Dad’s Buttermilk Biscuits
On losing, letting go of little sisters, and warm biscuits:
We never talked about this. I didn’t know how to bring it up. The 2009 Bloggies. Remember? Best New Blog? So… I sorta…. kinda…. mostly… didn’t win. The thing is, I really really wanted to win. I did. I played it cool though. On the outside, I pretended to not care either way. That was a big fat lie. But the thing about losing… it’s pretty cool actually… it makes me want to be better. It also makes me unbelievably grateful for all of your smiling faces. Fact.
I found myself in a frenzy this morning. My little sister left for a many month long European adventure. The thought of her being so far away that I can’t easily call her at two in the morning to scream our favorite Mariah Carey song at her sent me into panic mode. I calmed myself, safe in the knowledge that my sister deserved some life changing adventures and I am due many presents from far away lands upon her return.
Biscuits. If I were to hand you a warm biscuit with raspberry jam would you: a) throw it on the ground and shove me on the floor or b) thank me kindly, gobble the biscuit and give me a giant hug? If your answer involved shoving me on the floor… well, that’s kinda funny, but throwing biscuits on the floor is just plain rude. Don’t do it.
These Buttermilk Biscuits… well, they must be blessed by the heavens. I don’t think there’s any other way to explain just how good they are. They’re best right out of the oven, steaming hot, doused with butter and jam.
My dad has been making this recipe for Buttermilk Biscuits for our family for, exactly, ever. Incidentally, my sister has been swiping them of the table for as long as I can remember. They’re simple family goodness.
Dad’s Buttermilk Biscuits
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening, cold and cut into cubes
1/4 cup butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk, cold
In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt. Cut in shortening and butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. In another bowl, combine egg and milk and beat lightly with a fork. Add to flour mixture all at once, stirring enough to make a soft dough.
Turn out onto a floured board and knead about 15 times. Roll or pat out into a 1-inch thickness. Cut into 2-inch rounds using a biscuit cutter or cut into 2×2-inch squares. Reshape and roll dough to create more biscuits with excess scraps. Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees F for 12-15 minutes. Serve immediately.
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Mmmm….they look so good, and the thought of a steaming hot, butter and jam covered biscuit is very enticing indeed having woken up to very grey damp weather. These may be just the thing for a post-work comfort snack. Thanks Joy!
Never mind them, Joy. You’re a winner with us!
Thank you for the blog. I’m loving your recipes and your fun approach to life.
Yep…this weekend’s breakfast. Your sister will have a wonderful time and she will be forever changed by her experiences in Europe. And yes, presents are expected. ;)
I am so glad you are posting these. I have been on a hunt for the best homemade biscuit and have been so sad to find that every single one I’ve made so far has been “ok,” but not nearly as good as the ones from a can. Horror, I know! Especially when the kitchen is covered in flour and my husband is like “why didn’t you just buy the ones at the store?” Erghhh!! Anyways, I have loved everything I’ve ever tried from your site though, and can’t wait to try these out!
my order of events: gobbling cookie, thanks, hug.
always the cookie first, always.
Felt the very same when my sister went to Afghanistan on a months long humanitarian trip. Terrible, and the worry wart in me became enormous!! Hope your sister has a wonderful and safe trip.
The bisquits look marvelous, and we’ll be trying them tonight!
~B
Welcome to your sister!!! I hope she likes Europe so so much to convince you to come, too! You could enjoy a lot of incredible present. Every country here it’s a world apart, so a lot of things to know and to bring home! In the meantime take comfort with us, smiling faces :)
Why should someone throw away this wonderful biscuits? Take my huge hugs for these,
cheers Martina
I made biscuits with chicken gravy just this past weekend for my visiting family—must be something about biscuits and family that go together, huh?
About losing. I took a gander at the bloggie awards and was irked. It seemed like certain blogs won all the awards—it would’ve been nice for them to share the glory, I thought. Your blog is already a spendid creation, so just relax and have fun (though I’m victim to the I’m-never-good-enough mentality, too, so I have no room to talk).
Wow, these look perfect! How weird is it that I grew up baking with my southern grandma and still to this day don’t have a good buttermilk biscuit recipe to turn to?? I’ll give these a try.
Do you ever serve your biscuits w/anything savory? Like sausage gravy or stuffed with eggs and bacon?
Those look so good! I am drooling, I love any hot fresh carb,!
Biscuits make my heart sing. Seriously. And on a rainy day like today, heart-singing sounds awesome. By the way, I was sooo excited to send you my picture of me and my teacup (such a great idea by the way), but I got sick and was in no mental state (or photogenic state) to do so. Next time, I’m all. over. it. And I’ll be dealing with my own sister’s-out-of-the-country-for-longer-than-I’m-happy-with when mine heads to Africa and France. I feel your pain. I have a suggestion – soothe your soul with biscuits. There’s this awesome blogger I know who has a great dad-approved recipe.
I have some buttermilk that’s about to expire in the fridge so this is the perfect recipe today. Thank you :) They look so good. I hope your sister has the time of her life on her travels.
I’ve never cooked anything that was made with shortening. Ever. Although I grew up eating many biscuits and always having the shortening in Mom’s cupboard, I’ve never had any in my own. It’s funny how life rolls. I’m going buy myself some shortening and make myself some biscuits! I’m going to dig in to that cardboard container and scoop out that ultra white magic and recreate a bit of family history. Thanks for the push from the past this morning.
Buttermilk biscuit are the best, and they go with any meal, any time of day! My sister is leaving for Australia for five weeks in May, so I hear ya.. I’m sure they’ll both have a blast (my sister and yours) and they can tell us all about it when they get back :-)
I am soooo making these this weekend! I hope your sister has a fun (but safe) European adventure!
You’re still a winner in my book Joy haha
Great looking biscuits too! Nothing’s more satisfying than eating a warm buttermilk biscuit on Sunday morning with some quality jam
Yum. I, too, and collecting biscuit recipes. These look like a winner.
First, I need to tell you that I love your blog. Second, I hate to loose myself, but happily it does not throw me into depression mode but makes me want to get better for the next occasions. And coming back to this particular post, I need to thank your dad for giving me a good idea for what to bake on Saturday morning for breakfast with my father in law.
Throwing biscuits on the floor! Perish the thought!
I love when it’s our Dads who pass along food treasures and not always Mom. My dad makes some great dumplings, but I need to get the recipe. And as for your sister, she’s bound to come back a changed girl, but she’ll always be your sister. I bet she misses you just as much, but has a lot to distract her. Your blog is fantastic. Just keep at it. I know I need to put more love and attention into mine and I intend to this year! Thanks for this recipe. It sounds wonderful.
These biscuits look totally fabulous. I would never throw one on the floor–although I might take more than my fair share. I love a nice warm biscuit with jam; sounds like a perfect breakfast, lunch, or dinner treat. I know you’ll miss your sister, but it’s quite exciting that she’s off on such a big adventure–meaning you get to go to Europe vicariously!! Plus, calling cards are super reasonable–when I lived in London, I was able to call home as often as I wanted. Plus, with the time difference, it may even be a reasonably hour her time when you want to belt lyrics to Mariah (which is totally fun)! Hope these biscuits cheer you up!!
Oh Joy, I super puffy heart you. I just adore your posts. These biscuits look incredible and I can’t wait to give them a try!
I’ll have to try these. I just made a batch of incredibly unsuccessful biscuits, so maybe this recipe will bring me more luck!
These biscuits are pretty, pretty amazing! Yummy, yummy, yums!
P.S. I’m sorry about your loss, but so happy for our gain. Lookout 2010!
:)
Joy, does your sister look like you? I can’t recall if you’ve ever posted a picture of her. We’ve seen your cute-as-can-be papa…how bout a picture of you and your sis?
The biscuits look scrumptious! I’d definitely choose b) thank you kindly, gobble the biscuit and give you a giant hug!
Big love came from the creme fraiche quiche over the weekend…my boyfriend loved it! He said he could eat it ALL the time! I reminded him it was for a special occasions as it probably has lotsa calories- but it was really good! Homemade + Breakfast = love!
This will be a fun Saturday breakfast treat. Your dad sounds great. Every kid should be so lucky. Here’s to your sister having a marvelous trip and here’s to you, for the best new blog around. It doesn’t have to be better, it already is. Well, maybe one thing could be better. You could spoil us with even more recipes and photos, because really, do you honestly need to sleep?
The jelly shot, is well…just perfect.
These look delicious! I’m sorry about your sister leaving, but hopefully the time will fly and she’ll be back before you know it!
I LUV BISCUITS. With butter. And jam. But plum instead of raspberry. So, um,yea. I chose b) thank you kindly, gobble the biscuit and give you a giant hug. And then I kindly ask for another. Let’s get stuck in this circle shall we?
On another note, Are you going to let other people to tell you who has the best blog around? Because if you are, you can listen to the people here instead of there and get the answer you want : )
If you handed me a biscuit I would eat it slowly like it was my last meal, and then I would ask for another one
Do people get violent over biscuits??? Dang, if so, they’re messed up! If someones makes fresh biscuits for us and puts butter/honey/jam on them, we’re in love.
I will most certainly try these. It has only been recently that I FINALLY started making biscuits that are flaky and don’t have the consistency of hockey pucks. Why it took me so long, well, I guess I was just lazy when it came to incorporating the butter into the mix. Your biscuits look divine and the jam looks every bit as good!
These biscuits look great! But I have one question: I live in Germany and I haven’t seen cream of tartar in stores here. Can I just substitute baking powder for cream of tartar? Or is there a better alternative?
Hmmm I need to try these. I just love how versions of tasty buttermilk biscuits there really out here in food bloggerland. Great photos!
Mmm… biscuits! I’ve been making buttermilk biscuits since I was a wee girl in the deep south, but I’ve never tried a recipe with cream of tartar in it. That might actually work better than my normal recipes now that I’ve moved to a place with super-high altitude. Can’t wait to try it!
Distance between sisters is always painful, but look forward to the times where you can swap stories about everything that happened while you were apart… over cookies! ;)
damn it. this blog is too good.
When I saw these in my RSS reader I read it as “Dad’s Buttermilk Pancakes” and I clicked over and thought “Hmm, those are pretty funny looking pancakes.” They are perfectly great looking biscuits though, and I will say “yes please” to the raspberry jam. There are really very few times I will say no to raspberry jam, and it makes a mess when thrown on the floor. (I have a toddler who has not yet learned to revere either biscuits or jam, let alone both together).
You must really think we’re something special
to be sharing your amazing family recipes!
We think you’re pretty special, too.
Bloggies-shmoggies.
You’re still one of my favorite food blog, and this post is one of the reasons why. Your pictures made me be able to taste that warm biscuit and sweet jam.
These look amazing! Biscuits are like a warm snuggly hug from family. My mom came out from home in CA to Colorado and made biscuits with my daughter and me on spring break . We miss my mom but we’ve got fresh biscuits and some in the freezer for those days when we really need her snuggles.
Ohmygawd you are reading my mind! I just wrote on my to-do list “make fresh butter and buttermilk biscuits”. I’ve been wanting to make my own butter, and of course then you have to make biscuits, because, well . . . buttermilk! And here you go and hand me a perfect recipe. Award winner or no, you are tops in my book!
These look sublime!!! What a gorgeous recipe!
I promise to only push you down if you are between myself and the biscuits.
I’m so jealous of your sister’s traveling opportunity! But even more so of these biscuits of yours. I’d definately be on the hug you side. Thanks for sharing!
These look so good…we just made biscuits (it’s been years, literally!) and my daughter wrapped them around nutella, then smothered them in pureed strawberries. Next time, we’ll try your recipe, thanks!
So this is my first ever response to ANY blog… and I just can’t help myself anymore! Joy, your adorable self and your perfect blog make my day. For serious. You make your readers feel loved – and I hope we do the same for you! Bloggies, schmoggies. You are the best around and the only blog I read every single post to. Please know how much we love and appreciate you! If you were here right now, I’d make YOU a biscuit, thank YOU and give YOU a hug.
funny, I just attempted biscuits day before yesterday…they turned out a bit hard, but were still good with rhubarb jam. like little butter crackers with jam. can’t wait to try this recipe!!
Joy!
Long time no read my friend… still at the in laws, and as crazy as ever. We had a run in with a not-so-friendly- bee today! BUT, my favorite with homeade biscuits- “mouse gravy” An aunt used to tell my dad as a little boy that mouse gravy was what they made with all the mice they caught in the basement. Its that southern cream gravy with ground beef… SO, I’d axe the jelly and make it dinner with mouse gravy!
Much love!
Sarah
yes for square biscuits. more vehicle for sausage gravy. xx
Sisters are priceless! Kinda like having a perfect biscuit recipe…there’s no replacement. I think I will make your dad’s biscuit recipe with my dad’s sauage gravy recipe and serve it to my sisters. Priceless.