and sticky.  The stickier the better.  This amount of liquid you need to get sticky dough is going to change from day to day depending on the weather and how dry your flour is.  And while I love my Kitchen Aid mixer as much as the next girl, you just can't judge the consistency as well without digging in with your hands.

I press my dough out {no rolling pin on these babies} and use a 2" biscuit cutter.  But did you check out that last "here" from up above?  Judith Alfano {yes, another Judith!} doesn't use a rolling pin or a cutter and hers look todiefor.  However you cut yours out, make sure you baste those puppies with some butter or oil.  {I never said biscuits were low fat/low cal.}

I like a 450 degree oven and bake mine for 15 minutes. 

So there you have it.  The humble biscuit gets gussied up. 

Drooling?  Yeah.  Me too.  :)