Evening Edge
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DEL.ICIO.US
Biscuits a la 'Boots'
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SOUTHERN RECIPE RESTORATION PROJECT
The contributor: Wiley T. Higgins, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who was born in rural northwest Alabama near the Tennessee River in 1931. He and his wife, Helen have lived in Georgia since 1969 and near Coal Mountain, north of Cumming, since 1987.
The story: "The best biscuits in the world were made by my grandmother, Maude Patterson, long dead now. The next best were made by my mother, whose name was Beulah, but her baby sister couldn't say that. The best she could do at first was say 'Boo Boo.' As I remember the tale, others picked up on it and changed it to Boots (except for Aunt Ruth, who always called her Boo Boo), and she was known as Boots until she died in 1982.
"I'm not sure from whom she got the recipe, but it must have been from my granny.
"Besides being delicious, the main attraction to me was when divided into halves and buttered, the halves did not crumble and fall apart as most biscuits do today when you spread on jam or jelly or put a sausage in between the halves."
Hands on time: 10 minutes Total time: 20 minutes Serves: 12
Ingredients:
-
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup lard ("about the size of an egg"), plus more for the pan
1 cup buttermilk
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With a pastry cutter or two knives, cut lard into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Pour in buttermilk, and gently mix until just combined.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Roll it out with a lightly floured rolling pin until it is about 1 inch thick. Using a 3-inch biscuit cutter (or, according to Higgins, a baking powder can with the top cut out and a hole punched in the bottom to let air in to release the dough) and cut out the biscuits.
Place biscuits on a greased baking sheet (Higgins also uses lard for this) or cast-iron "biscuit baker." If the biscuits are baked close together, the sides will be moist. If the biscuits are baked farther apart, the sides will be crisp.
Bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Allow to cool to the touch, and serve immediately.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Roll it out with a lightly floured rolling pin until it is about 1 inch thick. Using a 3-inch biscuit cutter (or, according to Higgins, a baking powder can with the top cut out and a hole punched in the bottom to let air in to release the dough) and cut out the biscuits.
Place biscuits on a greased baking sheet (Higgins also uses lard for this) or cast-iron "biscuit baker." If the biscuits are baked close together, the sides will be moist. If the biscuits are baked farther apart, the sides will be crisp.
Bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Allow to cool to the touch, and serve immediately.
Notes:
Contributor Wiley T. Higgins said of this recipe from his mother, Beulah "Boots" Patterson Higgins: "The amount of flour to be used is hard to explain exactly as she kept a large wooden mixing bowl with a pound or so of flour in it all the time. She added flour as she needed it." Recipe tester and cookbook author Virginia Willis followed his instructions, defining the amount of flour for those unaccustomed to making biscuits by scratch -- especially in a biscuit bowl.
Higgins also commented that "there is always some dough left after the biscuits have been cut out. Roll this up into a ball and roll it out again, and cut out more biscuits. With the little bit of dough left after this, roll it into a ball, flatten it by hand, and bake it with the other biscuits. We called this the 'Daddy Biscuit' as it is always a little larger than the others."
Higgins also commented that "there is always some dough left after the biscuits have been cut out. Roll this up into a ball and roll it out again, and cut out more biscuits. With the little bit of dough left after this, roll it into a ball, flatten it by hand, and bake it with the other biscuits. We called this the 'Daddy Biscuit' as it is always a little larger than the others."
Nutrition:
Per biscuit: 123 calories (percent of calories from fat, 34), 3 grams protein, 17 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 5 grams fat (2 grams saturated), 5 milligrams cholesterol, 374 milligrams sodium.
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