'Touch of Grace' Southern Biscuits Recipe|Bakepedia (2024)

FAQs

What makes Southern biscuits different? ›

What makes biscuits Southern? Besides being passed down by beloved grandmothers, Southern biscuits are typically made with flour made from soft red winter wheat, such as White Lily.

Chill dry ingredients too

You already know that cold butter is the secret to flaky biscuits, but according to senior food stylist Josh Rink, making sure your other ingredients are cold, too, doesn't hurt.

Cane syrup used to be a traditional biscuit accompaniment at Southern restaurants and at home. In fact, at one time, it was common for sweet accouterments like cane syrup and honey to be offered alongside biscuits at every meal, not just breakfast.

SouthernKitchen.com says, "Ask any Southern chef or sagacious biscuit grandma and you'll hear a pattern emerge: they all swear by White Lily flour."

If you start asking around, any Southern chef, Southern Living Test Kitchen pro, or biscuit-making family member will swear by White Lily flour. Generations of bakers have claimed it as the secret to the perfect, flaky biscuit.

White wheat in general is around 9-12% protein, while the hard reds are 11-15%. As far as brands of flour, White Lily “all-purpose” flour has been my go-to for biscuit making. It's a soft red winter wheat, and the low protein and low gluten content keep biscuits from becoming too dense.

Cake flour will give you a lighter, fluffier biscuit, but the outer crust won't have as much bite to it. Conversely, all-purpose flour will provide more bite, but it'll be a drier, less airy biscuit. The solution: Use half cake flour and half all-purpose flour.

All-purpose flour is the work horse of the kitchen. With a protein content of between 9% and 12% it's great for cookies, muffins and cinnamon rolls and is what most people use for biscuits. It comes in regular or self-rising, with the self-rising containing baking powder and salt.

What are the ingredients in farmhouse biscuits? ›

With a love of old family recipes, the finest ingredients, traditional baking methods and above all a simple love of baking biscuits. INGREDIENTS: Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Vegetable Oils (Rapeseed, Sustainable Palm), Sugar, Salt, Flavourings, Raising Agent: Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate.

The earliest biscuits were a simple combination of flour and water that resulted in little more than baked paste. Soon people learned that adding fat to the recipe made them tasty and flaky. In the Northern states butter is the favored lipid. In the South, lard or shortening is the standard.

A Biscuit (U.S.) Is a Scone (U.K.)

A British biscuit is not remotely similar to the fluffy and filling American biscuits made famous in Southern American cuisine. The closest British equivalent to those buttery miracles is a scone, which ain't too bad either.

"Scones are typically made using a quick bread method with a higher ratio of liquid to flour, and sometimes no butter at all," says Snyder. In contrast, biscuits have a high ratio of butter, and the lamination process needed to achieve flaky layers is a key differentiator to scones.

As explained by Reader's Digest, these biscuits are traditionally made with flour ground from soft wheat, a variety of grain that grows readily in the American South due to its warm, humid climates. This type of wheat has about half as much gluten as hard wheat — the type of wheat used in bread flour.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk.