1 Good recipe for biscuits
1 Light touch with dough
THE PERFECT BUTTERMILK BISCUIT Thanks to Eula Mae Dore, a great Southern
cook from Avery Plantation, La., I’ve learned to make the best Buttermilk
Biscuits I’ve ever had. Eula Mae says a good biscuit is one of the best
things to have on hand for quick meals. She uses them in emergencies to
make simple sandwiches filled with scraps of ham or cheese and serves them
with pickles and a small salad. For dessert, she warms a biscuit or two and
makes a shortcake with fresh fruits or berries. She has convinced me that
you can’t have too many biscuits on hand. Eula Mae learned to cook and bake
from her grandmother, not from cookbooks, and the artfulness of her
preparation was a joy to watch. Here are some of her biscuit-making tips: +
First go out and replace your baking powder, unless you bought it within
the last four months. More baking flops occur from old, tired baking powder
than from any other cause. And don’t rely on the old test of checking the
freshness of baking powder by putting a spoonful in a glass of water to see
if it fizzes. Baking powder, like a carbonated drink, can fizz a little and
still be almost flat. Buying new baking powder costs very little when you
consider the cost of baking failures. + Next, Eula Mae insists that sifting
the dry ingredients four times is the reason her biscuits are perfect. I
tested the recipe sifting and not sifting and, indeed, sifting does make a
slightly higher, more tender biscuit. + After you cut the biscuit dough,
put the pieces on a baking sheet upside down. This ensures a taller,
lighter biscuit by making sure any edges crimped by the pressure of the
cutting don’t interfere with the rise. (The French use the same trick when
making puff pastry.) + The tip that helped me the most was using less flour
than usual. Eula Mae’s dough was soft and sticky. She handled it gently,
dusting her hands and the dough with only enough flour to make the dough
manageable. The result was a lighter biscuit.
Yields
1 Servings