As a child I would get up on Saturday mornings and we (my family – 2 parents and two brothers) would eat homemade biscuits and gravy. We also had pancakes, eggs, toast and sausage or bacon on occasion. Sometimes we had a hot cereal like Cream of Wheat, grits, or oatmeal. We never had cold cereal or anything like Pop Tarts or sweets when I was little. I grew up on hot breakfasts and I still enjoy them to this day. I don’t even keep cereal in our house. I do make homemade granola and have that on hand but no boxed stuff. I have to say, though, that biscuits were and still are one of my favorite breakfast foods.
Buttermilk biscuits do more for me than fill the stomach. One whiff of those baking biscuits floods my mind with thoughts of joyful times spent at my grandparents home. Homemade biscuits take me back to a simpler time in my life when my Meemaw made them for us. She made them on a limited little counterspace in her Louisiana kitchen. She would make them up and freeze them just before we would come to visit or shortly after we arrived. She would pull just enough biscuits out of the freezer for breakfast each morning and bake them up in her old oven. She served them with things like homemade plum or Mayhaw jelly or butter and sugar and sometimes honey.
We would sit at the little diner style table in the center of her kitchen. We sat on those little vinyl red benches as we enjoyed breakfast. We would straggle in in our flannel pajamas and slide up onto the bench. She would bring over a little coffee cup with milk and a little bit of coffee and sugar in it or a little glass of juice. I think we had a lot of chicory coffee growing up. I am the only one in my family that can tolerate it now but there is nothing like a little cafe au lait with chicory coffee. I will always be a Louisiana girl deep in my heart. LOL Once the biscuits were ready she would place them on a plate and bring them over to us. I know that those biscuits were just one way she told me she loved me and she told me often when I was there. They were like a warm delicious hug first thing in the morning. Crazy how that works, huh?
I loved her kitchen in the winter because it was a warm and cozy room compared to the rest of the cold house. My grandparents never had central heating and cooling in that house. We relied on little fireplace heaters to heat a room in fall and winter and a window air conditioner and fans to cool the rooms in summer. She never fully heated or cooled the entire two story home at once. She only cooled or heated whatever rooms we would be using that day. That is why the kitchen was my favorite in the cold months. It was always warm in the cooler months and smelled amazing. Freshly baked homemade buttermilk biscuits make all those memories come flooding back.
Food smells do that…. it is so connected to our memory.
I love that something so little can be so powerful.
In recent years I have taught my daughter to make them. She has gone away to college but she sends me pictures from time to time of a Saturday morning batch of biscuits that she has made in her little apartment. She has become quite the biscuit maker. I am glad that she is carrying on the biscuit tradition. She feels like it is a little piece of home away from home for her. It gives me great joy to get those photos from her.
I still have this little treasure, too… my Meemaw grew up during the Great Depression and so she was one to use everything. She used some old file folders to write recipes on. She would cut them into rectangles and then write on both sides. This is her biscuit recipe… in her own handwriting. The backside has her cornbread recipe, btw… I will share that at some point with you.
I know you didn’t just come for my memories so here are the biscuits… with my own instructions below LOL
BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
2 c. sifted AP flour
4 tsp. baking powder (I sometimes just add 1Tbsp which is one tsp shy of the 4 tsp)
1 tsp. soda (make sure to run it through a small sieve or rub in palm of hand to break up the soda lumps)
1/2 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. shortening (or cold butter or a combination of the two)
2/3 c. buttermilk or sour milk (enough to just bring the dough together)
Sift dry ingredients together. Rub or cut in shortening until mixture is crumbly. Add milk to make a soft dough. Turn out on lightly floured board or pastry cloth and knead gently for 30 seconds. Roll out 1/2 inch thick. Cut with floured biscuit cutter or sharp knife. Bake on ungreased baking sheet in hot oven (475°) for 12 minutes. Makes about 12 small biscuits.
The key with making biscuits is not to work the dough too much. I rarely use more than just my hands to work these anymore and don’t knead them more than 3 or 4 times just to bring them together. If you work it too much the biscuits will be flat and your shortening or butter will melt under the heat of your hands before they bake.
I also use my Pampered Chef’s Bar Pan now (I used to sell PC) and it is perfect for a big tray of biscuits. It cooks them thoroughly on top and bottom and gives them a golden loveliness. Stoneware or cast iron works beautifully for baking these beauties.
I double the recipe for a full two dozen but they don’t last much past breakfast… my children are piggies! LOL I serve them with either homemade cream gravy, butter, syrup, honey and/or jellies and jams.
Biscuits are inexpensive to make and once you master the technique they can be ready for the oven in just a few minutes. You can also make these up and put them in a pan in the freezer… just like my Meemaw used to do, and then pull them out and bake them as you need them. If you wanted to make up quick breakfasts for the kids you can wrap them with sausage and cheese to be heated up in the mornings for breakfast and you can skip the trip to the fast food place on the way to school or work. Biscuits are great any time of day so what are you waiting for…. try a batch today!
Are there certain food smells that flood your mind with memories? Is there a childhood food you still enjoy today? Is it a comfort food for you?
Please share with us…
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