Comfort In A Biscuit

The weather has turned cool and that makes me crave comfort food. Chicken n' Dumplins, Chili and lightly sweetened cornbread, chunky beef stew, the list goes on. But the other night I was craving (and slightly drooling over) chicken and biscuits.

I make a simple chicken pot pie and I used the same filling but served it over freshly-baked-hot-from-the-oven biscuits. They were flaky, and tender, mildly salty from the salted butter I put on top before they went in the oven, and YUM!

We had them for dinner with the chicken/veggie mixture, for breakfast with plum jam and salted butter, and I also made breakfast biscuits with scrambled eggs, cheese, and bacon. These biscuits were simple, basic (as the recipe title implies) and good.

Basic Buttermilk Biscuits from Paula Deen via Food Network

• 1 package yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cup solid shortening
• 2 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Dissolve yeast in warm water; set aside.

Mix dry ingredients together. Cut in shortening. Add yeast and buttermilk and mix well.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and roll out to desired thickness. Cut with small biscuit cutter and place on greased baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

NOTE: The recipe doesn't say it needs kneading, but I found the dough a little sticky when I turned it out onto the counter. I kneaded about 1/2 a cup extra flour into the dough, just until it was no longer sticky. Don't over-knead or your biscuits will be tough. If your dough isn't sticky after adding all the ingredients together, don't knead it. It may be because it was humid here???

I made jumbo biscuits (about 3 inches wide) so they took about 18 minutes to turn golden. I don't have a biscuit cutter, so I used a flower shaped cookie cutter. You could also use a a glass or a cleaned out tin can.

I made 18 jumbo biscuits instead of 36 smaller biscuits. I kept them in an airtight container and reheated them in the toaster oven for a few minutes til warm. They stayed fresh for a few days, but they can be frozen and kept longer.

The trick to get your biscuits to rise properly is to not twist the cutter in the dough. Press the cutter down into the dough, and lift straight up, don't be tempted to twist.