American Southern-Style Biscuits

I must confess, i do rather like some of the things to come out of the states, food wise. One thing that many British people can't relate to, however, is 'biscuits and gravy'. Maybe its the usage of the word 'biscuit' and how each country uses it to mean different things. An American Biscuit is actually pretty close to a savoury scone, but not quite as thick and doughy. This recipe is ludicrously simple, consisting of only 6 ingredients. This recipe is for the biscuits on their own - i'll upload the sausage gravy recipe later.

You will need the following ingredients:

250g (9oz) of Plain White Flour
125g (4 1/2 oz) of Chopped Salted Butter
8 fl oz of Buttermilk
4 level teaspoons of Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon of Baking Soda
Pinch of Salt

Utensils needed:

Food Processor (If you don't have one, get one!)
Baking Tray
Palette Knife
Sieve

First, preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4 (350° Fahrenheit / 180° Celsius). Take your baking tray, and grease it with by pouring a 50p sized drop of oil onto it, then spread around the tray with a piece of folded kitchen paper. Once greased, drop a heaped teaspoon of plain flour onto the tray, and shake the tray around until the base is totally covered. Shake off any excess flour into your sink or bin.

Take your measured flour, and add the Baking Powder, Baking Soda and the Pinch of Salt to it. Sift into the food processor carefully. Add the chopped butter to the flour, and turn on the food processor. Within seconds, you'll end up with a lovely crumb mix.

 While the food processor is still running, slowly dribble in the buttermilk. If you end up with a dough 'ball' forming whilst you're pouring in the buttermilk, stop pouring and simply turn off the food processor, cut the dough ball up with a knife, and turn the food processor back on again so you can continue pouring. You should then end up with a lovely smooth, creamy dough.

 

That's the dough done, made, finito. See? Easy! Now, to decant the dough, take a heaped dessertspoon of dough, and simply drop onto the baking tray. This amount of mixture is usually enough for two tray loads.

 

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. The time it takes to cook these, is just enough for you to cook some bacon, or some sausage, and the gravy to go with it. When they come out of the oven, they should look a little something like these:

 

Then all you have to do, is serve them with something - in my case, i chose sausage gravy, and some crispy grilled belly pork:

 

Just goes to show, tasty food doesn't have to be difficult, or take long! Like i mentioned earlier, i'll post up the recipe for sausage gravy a little later.