Southern Biscuits

My first official culinary adventure of the summer was biscuits.  The afternoon before I made them, I measured the dry ingredients into a bowl with a lid, in order to speed up the process the following morning.  I used Alton Brown’s recipe for southern biscuits.  It called for a cup of buttermilk, but we didn’t have any on hand, so I put a tablespoon of distilled white vinegar in the measuring cup and filled it to the 1-cup mark with whole milk.  This substitution seemed to work out fine in the recipe.  Also, I didn’t have a 2-inch biscuit cutter; the smallest one Mommy could find for me was 2 ½ inches in diameter.  As a result, my batch of biscuits only yielded nine biscuits, whereas the recipe’s yield was a dozen.  I baked the biscuits for 15 minutes and checked them, then baked them for 3 minutes more.  I think if I had taken them out of the oven after 15 minutes they would have been baked, but the extra three minutes allowed the biscuits to become golden brown on top.  If I made this recipe again, I would like to try using buttermilk to see if it makes any difference in flavor or texture.  I think I would bake the biscuits for slightly less time in the future.

FLAVOR:  The biscuits were good.  I don’t think I would call them fantastic, but I really enjoyed having fresh, warm biscuits for breakfast.  I think they would have been even better if we had gotten to eat them straight from the oven, but with six people in the family, it is pretty near impossible for everyone to be sitting at the table when the food is hot.  Also, my recipe testers commented on blandness; this could have something to do with the fact that I used unsalted butter.  Next time, I’ll used salted butter, and maybe brush the tops with melted butter.

TEXTURE/APPEARANCE:  The biscuits seemed a bit dry compared to what I am used to (premade, frozen, store-bought biscuits), but this may be a result of my inexperience with biscuit-making.  It is possible that I overworked or over-floured the dough, or maybe I baked them too long.  Or it is possible that real biscuits are dry.  The tops of the biscuits got nice and golden brown, but they could have risen higher.

WOULD I MAKE THIS RECIPE AGAIN?  Yes, I would make this recipe again, but I would also like to experiment with other biscuit recipes.  The biscuits were much simpler to make than I expected.  If I make these biscuits again, I will try using really cold ingredients and I’ll be sure that I don’t overwork the dough.  Next time I will try making some kind of gravy to go over them.  Maybe sausage gravy or chocolate gravy would be good.

OTHER COMMENTS/NOTES:  I think I should buy a 2-inch biscuit cutter.  I toasted a leftover biscuit and topped it with butter and honey today for breakfast, and it was delicious.

FAMILY MEMBER REVIEWS: (These are not exact quotes, just my paraphrasing of my family's comments.)

Little Brother:  Good texture, but they were bland.

Little Sister:  They were good.  They were best with honey and butter.

Big Sister:  They had a nice texture, they didn’t taste canned, and they were a little dry; jam would be nice.

Mommy:  Good, but bland; but I enjoyed them and would eat them again.

Daddy:  Daddy doesn’t like biscuits, so he didn’t eat any and therefore has no opinion of them.

Here is the link to the recipe I used: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/southern-biscuits-recipe/index.html