I Love Biscuits

It's true.  I love biscuits.  Growing up, my mom always served a warm, soft bread with dinner, which I would slather generously with butter and Mom's homemade strawberry jelly.  Mmmm....

(This little girl understands how I felt.  But don't look at this picture too long or the girl starts to look a little freaky.)

Anyways, although Mom made the jelly from scratch, the biscuits were always Pillsbury.  And why not?  They are good!  They are cheap! (They are often on sale and coupons are continually in the Sunday paper or online.)  They are fast! (Tear open a can, put the biscuits on a baking sheet and bake. Done.)

But when I started to clean up my eating, trying to eat more naturally, I took a second look at those cans.  The ingredient list is a little boggling.  But guess what I found out about homemade biscuits?  They are good!  They are cheap! (Yep, cheaper than the cans.)  They are fast!  (No, not faster than the cans, but I can throw them together and get them baked in about 15-20 minutes.  Not bad for a homemade bread!

And even better, I discovered that these are really good made with 100% whole wheat!  I use my handy dandy Nutrimill and grind up some nice, soft, low-protein flour (like spelt or soft white wheat) and use that in place of the all purpose flour in my recipe.  Whether you use white or wheat, I suggest you give these a try!

Biscuits
Makes about 8 biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour or 2 cups milled soft white wheat or 2 1/4 cups spelt flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
4 tbsp. butter
1 cup buttermilk (Tip: no buttermilk?  Use 1 tbsp. lemon juice or white vinegar and add milk to equal 1 cup.  Or just use milk.)

First, put a stick of butter in the freezer for 10 minutes while you're preparing the rest of dinner.  Preheat your oven to 450.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.  From the nearly frozen stick of butter, use the large holes on a cheese grater and grate 4 tbsp. butter into the flour mixture.  (Yep, a cheese grater.)  Toss the flour with the butter.  Pour in the buttermilk and toss lightly with a large spoon just until it starts to stick together.  Dump in onto a floured counter and push it together lightly.  Knead it just a little if necessary to get all the pieces to stick together.  Press it out into a square that is about 3/4 inch thick.  Cut that square into 9 equal-ish squares.  Place those squares on a baking sheet (lined with parchment paper, if you have it.)  (Alternatively, you can use a 2 inch biscuit cutter to cut biscuits into pretty rounds.)  Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden.  Brush with melted butter when you remove them from the oven.

There it is!  Don't let these scare you, you can do it!