Southern Buttermilk Biscuits..........

Biscuits. Plain old ordinary Southern Buttermilk Biscuits, which in reality there is nothing ordinary about them, all deserving capital letters. So what makes biscuits so elusive, so daunting that the simplest bakery item scares bakers away? They have to be simple, since ‘back in the day’ when I was in middle school biscuits was the very first thing we made in ‘home ec’, short for home economics. They call it something else today.

What has remained elusive to me is finding that perfect flaky, buttery, sweet smelling recipe that allows the biscuits to puff up nearly tripling in size. I’ve tried tons of recipes over the years, but I think I may have finally found a keeper. So here it goes….

2 ½ cup self-rising flour (see note below)

1 stick (1/2 cup) frozen butter

1 cup ice cold buttermilk

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Everything should be super cold, including the rolling pin as biscuits are much like pie crust, the more you handle it the tougher it will become. Begin by placing your self-rising flour in a large glass bowl, making a small well in the center. Next grate the frozen butter directly in the well using a hand held cheese grater. Add the buttermilk and stir approximately 15 times to incorporate being careful not to over mix. Turn dough onto a floured surface, and roll out with an ice cold rolling pin to roughly 1” thick. Fold dough onto itself and repeat a total of 5 times. The last time roll dough approximately ½” thick, then cut with a biscuit cutter, glass or other shape. Bake in a round or square pan 15 minutes at 475 degrees until golden brown on top.  A cast iron skillet also works great, plus the closer you place them together in the pan the higher they rise. Brush melted butter over the top and serve warm with honey and jams.

Note – substitute for self-rising flour – sift together 3 cup all-purpose flour, 4 ½ tsp baking powder and 1 ½ tsp salt, then measure out the 2 ½ cups you need for the recipe, and use the rest to dust your surface before rolling and cutting.

So give it a try, and see for yourself..........made from scratch, with whole ingredients, words you can pronounce, and no preservatives additives.

German Round Robin Project

Last year I had the pleasure of participating in what's called a ROUND ROBIN quilt project with a group of 8 ladies in the US, and 8 ladies in Germany. One person organized the project in each country. 

Each quilter created a center quilt block of our choice. We sent the block, a journal with our photo and biography, and a small handmade gift in a bulk package to a lady organizing in Germany. They in turn did the same process.  Then four names were drawn randomly and assigned to complete a "round". We kept it to four 8" borders each so the quilt would be a manageable size and we didn't end up with king size bed quilts.  Each quilter had six weeks to complete her border then she'd send it off to the next person.  We unveiled the quilt tops at our organizers beach house on a lovely summer evening with Paella and homemade fresh blueberry ice cream for dinner. The finished tops were then boxed up and sent on their way to Germany.

Then we waited for our quilts to arrive. You may recall me posting about a year ago.......part of our package arrived with 3 quilt tops and the other 5 were missing. Our organizer did everything beyond humanly possible working with Germany, the postal service, their lost and found, posting on lost/found online quilt sites, everything short of the FBI/CIA...but nothing turned up.  Everyone was devastated.  All their work, the investment, the creativity....gone. And to think five quilts landed somewhere.....we only hope they were put to good use.

I was one of the fortunate ones to receive a top back. I wanted to be excited yet sensitive to those that lost theirs.  I felt survivor’s guilt. I set my quilt aside for quite some time.

As the year anniversary approached I knew I needed to finish it. I wasn't respecting all the work they did, or the work we did on theirs. These beautiful quilts take a lot of time and energy, and my incomplete top was likely making our German friends feel worse than they already did.

I decide to machine quilt the top myself so I dug it out and got busy.   I shared it at show and tell at our Gate Crashers Retreat, along with the emotional journey that went with it. I'm so glad I finished it.  And I love it, and will cherish it.