Easy Homemade Biscuits

The other night, when Dominic and I made some homemade biscuits to go with our dinner, the hubby said, "are these homemade or store bought?" I said, "why?" He then said, "because these are really good!" Biscuits from scratch are easy to make and since this recipe uses an entire tablespoon of baking powder, they rise up high.

I love to split one of these open while they are still warm, put a small dab or two of butter on each half and then spread some apple butter on!! Talk about scrumptious! Speaking of apple butter, I found a recipe recently for apple butter pie that sounded really yummy.  Hmm, the sugar cookies Dominic and I made earlier in the week are almost gone and I have all the ingredients in the house for the pie, I think a little pie baking may be in order for this afternoon!

Ingredients

2 cups white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In large bowl, put the flour, baking powder, salt and white sugar.  With two knives, "cut" in the shortening until it starts to resemble coarse crumbs. Pour in the milk and with a large spoon, mix well by hand until all ingredients are combined. On a lightly floured board, knead dough about 10 times and then press out to a rectangular shape about 1/2 inch thick. With a knife, cut into six equal-sized squares. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and put in the oven for about 14 minutes or until the biscuits start to turn a golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to continue cooling. Makes six biscuits.

Dad's Biscuits

I was lucky enough to find in my vast collection of recipes, my great-grandfather's biscuit recipe from August 1959.  It was on a typed index card with the title, "Dad's Biscuits."  The "dad" being my grandmother's father on my mom's side of the family.  He owned a bakery at one time in Missouri.  I guess that's where I get my love of baking from, it's in the "genes." I made these this morning and Dominic and I did a little taste "test."  I asked Dominic what he thought of the biscuits and he said, "good!"  I did change the measurements slightly, the original recipe used one teaspoon of salt, I cut it down to 1/4 teaspoon.  Also, there was no measurement for the amount of milk, the recipe said, "add enough milk to make medium workable dough for rolling."  I found that 3/4 of a cup of milk was "workable."  I  have a small collection of biscuit cutters and decided on the littlest one. I don't remember where I got that biscuit cutter from, but I'm pretty sure it's older than me :) I was able to make 20 biscuits out of the dough.  Depending on what size biscuit cutter you use, you will be able to get more or less than that.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups white flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons shortening
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease cookie sheet with baking spray.  In large bowl, put all ingredients together and mix well with spoon.  On flat surface, sprinkle one tablespoon of flour.  Take dough mixture and knead about 20 times (don't over knead the dough or the biscuits will be tough). Flatten with hands to get to desired thickness and use biscuit cutter.  Bake for 15-18 minutes or until slightly golden brown on top.

*September is right around the corner and it is National Biscuit Month!!