Biscuits before baking
Biscuits after baking
Fluffy, Light and Tender Southern Biscuits
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First of all, there are different kinds of biscuits.
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It depends on what you are aiming for. Do you prefer flaky biscuits or light and fluffy? How is the preferred texture best accomplished? Rolled & cut biscuits, formed biscuits or drop biscuits?
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I prefer light and fluffy, tender biscuits.
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I’ve tried many recipes and the one closest to my goal was Shirley O. Corriher’s “Touch of Grace Biscuits”. (Shirley Corriher is the food scientist that appeared often on Alton Brown’s “Good Eats”. She also authored the cookbooks, “Bakewise” and “Cookwise”).
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Here is a link to the original recipe, Shirley O. Corriher’s “Touch of Grace Biscuits” in the New York Times.
[b][u]http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/dining/181frex.html[/u][/b]
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Here is a link to a YouTube video showing Shirley Corriher preparing her “Touch of Grace Biscuits”. It’s an interesting technique and it really works to produce a light, fluffy, tender biscuit.
[b][u]Shirley Corriher Making Biscuits - YouTube
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These biscuits are like drop biscuits, but instead of dropping them onto a cookie sheet, you drop them into dry flour. Then you pick up the flour coated biscuit dough and place it in a cake pan. The biscuits are crowded together in the cake pan, pressed against each other, so there is no where to go but up.
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The really wet dough makes a very light, fluffy and tender biscuit, due to the steam formed during baking. Most of the dry flour coating disappears during baking. Small remaining patches of flour on the finished biscuits disappear when the final butter coating is applied. These biscuits also use a soft Southern flour that adds to the tender biscuit.
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I made a few changes to the original recipe to tweak it to my liking.
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Shirley Corriher’s original recipe used White Lily Self Rising flour, which is not readily available in some areas of the U.S. The soft wheat grown in the Southern U.S. is what makes up White Lily Self Rising flour. Soft Southern wheat (a low protein flour) is one of the secrets of the tender Southern biscuits.
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I substituted cake flour in this recipe adaptation to replace the soft Southern flour. Soft Southern flour and cake flour are both low protein / gluten flours. Using cake flour also results in a light, tender biscuit. But, using all cake flour would result in cakey biscuit without much taste, so all-purpose flour is also blended in for a better structure and flavor.
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Since we are not using self-rising flour, I have also added baking powder, more salt and cream of tartar to the recipe. The Baking Soda promotes browning. The original recipe seemed a little too sweet, so I halved the sugar.
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Finally, the original recipe dropped the wet dough into plain all-purpose flour. I thought that resulted in a bland tasting biscuit. I adapted the recipe to use all-purpose flour seasoned with sugar and salt, instead. I think this results in a more tasty biscuit. This flour is reserved before the baking powder, baking soda and cream of tartar is added. Doing this prevents a bitter taste in the finished biscuits.
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Here is my adaptation for “Touch of Grace Biscuits”.
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(For the moderators, this recipe is in my own words and not copied from any source).
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If you like flakey biscuits, this recipe is not for you.
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If you like light, fluffy, tender biscuits, please give the original recipe or this adaptation a try. You won’t be disappointed.
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TOUCH OF GRACE BISCUITS MADE WITH CAKE FLOUR
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Makes about 12 to 14 light fluffy biscuits in a 9-inch cake pan or cast iron skillet.
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Ingredients:
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1 1/2 cups (185g) cake flour (1 c. cake flour & 2 c. a.p. flour also works well).
1 1/2 cups (185g) all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons (25g) White Granulated Sugar
1 teaspoon (6g) Table Salt
1 Tablespoon (10.5g) Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon (5.2g) cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon (1.2g) Baking Soda
4 Tablespoons (50g) Vegetable Shortening or Butter
1 2/3 cups (400g) Buttermilk, as needed
1/2 cup (65g) Reserved Flour Mixture, from above
2 Tablespoons (30g) Butter, melted
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- Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Adjust the oven shelf to the middle position. Spray 9-inch cake pan or cast iron skillet with non-stick cooking spray.
. - In a large mixing bowl, sift together the cake flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, and salt. Remove 1/2 cup of flour mixture and reserve for later in a small mixing bowl.
. - Sift the baking powder, baking soda and cream of tartar into the 2 1/2 cups of flour mixture remaining in the large mixing bowl. Work shortening into the flour mixture in the large mixing bowl, with your fingers or use a pastry cutter, whisk, or dinner fork until there are no lumps of shortening larger than a pea remaining.
. - Gently stir in enough buttermilk so the dough resembles wet cottage cheese, about 1-1/2 to 1-2/3 cups of buttermilk. Stir until there are no dry spots of flour left. A dinner fork works well for this.
. - Using a cookie scoop, ice cream scoop, 1/4 cup measuring cup or 2 spoons, drop a 1/4-cup size portion of the wet dough into the bowl of reserved dry flour. Using your fingers, sprinkle some of the dry flour on top of the wet dough ball until it is coated in dry flour. Pick up the coated dough ball, shake off excess flour and place in the greased cake pan, along the outside edge. (If the dough ball falls apart, it is too wet, add more flour to the batter.) Continue adding the flour coated biscuit dough around the edge of the cake pan, pressed up against each other. After the uncooked biscuits ring the edge of the cake pan, fill in the middle with the remaining flour coated balls of biscuit dough. The filled cake pan should have little or no gaps between the uncooked biscuits.
. - Bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees F until biscuits are lightly browned on the outside and interior of a biscuit reaches 195 to 200 degrees F, about 25 minutes. Brush tops of biscuits with melted butter. Cut biscuits apart and serve warm.
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Yield: 12 to 14 biscuits.