the hallowed object: the Southern biscuit

[anotheranon]

I was pleased to see that Alton Brown devoted one of his shows to the the subtle art of Southern biscuit making. It was a treat because he had a "bake off" against his own grandmother, who, in true Southern grandmotherly fashion, didn't really measure, and has used the same baking pan, mixing bowl etc. for years!

I remember when I first begged my mom for her biscuit recipe, and she couldn't give it to me, because she never measured anything! She finally came up with a recipe (provided upon request), but I've never been able to make mine as good as hers. I'm guessing this is the sort of thing that is really best learned from your mom or grandma, and not from a book.

AB demonstrated some cooking tips that might help (use aluminum pans, as dark/teflon pans can burn the bottom of biscuits; use the right kind of flour), but it almost feels like a betrayl to consider following his recipe to the letter - you just don't blithely choose someone else's biscuit recipe over that of your own mother unless you've tried absolutely everything to get mama's recipe to work! :P

Got me craving biscuits now, though.

Comments

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

(when I was a kid, we always called these "porridge cookies" 'cause of the oatmeal ***grin***)

1/2 cup margarine or butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
5 tbsp cocoa
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup shredded coconut

Bring butter, sugar & milk to a boil. Add remaining ingredients & cook for 5 minutes. Remove from heat & stir until slightly cooled. Drop spoonfuls on cookie pan to set (putting the pan in the fridge works best ... and, as timcharmorbien mentioned, putting wax paper on the cookie sheet is very helpful ... should also be put between the layers when storing cookies in a container)