I HEART Biscuits!

I learned how to make biscuits as a young girl, standing beside my Maw Maw. She never measured, and neither did I. We always "eyeballed" it and the results were always wonderful.

As the years progressed and life became busy,I left behind Maw Maw's recipe. I began to use self-rising flour. White Lily to be exact. White Lily is a Southern Standard in most homes here in the south. Results were always good. However, they were not my Maw Maw's biscuits.

Today, I read a recipe that is VERY Similar to the one Maw Maw would use most days, early in the morning before the day became too busy or too HOT. I wish I could remember her exact eyeballing it measurements.

I happened to just glance at the heart shaped cookie cutter that has taken space for awhile now and thought. "I'll make heart biscuits." After all, this is the month for love. Well the month that it is official. I like to think everyday is a day for love.

Using Alton Brown's Recipe for Southern Biscuits took me back to my Maw Maw's kitchen once again. Isn't just a wonderful thing how food can bring back warm feelings of the past back to us.

The recipe is simple and I did measure!

I left the buttermilk, shortening and butter in the fridge until the last minute.

Handling biscuit dough with care is very important. You have to hold yourself back from kneading. Always remember gentle touches, yields heavenly fluffiness.

I made two batches of biscuits. Heart Shaped and the other batch "big ole cat heads"

My baking time was 12 minutes. Oven temperatures are not all alike. After 10 minutes I would do a peek and check.

The recipe was great.."Make your tongue slap your cheek and ask for more!"


SOUTHERN BISCUITS: (Alton Brown)

Ingredients

* 2 cups flour
* 4 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 2 tablespoons shortening
* 1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that's life.)

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

This is my entry for Foodie Friday hosted by http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/