Thursday, January 24, 2008

A Biscuit For Your Thoughts

I love real homemade biscuits. I love them in a large bowl, biscuit split in half and smothered with way too much sausage gravy. That plus a plate of scrambled cheese eggs cooked in bacon grease mixed with a plop of cheese grits will make my tummy so happy. And the other way I love to eat biscuits is fresh out of the oven, split in half, butter slathered over the halves and then honey poured on top - enough honey to run down the sides. In my mind's tastebud, this is what manna must have tasted like to the Israelites. Here's where the problem is. I sure can't make them. I wish I could. I even try. My biscuits look good and smell good before they go in the oven. But when they come out, they are so flat and hard and heavy that the only beneficial use for them is skipping on a pond. I've tried different recipes from various cookbooks. Chris says that I am overlooking an important step in the making of them, although I've told him I read and follow the recipe exactly. I have heard other ladies talk about watching their Grandmothers crank out some heavenly biscuits. And though my Grandma was a home economics teacher in her earlier years, she was also from the North, and didn't make biscuits like all the MawMaws down South (at least not to my knowledge).
After tonight's latest biscuit-making attempt, I have resolved that I AM going to learn how to make big fluffy tasty biscuits before I die. Preferably even sooner. So if you know a secret about making biscuits - something that's not written in the cookbooks - or if you had a Grandma that turned out biscuits that could make angels sing, I want to hear from you! So that just maybe my family can enjoy some decent biscuits without having to take a trip to the Cracker Barrel.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're so cute.

pwnspace said...

You have to be careful not to knead the dough too much. Also, even though it sucks, you can't keep adding flour to your hands as you knead it. Put up with the gooey sticky dough for about five flip/turns and you should be golden.

Summary:
- hardly any kneading
- hardly any added flour to the dough

Anonymous said...

pillsbury makes a nice frozen to bakes just right(: