+ Her Barefoot Heart

From Scratch

ToolsandIngredients01Jan15

My grandmother made biscuits from scratch three times a day every single day. For an afternoon snack, we’d use our finger to drill a hole in the side of a leftover biscuit, fill the hole with syrup or molasses (whichever was readily available), and make a big ole’ mess like you’ve never seen devour. Sometimes we’d have Buttered Sugared Biscuits, cutting the leftover biscuit in half, smearing butter over each half, then covering the butter with sugar and broiling till the butter melted, the edges browned, and the sugar crisped-up. You’ve never tasted anything so yummy . . . or napped so soundly afterwards.

Maybe that’s why I have such a deep, lasting, loving relationship with biscuits. I love everything about biscuits – I even love the word “biscuit”. So when the Southern Biscuits Cookbook fell off the shelf and into my hands last Saturday night, a new tradition for 2015 was hatched: The Engineer and I will sift, knead, and eat our way through the year, baking biscuits from a new recipe (or 2) every week starting with page one and making our way to The End.

OldBowl1

Using the wooden bread bowl that has been in my family for I don’t know how long, of course. The preferred biscuit bowls are wider than they are deep, you know, and wooden bowls need only be wiped out between uses.

Preparation

This morning, we cracked open the book and before we could get started on Julia Regner’s Sturdy Dorms Biscuits, we had two new culinary adventures: we made our own self-rising flour and a big batch of Homemade Refrigerator Biscuit Mix (aka Bisquick). I mistakenly used the 1/2 teaspoon instead of the 1 teaspoon, but I caught my oops in time for The Engineer to do the math, add the necessary additional quantities, and get us back on track.

Hands01jan15

Being on top of a mountain messes with every baking adventure, and these biscuits – thin as they were – took almost 3 times as long as the recipe called for. Good news, though: they were mighty delicious. So delicious, in fact, that we ate them before I even though to snap a picture. And there were no leftovers. Nary a one.

Oh, and just so you know: I have already hired a personal fitness trainer.

4 Comments

  1. Meredith S

    Mmm, food! I love a good biscuit. Sadly, my options are sorely lacking given my GI tract’s rebellion. Perhaps one day this year I’ll get some inspiration from you and create my own tender biscuits. =)

    • whollyjeanne

      Biscuits are my ultimate comfort food, Sugar. Sorry your GI tract doesn’t play nicely with them. Happy New Year to you and yours. xo

  2. Sharon

    I look forward to at least one bisquit post a week this year from you. And take time for the pics before eating cause I’m sure to drool twice as much with the visual.

    • whollyjeanne

      Will surely try. I was just so darn excited yesterday. Wanted to eat ’em while they were hot, you know;)

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