The Flavorful Kitchen – The Humble Biscuit

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The Humble Biscuit

Breakfast to Dessert – A Must Have Recipe

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My love affair with biscuits really began during a business trip to Nashville, TN in May of 2019. I made biscuits before, but was never really wowed. Before my trip, my friend and I planned out some Nashville adventures to squeeze in during our off time. We had a mix of things to do, but our plans mostly consisted of places that were off the beaten path and where the locals liked to eat or shop.  Besides music and food, we were going to squeeze in some Nashville speakeasies for fun. 

Luckily, my friend lived in the south for many years, and is a biscuit fan. We had our list but wanted to ask a Nashville native for some great breakfast places to eat. Biscuit Love was one of his suggestions.  If you go to Nashville, brunches are famous.  Just about every place had an hour or more wait, but we didn’t mind.  It was part of the experience.  Our two breakfast choices were close to each other so my friend and I split up to see whose line was moving faster. I won! And she joined me in the faster moving line. We took a seat at the counter. I love sitting at counters – you get to see all of the action and chat with the workers and whoever sits next to you.  Looking at the delicious menu…What to order?  Or, rather, what not to order?  We ordered so many dishes, you would have thought it was our last meal! Afterwards, we bought merch – love my t-shirt, and ordered biscuits to go!  I snacked on some that night in the hotel room and the rest of the biscuits travelled back home with me to New England.  My family enjoyed every bite.  Now we always seek out biscuits during our travels.

Traveling for work created an itch to experience a new place to call home.  Change was in the air for 2019 and prompted a spontaneous move to the west coast of Florida a few month later in August.  If Nashville were by the sea, I would have chosen Nashville.  OK, so maybe Florida is not your vision of a southern biscuit state, but I was inspired. After all, I was living in a southern state. While stocking up the pantry, I purchased a bag of self-rising flour and started to tinker with making biscuits.  I kept it simple and used the recipe on the flour bag for Buttermilk Biscuits.  A simple three ingredient recipe.  I made my first batch.  Not bad.  Since I am one to sway from recipes and do my own thing, I started to tinker with recipes and finally had a winner.  These biscuits are easy and the best I’ve ever made.  My taste-tester family never complained when I popped a test batch into the oven.

I found using self-rising flour is the key to this recipe. Self-rising flour has all of the leavening ingredients already mixed in, so you are ready to go. The biscuits are light and tender, not dense. You can make them with whole milk or buttermilk.  I make them with whole milk and a little twist.  While making another batch, I realized I didn’t have buttermilk on hand, and I didn’t want to sour the milk with vinegar to make “buttermilk”. I hesitated in thought, “do I not make the biscuits now?” Heck no!  So, I looked in my fridge and saw a bottle of white wine (Chardonnay) from a previous dinner gathering. So I thought “why not?” – and a splash! of white wine went into the milk.  Now, there is always a bottle of white wine (I’m a red wine drinker) on hand in the fridge, because making these easy drop biscuits is almost a weekly occurrence.  And, if I don’t have the wine, I still make them.

Drop biscuits are quick and easy to make on the fly. This is a basic recipe to keep-on-hand.  Have fun with it and make it your own – add fresh or dried herbs, cheese or dried fruit. Be creative and let me know how they turn out by sharing your photos on Instagram tagging @TheFlavorfulKitchen and with #TheFlavorfulKitchen. Enjoy!

Easy Drop Biscuit Recipe

This is my-go-to easy Drop Biscuit recipe.  Flaky, tender inside, with a nice crunch on the outside. Whip up a batch for quick breakfast sandwiches, sop up a yummy BBQ meal or for a fast dessert like strawberry short cake biscuits or as a cobbler topping.

This is a basic recipe to keep-on-hand.  Have fun with it and make it your own – add fresh or dried herbs, cheese or dried fruit. Be creative and let me know how they turn out by sharing your photos on Instagram tagging @TheFlavorfulKitchen and with #TheFlavorfulKitchen. Enjoy!

Mise en Place

A successful recipe starts with – everything in its place or mise en place – a French culinary phrase that means “putting in place” or “everything in its place” – Before you begin, set up your workspace by putting out all of your ingredients and baking utensils that you need for the recipe.

INGREDIENTS

Makes from 12 to 15 biscuits

2 cups self rising flour

½ cold unsalted butter* cut into ½” cubes (if using *salted butter, omit the salt)

¼  teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

¾ cup cold whole milk or buttermilk

1 Tablespoon white wine added to milk – Optional Twist– if you have it on hand, add it!

Make & Bake

Preheat oven 450 degrees

In a bowl place and mix together flour, salt and sugar

Toss into flour mixture the cold cubed butter and with pastry blender or fork, cut the butter into flour until a coarse meal is formed

With a spoon or an ice cream scooper – Scoop and drop the desired size biscuits onto an ungreased sheet pan

Bake on the middle rack in oven for 12 minutes or until done (depends on the size of the biscuit)

Enjoy!