Name: Buttermilk Biscuits
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 22 min
Ingredients: Makes 12 biscuits; 2 cups all-purpose flour (Mama Smith would probably be using While Lily self-rising flour and omitting the following 3 ingredients); 2 tsp baking powder; ½ tsp baking soda; 1 tsp salt; 4 tbsp of cold butter (Mama Smith would have used shortening); ¾ to 1 cup buttermilk

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Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. ~Alex Haley

I’m approaching 50 now and I can honestly say that the summers I spent with my grandparents when I was little were the happiest times of my childhood and some of the happiest of my entire life. I never felt as accepted and loved as when I was with my Mama and Papa Smith.

I want to share with you today a favorite memory of my Mama Smith and me. When I was about 8 years old I got to go to my grandparents’ house and stay with them for some time in the summer. During that visit, my grandmother fixed breakfast every morning, a full blown affair. There were eggs and bacon or sausage, biscuits and gravy nearly every morning. She would cut my biscuits in half and spread them with butter and a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar. That was as close to heaven as I’ve ever been. Her sons, my uncles, would come over and eat. After breakfast, all the leftover scraps were taken up and put into a cast iron skillet which I would get the wonderful pleasure of taking to the beagles who were always as delighted to see me coming with the skillet as I was to be going to them.

One morning I awoke and found my grandmother in the kitchen starting our morning meal. She had a hand held flour sifter in her hand and was making our morning biscuits. When she saw me sleepy eyed standing there, she pulled up a chair for me to stand on and gave me my own little piece of dough to pat out. She went and got a thimble for me to cut out my own little biscuits.

I can’t tell you how big I thought I was! There were no worries with Mama Smith. I didn’t worry about making a mess or being in the way. All there was there at her side was love and a beautiful plate of biscuits.

You can believe that this same scene will be repeated in my own house with my own grandkids. If I could only be half the grandmother she is …

Ingredients (Makes 12 biscuits)

2 cups all-purpose flour (Mama Smith would probably be using While Lily self-rising flour and omitting the following 3 ingredients)
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp of cold butter (Mama Smith would have used shortening)
¾ to 1 cup buttermilk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450º.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and soda, and salt.
Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or by hand until mixture resembles large bread crumbs

Add buttermilk and gently mix until all ingredients come together.

Form dough into a ball (it should be a little sticky at the point) and placed on a lightly floured surface.
Flour your hands and begin to knead the dough gently, folding the dough over and over. Add more flour as needed to keep from sticking. You can also do this in the bowl if you want.

With a lightly floured surface underneath begin to pat out the dough until it is about and ½ to ¾ inches thick.

Cut out biscuits with a 2” biscuit cutter or a glass.
Reroll the scraps and cut out the rest.

Don’t you just love cutting out biscuits

SP – San Pasqual

Place biscuits on a baking sheet about an inch apart and bake for 12 minutes.

Enjoy!