When people find out that I’m a professional baker, they often ask one the same question before invariably betraying their aunts by giving me their secret cookie recipes. They ask, “What’s your favorite thing to bake?” For years, my default answer has always been a red velvet cake with traditional ermine frosting. I started saying that when my career first started and I just never stopped. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE red velvet cake with traditional ermine frosting, but I have been rethinking that answer lately. If I look down to the bottom of my soul I know my answer would be a big, fluffy, practically huggable buttermilk biscuit – with a large pat of butter, please.
Oddly enough, it’s easy for me to forget that biscuits are baked goods. When I say it’s something I grew up with and took for granted, I mean it. Where I grew up, there was rarely a meal that didn’t involve somebody’s biscuits. Church Potluck dinners were always the chance to showcase your Mamaw’s recipe against Sister So-and-so’s Great Aunt’s recipe and prove once and for all that you deserve a coveted place on the table next to the ham. Chicken and dumplings were a part of this as well, since it was basically homemade chicken soup with drop biscuits. Summer fruit cobblers were freshly picked blackberries with (you guessed it) sweet biscuits on top. We had them for every meal, and usually as a snack in between to boot. I can still close my eyes and imagine my bedroom in Kentucky, where I woke up countless mornings to the smell of my Momma cooking biscuits downstairs. Not only were there biscuits everywhere I turned, but just about all of them were GOOD. It was rare that you would go to someone’s house, or even the local restaurant and have a bad biscuit. Some were better, of course (Thanks, Momma) but they were all top notch. Why bother learning to make them when you know you can just pick one up on every corner?After I graduated High School and decided I didn’t want to be a Musical Theater major anymore, I wanted to spread my wings and become a city girl. This was a dream since I was a young girl, watching The Mary Tyler Moore show every day. I always dreamed of shaking off the small towns I grew up in, regionalizing my accent, and never looking back. I was ashamed of where I came from and didn’t want to seem uncultured – or worse, as a “hillbilly”. So I watered down my family history and moved about as far away as you can go without crossing an ocean. For me, that was Los Angeles.
For quite a few years I succeeded in (mostly) pretending I was something I wasn’t. I was always so proud to say how long I lived in LA and talk about how I got places a la The Californians on SNL. But that facade was short-lived. As I got older, what I thought would stigmatize me as weird or unglamorous was exactly what I missed most about being so far from home. I slowly gave in to letting my accent out. I casually begin to accumulate a vast collection of denim shirts. I’d fry up squash every Summer right when it was ripe. I traded in making French Macarons for perfecting my Peach Cobbler. I really began to embrace myself and love the Southern in me.
Then my Momma came to visit. I knew the ONLY thing I wanted her to do was to show me how she makes biscuits. I had asked for her recipe several times but I was still not getting it right. It felt like the final hurdle to allowing myself to call myself a real Southerner. We stayed with my Mother-In-law and made a BIG country breakfast together. Eggs, Sausage Gravy, Tomatoes, jams & jellies, and most of all, BISCUITS. I had started my baking journey standing next to my Momma helping her make biscuits at the age of 3. And here I was staring 30 in the face and finally coming full circle. Standing next to my Momma and making biscuits. She taught me the consistency to look for and how to know if you need more buttermilk or flour. Those biscuits were the best I had ever tasted. I’ve used what I have learned baking professionally to make a couple tweaks in technique but these are those biscuits.
Nowadays, when I get asked my favorite thing to bake, I tell them what is, and really, has always been the truth. The one baked good that made me realize I needed to embrace what made me unique and be proud of the places and people that raised me up. When you make this recipe, I hope you take a moment to remember the things in your life that made you different. The things you might have tried to run from, but wouldn’t be where you are without. And in some small way, I hope you can feel the love and generations of proud Southern women holding your hand and making sure everyone is full.
Blue Ribbon Biscuits
3 ½ cups flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, cold, cut into ½ inch pieces
1 cup buttermilk, cold
3 tablespoons of butter, melted
Maldon brand Salt
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, baking powder, kosher salt, sugar, and baking soda. Pulse a few times to combine.
Add butter to the food processor and pulse until the butter becomes pea sized. Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer.
Using the paddle attachment, mix on low as you add the cold buttermilk. As soon as the buttermilk is incorporated, dump mixture onto your rolling surface.
Combine the dough until there are very few dry areas. Pat into a 1 inch thick rectangle.
Using a bench scraper, cut the rectangle into thirds. Stack them on top of each other to make a tower.
Pat back into a 1 inch thick rectangle. Using a bench scraper, cut the rectangle into thirds. Stack them on top of each other to make a tower.
For a final time, pat the dough into a 1 inch thick rectangle. Use a biscuit cutter to cut the biscuits going straight down. Do not twist the cutter. Set aside the cut pieces and lightly push the dough back together. Continue this until the dough is used up.
Take your melted butter and brush a thin layer on the bottom of your cast iron. Place the biscuits on top, putting them as close together as possible.
Take the remaining melted butter and brush the top of the biscuits and sprinkle with Maldon brand salt.
Put the biscuits in the oven and immediately turn the oven down to 400 degrees. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Best served the day they are made.
Country Sausage Gravy
1 pound breakfast sausage (I prefer hot)
⅓ cup all purpose flour
4 - 4 ½ cups of whole milk
salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste
In a large saucepan, cook the sausage until completely cooked through. Do not drain.
Add the flour and stir constantly until they are completely combined and the flour has started to smell nutty.
Add the milk approximately 1 cup at a time, stirring well between. Stop when you come to the consistency you like. For me, I use 4 cups.
Add salt, lots of black pepper, and some red pepper flakes to your taste. Serve warm over fresh biscuits.
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