Homemade Biscuits

Biscuits.  Light, fluffy, dense.  The last two may seem contradictory, but in fact it is possible to achieve a light and fluffy biscuit that is rather solid.  The key is to make them correctly with the best ingredients.  Now, if you are reading this saying "oh yeah, I've had biscuits!  My favorite kind come from a can," then we seriously need to have a talk.  It is true that some people just didn't grow up with homemade biscuits and don't really know where to start.  Others claim they don't have the time to make them.  Well folks, biscuits take a whole 10 minutes to make and 10-12 minutes to bake.  Period.  So, tell yourself you are worth the 20 minutes and just say no to all those nasty, chemically, preserved alternatives that you find in the refrigerated food section at the grocery store.

While there exists much debate among biscuit connoisseurs over whether buttemilk or cream reigns supreme as the liquid agent in stellar biscuits, I maintain there is room for both.  For years I regularly made the buttermilk variety, thinking that the only way to get a fluffy biscuit was to have that necessary ingredient and the reaction between the buttermilk and baking soda.  As of the past few years, I've really enjoyed biscuits made with half-and-half or cream.  What you get is a creamy biscuit without the tang that is present in the buttermilk variety.  Again, make no mistake, I'm a big fan of the buttermilk biscuit.  I just prefer a change once in a while, especially depending on what I'm making to serve along side them.  Love, love, love this recipe, and my favorite thing to serve it with is a chicken soup or the like.

Homemade Biscuits
(from Ina Garten's Family Style Cookbook--a must have in your cookbook library!)
(Print this Recipe)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, diced
3/4 cup half-and-half
1 egg mixed with 1 Tbs. water for egg wash (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine all dry ingredients and butter in a bowl and use a pastry blender (or a fork if you don't have one; just may not want to use your hands because they will bring up the temperature of the butter and you don't want that) until mixture resembles coarse meal. 

Next, gradually add the half-and-half and stir together using a fork.  Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and knead it until it comes together, only a couple minutes.  Press or roll out dough to desired thickness--I prefer about 1 1/2 to 2 inches.  This creates a really puffy biscuit.  **A little trick I do once I've rolled out the dough is to gently pat/push in the sides of the dough toward the center.  This gives the dough a little slack and allows the dough to not be so pressed down and thin when I cut/punch out the biscuits.

Finally, punch out or cut into biscuits.  I'm a tad traditional and like the rounded shapes, but if you don't have one, just use a sharp knife, make sure to dip it in flour repeatedly, and cut into desire shapes of equal sizes to allow for equal cooking time.

Place biscuits on a cookie sheet and coat in egg wash if desired. I find the biscuits can sometimes have a bit of flour on the tops of them, so the egg wash is a nice, quick little step to make ‘em golden brown.  Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.