www.olsouthrecipes.com  |
Southern Recipes - Southern Cooking"down home Southern Food" |
|
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
What's Wrong With My Biscuits?Are your biscuits flat, heavy and tasteless? Well, you are probably making a few common mistakes that are simple to correct. Biscuits are generally thought of as a breakfast food, but they are very popular in many restaurants served any time of day (Kentucky Fried Chicken for one) So biscuits are not just for breakfast any more. However, good biscuits are not that easy to make at home, unless you know a few tips. Here's How: You should start with a good recipe. Check the link at the bottom of this page for our Southern Biscuit recipe. Then you need to follow these few simple tips: 1. Do not overwork the dough. Biscuits do not need to be kneaded. That will make heavy, tough biscuits. After you roll the dough out on your board, simply fold the dough over on itself about three times. Then Stop! Next, gently form a round shape and roll it out to about a 2 inch thickness with your rolling pin (this makes big, fat biscuits...if you like thin biscuits roll out dough to 1 inch thickness). 2. When you cut out the biscuits from the dough, push the biscuit cutter straight down, then straight up. Do not push down and twist. This compacts the edges of the dough and causes uneven cooking and tough biscuits. 3. Always pre-heat your oven completely (generally 400-425 degrees). Different ovens vary in the time required to get up to temperature. I recommend you always allow at least 15 minutes after turning the oven on before putting the biscuits in. A cold (or not fully pre-heated) oven is the leading cause for failure of the dough to rise (flat biscuits). Note: If you do not know how long it takes your oven to reach a specific temperature, I suggest you do a test to find out. Simply turn on the oven set for 400 degrees, place an oven safe thermometer in the oven and start a timer. Monitor the thermometer until it reaches 400 degrees and note the expired time. Once you know this time for your particular oven, you will always know how long to pre-heat. 4. When you mix the ingredients and form a dough, your mixture should be very sticky when you turn it out on the board. Make sure your board is well floured and flour the dough as you fold it over on itself to keep from sticking to your hands. 5. This should be a no-brainer, but my neighbor was guilty of the following: She said she liked thick biscuits with lots of soft insides, but her biscuits were always thin and flat. So I watched her make a batch of biscuits, expecting to find that she was not pre-heating the oven. However, this was not the problem. She was doing everything right, except one obvious error. When she rolled out the dough, she rolled it about 1/2 inch thick and began cutting out the biscuits. After she cut half the dough, I suggested she roll the remaining dough to 2 inches thick and cut the last biscuits from that. When she removed the cooked biscuits from the oven, half were flat and the others were big and fluffy. The lesson? If you want bigger biscuits, you have to start with thicker dough. (duh!) 6. Finally, if you want biscuits with crisp sides, place the biscuit dough on a cookie sheet without the sides touching. If you like tender sides, place the biscuits with the sides touching. Don't have a biscuit cutter? Check your water glasses. You probably have one that is just the size for the diameter of biscuits you want. Flour the lip of the glass to prevent sticking and it works O.K but I recommend you buy a regular biscuit cutter. They are inexpensive and produce nice, even sides to the biscuits. Another tip: I recommend you use buttermilk instead of regular milk for your biscuits. It provides better flavor and seems to make lighter biscuits. If you do not keep buttermilk on hand (I don't), you can make a substitute by adding a tablespoon of white vinegar in a cup of regular milk. Stir and allow to sit for a minute before use. Check out this Southern Biscuits Recipe to get you started and try with Southern Sausage Gravy. So, the next time you make biscuits, use these tips and stand by for the compliments Webmasters: Want to copy our recipes to your website? Read this first. |
||||