Homemade Southern Biscuits

Biscuits are a staple of southern cooking. They are quick and easy to make.
Here, I’ll show you.

Gather up:
2 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons *baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup shortening (you can substitute lard or butter)
7/8 cup milk (1 cup less 2 tablespoons)

(for weights and measures equivalents in the UK and Australia, check here)

Oven at 450 degrees F (230 C, or gas mark 8 in the UK).

Sift together dry ingredients. Cut or rub shortening into flour mixture until particles are as fine as coarse crumbs.

Add milk and stir in with a fork.

Turn dough out on a lightly floured board and kneed just until smooth.

Roll dough out about 1/2 inch thick and cut with a floured cutter. You could skip this part and just make rounded patties with floured hands or spoon out big drops on the pan.

Place on lightly greased baking sheet. You can brush with melted butter if desired.

Makes about 8 biscuits. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, et voila!

Most people cut them in half and spread butter, jam, or honey in the middle.

Here are some variations:

You can add 1 tablespoon of sugar to dry ingredients.

For buttermilk biscuits:
Cut baking powder to 2 teaspoons and add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. Replace 7/8 cup milk with 1 cup buttermilk. Follow recipe above.

Popeye’s biscuits:
Change out the ingredients to these and follow recipe above.
4 cups Pioneer biscuit mix (just double up the dry ingreds and shortening if you don’t have biscuit mix)
8 ounces sour cream
3/4 cup club soda
1 teaspoon melted butter to brush tops.

*If you don’t have baking powder, you can make it. Just add 2 parts cream of tartar to 1 part baking soda.

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