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Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Busy-Day Biscuits

I've mentioned these biscuits in posts before and have been asked to provide a recipe and how-to. So, since I made some to go with dinner tonight, I thought this would be a good opportunity to share.

biscuits split and spread with pumpkin butter

This method for making biscuits is about the quickest I can do with scratch baking. Both my ingredient list and method are simplified in order to get the biscuits into the oven as quickly as possible. It takes 5 minutes, tops, to mix the dough and get these onto a baking sheet. No cutting in shortening, no rolling and cutting out dough. Just simply mix and drop the dough.

dry ingredients dumped into bowl

Ingredients:

2 cups flour (I use 2/3 cup whole wheat + 1 1/3 cup all-purpose)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fat in liquid form (more on that below)
1 cup milk

bacon fat from the freezer, about 3 T.

For the fat, you can use liquid oil or solid fat, such as coconut oil, butter, shortening, or rendered meat fat such as bacon fat. 

If using a solid fat, melt it in the microwave before adding to the dry ingredients. In this batch, I used part bacon fat and part vegetable oil. I melted the bacon fat in the microwave, then added oil to the 1/4 cup line on the measuring cup.

melted bacon fat

I topped off the bacon fat with vegetable oil to the 1/4 cup line


How to:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet. 

Measure the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Use your mixing spoon to stir up these ingredients before adding anything else. This should take 30 seconds or so. 

Pour the liquid fat over the dry ingredients and stir in until there are clumps of fat-soaked flour throughout. Pour the milk over all and stir together to form a stiff dough.

Drop by large spoonfuls onto baking sheet. Don't fuss with the dough too much. I scoop it by spoonfuls, then use a rubber spatula to turn the spoonful of dough out onto the baking sheet.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Time will depend on the size of each biscuit (my batch made 10). The degree of browning will depend on whether or not you substitute whole wheat flour for some of the all-purpose. More whole wheat flour will result in less browning, but they're still fully baked.


I often make a half-batch and bake on a small baking sheet. A half-batch is about right for one meal for my family of 4. Tonight I baked a whole batch so we could enjoy these with breakfast in the morning.

split hot biscuits and spread with favorite topping

I typically get these into the oven just before I set the table, toss the salad, fill the water pitcher, and dish up the rest of dinner. They come out of the oven piping hot as we're finished saying grace. Our oven is 4 feet from the table. So, cracking the oven door open after baking warms us up on chilly fall and winter evenings.

There you go -- how I make scratch biscuits the quick and easy way. Do you make drop biscuits?



6 comments:

  1. I haven't made biscuits in a long time, but usually make the more traditional kind. Drop biscuits are a good way to make them faster. Biscuits were a big part of meals when I was growing up, and I made them several times a week. At that point in time, I was quite good at making them quickly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Live and Learn,
      Biscuits were a rare treat when I was growing up. They just weren't something my mother made. When I took home-ec in middle school, I was thrilled when we made biscuits and biscuit dough cinnamon rolls.

      Delete
  2. You will make my husband very happy. Looks easy and good. I'll use all purpose flour..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Cheryl,
      I hope your husband is very pleased with your biscuits!

      Delete
  3. Biscuits are so yummy. For years I made angel biscuits and then during covid, I tried the ATK biscuit recipe that thefrugalgirl.com uses. I haven't gone back. I think it's a similar concept to your recipe. It uses whole cream rather than butter. So much simpler, and they are very tender. I often make them as drop biscuits to speed up the prep. Sometimes I pat the dough into a rectangle and cut square biscuits. Easier than cutting out circles, and I don't have to deal with dough scraps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      I'm sure the ATK biscuits are quite good. I can't use most whipping creams on the market. I can't have carrageenan or any of the gums that are used to stabilize the product. When we want a whipping cream that I can eat, I have to buy it at Whole Foods. Very expensive!

      When I want cut-out biscuits, I use less milk and pat mine into a round and cut into wedges, like scones. Most of the time, though, I go for easy and do the drop kind.

      Delete

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