Homemade Biscuits

When I was growing up I don't ever remember having a breakfast without hot biscuits. My favorite way of eating them was with a slice of ham in the middle. Of course we also had them with fried chicken and chicken gravy. The biscuits made a great carry out snack with a slightly salted slice of onion placed in the middle. I don't think any of them were ever wasted, but if there were enough left, Mama made a fine lemon bread pudding out of them. You could slice off a slice and run outside to eat it while playing.

Mama always insisted on soft wheat self rising flour and I do too.  She used a dough cloth which was a piece of canvas with flour rubbed into it. She used this when she made biscuits, pie crusts or kneaded yeast dough.  I use a dough cloth also and fold it up to store in a ziploc type bag.

Biscuits

2 cups White Lily (or Martha White) self rising flour

1/4- 1/3cup Crisco shortening

3/4-1 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Put flour into mixing bowl and add shortening. Chop up shortening up into small pieces (pea size or so). Add buttermilk. Stir until flour is incorporated into the buttermilk.

Turn mixture onto a dough cloth, kneading it 4 or 5 times until it is smooth.

Pat it out to approximately 3/4 inch thick. Cut with biscuit cutter and place on a baking sheet.

Place in oven and cook for 10-15 minutes or until brown on top. Remove from oven. Enjoy!

Makes approximately 17 biscuits. I usually put a small amount more of buttermilk into my mixture, maybe 2-3 tablespoons more because I like the flavor better. More buttermilk causes the biscuits to be heavier and not rise as high but the flavor is very good.

I always serve biscuits when I make fried chicken. In the winter I make homemade applesauce with this meal and in the summertime I make creamed corn.

It's ok to make bunny biscuits too!