Southern biscuits are an art form. I grew up thinking that everyone wanted that fluffy, moist, flakey biscuit. I have long hunted the ability to make this gold standard of biscuits. It remained elusive to me.
In my search I happened across many historic recipes that had a lot of egg but hardly any fat. Then I came upon "the Southerner's Cookbook". They call it "the ABC's of Southern Biscuits". This describes the following: Angel Biscuits which have added yeast, Beaten biscuit which is all about air incorporation, and cathead biscuits that are as large as a cats head.
It is the Angel biscuit that we will focus on.
I was focused on making buttermilk biscuits. My first question was if buttermilk would work with the yeast. My concern was that the buttermilk. I know that salt retards salt growth, so I had to be sure. After searching the web for a bit, all I could find was that you had to use more yeast with buttermilk. So I changed my plan to proof the yeast with whole milk instead. I then started just searching for Angel biscuit recipes, not expecting to find one with buttermilk, when I happened upon this recipe.
I followed it with just a few changes.
Here is what I did .
Buttermilk Angel Biscuits
Ingredients
7 g active dry yeast (1 pkg)
1/4 c warm water
1/4 c Sugar
6 1/4 c AP Flour
1 T Baking Powder
1 t Baking Soda
1 t Kosher Salt
1 c Bacon Drippings
2 c Buttermilk
1/4 c Unsalted Butter
Directions
1). Proof yeast by mixing with 1/4 c water and 1 T sugar, let sit until foamy
2). Sift together 6 c flour, remaining sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3). Using your preferred method cut the lard into the flour mixture, until a course crumb like
texture is achieved.
( I prefer my kitchen aid for this, a food processor would also make this easy)
4). Add buttermilk and yeast mixture, stirring in only until dough comes together.
5). Let rise until doubled in size.
6). Spread remaining flour onto board and knead dough on it 16 times.
7). Roll dough to 1/3" thick and cut as many biscuits as possible, roll out scraps and cut as many more as possible. Toss scraps.
8). Place biscuits on a sheet pan with parchment, touching each other.
9). Melt butter and brush on top of biscuits.
10). Let rise in warm spot until doubled in size.
11) Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.
NOTES:
I would probably add a touch more buttermilk. The dough was very stiff and difficult to roll.
Now I am not going to say this recipe is bulletproof. With that being said, I missed adding the yeast mixture until after I had combined the dough, which ended in it being overmixed because I had to add it. Despite this they were still light, fluffy and just flakey enough to pull apart.
Despite my errors, our friends, who have strong opinions about biscuits, turned down chocolate croissants for more biscuits.
With that being said, despite the extra time these take, they are worth it!
