Biscuit-ology 101

For years now, a light and fluffy Southern biscuit has been beyond my reach. After exhaustive experimentation, here is my lab notebook -- and my conclusions.

Start with

1. 4 3/8 oz (1 cup) low-protein or Southern all-purpose flour (such as White Lily), sifted

I use low protein flour to avoid formation of gluten, the tough protein fibers that make yeast breads hold their shape. For biscuits, however, gluten just makes them tough. The amount of gluten formed is minimized by minimizing mixing once liquid is added, but more on that later.

Using your fingertips, rub in

1. 1 oz (2 T) cold butter, cut in small cubes or thin slices
2. or 7/8 oz (2 T) vegetable shortening

Now shortening is traditional in most Southern recipes, but I find the butter gives a beautifully crispy, golden bottom crust, almost as though it were fried (which in a sense, it is). Either way, rub the fat between your floured fingertips until the largest chunks are the size of small peas. I know this is what all recipes say, but basically you can't get them smaller without a lot of patience and melting the fat to boot. It only takes a minute or two at most. If you think you've gotten it too warm, toss in the freezer for a few minutes to firm up.

Whisk in the leavening:

1. 1/4 t baking soda
2. or 1 t baking powder

You may only use the soda if you're using buttermilk as the liquid: the acidic buttermilk will perfectly neutralize the soda (in these proportions), generating lots of carbon dioxide bubbles to make the biscuits rise. If you're using milk/cream/etc, you must use baking powder, which contains 1/4 t soda and the appropriate acids to neutralize it, activated on heating. If you use half buttermilk, you can use 1/8 t baking soda and 1/2 t powder. I advocate using baking soda whenever using buttermilk, to leave the biscuits closer to neutral pH: acidic environments inhibit browning, so the outside of your biscuits will be slightly paler when using baking powder together with buttermilk.

Also, I think baking powder can leave an unpleasant soapy-chemical taste, especially in large quantities. Speaking of which: Cookwise warns that using too much leavening can make baked goods flat as easily as too little, so don't supplement the amounts here. I do add it after the fat rather than sifting together with the flour, as otherwise I'm concerned that the leavening agent will get coated in fat and be unable to react with the (water-based) dairy liquid. This leads to flat biscuits and the soapy taste of unreacted soda.

Also whisk in

1. 1 t salt
2. 1 t sugar
   

Use whatever you like; I prefer Kosher. A little salt adds taste to all sorts of things, so don't leave it out, or the biscuits will taste more like hard tack, no matter how fluffy they are. The small amount of sugar promotes browning without making the biscuits perceptibly sweet. Without it, the biscuits are still very pale even when fully cooked.

Finally, stir/fold in gently just until ingredients are evenly moistened

1. 3.5 - 4 fl. oz. (1/2 c) buttermilk (see below)
   

Use 3.5 oz if using White Lily, or 4 oz if using 1 cup national brand AP flour. To make fake buttermilk, mix 1 cup milk with 1 T lemon juice or white vinegar and let stand 10 minutes. Fake buttermilk is thinner than the real stuff and will give wetter dough. Don't stir too much at this point, as you'll create gluten that leads to tough, flat biscuits. You already sifted the flour, so any lumps are already gone. I like a spatula-spoon for this operation. It will look like a batter rather than a dough -- that's OK. Once the dairy is in, the leavening will start reacting to make CO2, especially if using buttermilk and baking soda. That means if you're prepping ahead of time, don't add the dairy until you're ready to put them in the oven. Drop the batter in four big heaps on a cookie sheet (I line mine with a Silpat first). Just drop them fairly close together to help them rise higher -- I don't know why this works, but it seems to. Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 14-16 minutes until done. They will be lightly golden on top. Baking at 450 makes them too hard, but 400 is workable if push comes to shove.

I abandoned the roll-and-cut (or pat-and-cut) method in favor of drop biscuits after many failed attempts. To get a workable dough, it has to be too dry -- only a wet dough creates enough steam to get tall and fluffy when baked. To shape a really wet dough, you have to flour the outside heavily, and that inevitably leads to clumps of uncooked flour. Plus, all the cookbooks say you need a sharp cutter and can't twist it when pressing down (or the biscuits won't rise). Then the wet dough sticks to the cutter anyway, or to the counter. Too much trouble! Embrace the ugly but deliciously effective method that is drop biscuits. I've even baked them in jumbo muffin cups, which gives a different outside texture (like biscuit bottom all over), but works pretty well.

Even better is a cast iron biscuit pan made by Lodge. Grease cups with spray oil before filling. One batch of this recipe fills two of the seven cups almost to the top; three batches fills six cups. (Don't use the center one as it cooks slower.) Smooth tops of cups with wet back of spoon or wet fingers. Baking takes longer since the pan can absorb so much heat, about 18 minutes at 425.

This recipe was assembled with input from Shirley Corriher in Cookwise, Alton Brown on Food TV, Katy's Grandma Rose, and the back of the White Lily bag. My biscuits aren't like any of theirs, but they helped me get there. I've probably forgotten some other sources, but a lot of this comes from experimentation too. I hope it helps someone else make a delicious biscuit.

By the way, this recipe makes four biscuits, an improbably small number. But it's good for families of two, and good when you're making a lot of different batches of biscuits. It should scale up 2, 3, or 4 times with no problems. You might try cutting the fat into the flour with a food processor (using short pulses). You can even "sift" the flour first by processing it, and incorportate the leavening and salt this way. But don't use the processor for mixing with the dairy or it will really overwork the dough.