Best Dropped Biscuits
Makes 4 large biscuits. Wrap any leftovers in foil to reheat with supper.
Dry Ingredients
1 1/4 cups self rising flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons Crisco
Wet ingredients
1/2 cup milk, to which you add 1 and 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice. Let sit 5-10 minutes.
Stir dry ingredients and cut Crisco into it with a pastry cutter (or a couple of forks) until it resembles course meal. Make a small "dent" in the flour in the bowl in which you will pour the milk.
Add milk mixture to the well in the center of the dry mixture all at once. Stir with a spatula, JUST until the flour is incorporated and dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. 4-6 gentle stirs is all it should take. DO NOT overmix. The less you handle it, the more tender it will be.
Using that same spatula, drop dough onto a lightly greased (or use PAM) cookie sheet. Bake at 475 F. for 9-11 minutes. The top will still be fairly light colored, but the little peaks will look dark brown and the bottom will be done quite nicely.
Remove, brush with 1 tablespoon of melted butter and drizzle with fresh honey.
LOWER TRANS FAT VERSION (NOT low fat).
Do not add Crisco. Melt 4 tablespoons of real, unsalted butter in the microwave after you've done the dry and wet ingredients. Pour the melted butter into the cup of milk which should be very cold. Let sit a few minutes, stirring, until the butter starts to congeal again (should look like grainy soup). Then add to dry mixture. This does not reduce the fat content but makes the TRANS fat content much less, with little difference in texture or flavor. Best Buttermilk Biscuits
(from firefly at I live on a farm)
Ingredients
2 c. flour
4 1/2 tsp. double acting baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. butter
2/3 c. buttermilk, plus a bit extra
Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Mix together the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter until it is in small flakes or balls. I do this by hand with a fork, because you don’t want the butter mixed in too completely. This is very important for the flakiness.Gradually stir in the 2/3 c. buttermilk. Do not overmix. With biscuits you want to mix as little as necessary to preserve the flakiness.
If the dough has pulled together into a soft dough, you have added enough liquid. If not, splash a bit extra buttermilk in (maybe 1 or 2 tablespoons worth) and mix just enough to form a soft dough.
Turn out onto floured board and knead very gently 6 to 10 times.
Form into a ball; roll out to about 1/2" thickness.
Using a 2" biscuit or cookie cutter, cut biscuits out. Mush scraps back together gently and cut more biscuits.
Place biscuits on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown on top.
Serve hot and enjoy!