Pensieri di un lunatico minore

Bulletproof biscuits

This is based on a recipe from Shirley O. Corriher’s brilliant tome of food science Cookwise. I’ve adjusted a few bits to better reflect what I grew up with, but basically works like a charm.

Note that this is a much wetter dough than many people are used to, but the biscuits are very light when done.

2C		self-rising flour1
1/8tsp		baking soda
1/2tsp		kosher salt
1/3C		sugar
4Tbsp		shortening2
2/3C		half-and-half3
1C		buttermilk4
1C		all-purpose flour for shaping
2Tbsp		unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 425F and spray a 9” round cake pan with non-stick spray.
2. Combine the self-rising flour, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. With a pastry cutter (or your fingers), work in the shortening until there are no pieces bigger than a big pea. It will look like course gravel.
3. Stir in the half-and-half and buttermilk and let stand for 2-3 minutes. This dough is very wet and after 2-3 minutes it will look like cottage cheese.
4. Pour the cup of flour onto a pie tin. Flour your hands well. Spoon biscuit-sized lumps of wet dough into the flour and sprink some more on the outside. Pick up the dough and shape it roughly into a soft round.
5. Shake off the excess flour and place into the pan, pushing slightly against each other.
6. Repeat until all dough is used (about 10 biscuits).
7. Bake just above the center of the oven until lightly brown (approximately 15-20 minutes), then brush with melted butter.
8. Cool for 1-2 minutes in the pan, then dump them out and eat them all.

¹ I use White Lily.

² I use Crisco.

³ The original recipe calls for heavy cream, but I didn’t like the texture, so I’ve shifted to half-and-half.

⁴ I use spray-dried buttermilk that I mix with water per the instructions on the container.