Day 4: BREAKFAST BISCUITS

I woke up this morning thinking, "BUTTER".  I know.  I should've been thinking, jogging or green smoothie or something equally healthy but I didn't.  BUTTER was on my mind.  We bought sweet cream butter from Braums two days before and I was so eager to try it out on something warm and soft with that sweet cream butter slathered all over the top of whatever that lucky food item would be.  Biscuits was the perfect thing!

From our seven essential ingredients we are using  ALL SEVEN!!  Flour, sugar, rising agent (baking powder) salt, milk, egg and a solid oil--shortening. And let me tell you, when you taste these it is like 7th heaven.  Mmm, hmmm.

Nifai was the only one awake on this beautiful Saturday morning so far which meant he was my sous chef for the time being.  Of course, he didn't mind at all because he LOVES cooking with mommy.  Well let's dive into this recipe because, as Nifai always reminds his siblings, "Mommy said!"

We started out with three cups of flour.  Nifai insisted he needed a knife.  I had no idea why but got him one anyway and he used to it level off the flour.  What a good little baker he is to remember that skill!  Of course we usually level it off in the main flour supply but that's okay!  My baby cakes is getting his practice. I loved that he remembered this because sometimes when I'm in a rush to stuff my face I throw all those proper techniques out the window.  

Next we added 4 teaspoons of baking powder.

1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar

1 teaspoon of salt

and a 1/4 cup of granulated white sugar.

Then we mix it all up until everything is evenly distributed throughout.

After that we're adding 1/2 cup of shortening.  You can TRY butter instead of shortening but last time I did that I did NOT like the way it turned out.  

So if you want the best biscuits, go with the SHORTENING.

Okay this is the part where you get a bit of an arm workout.  We're going to cut that shortening into the flour until it is so tiny you don't really see clumps anymore.
It just looks like cornmeal.

Make a little well in in the middle of your mixing bowl to get it ready for liquid ingredients.

We'll need one egg beaten.

Then 3/4 cups of milk.

And we're going to mix it all up again.

It should look like you've begun to form a ball.

One of Nifai's favorite parts of baking is dusting the counter with flour.

Next, we'll put all our dough onto the floured surface.

Ball it up so all the small pieces become part of the bigger clump.

And knead it about 10-12 times so it smooths out.

Another one of Nifai's favorite things to do while baking is rolling out the dough.

This dough will be rolled out to 3/4 inch thickness.

We'll use a small child sized cup as our biscuit cutter and flour the edges to keep it from sticking to the dough.

And we're going to go around the edges cutting circle shapes until there's not room to do anymore!

See how thick that is?!

Nifai is so good at this because he has had a LOT of practice :)

He does a great job of putting it on the baking sheet too.  

We don't grease it, just line it with foil and it should be fine.  

The flour on the bottom keeps it from sticking.

Now what do we do with all the scraps?  We mush them together!

Ball it up!

And get it ready to start all over!

Yup.  It should look like that.  Thanks for showing us, Nifai.

Without any prompting, he starts back on the cycle...flour, roll, cut.

We keep repeating that cycle until there's only dough for one more biscuit!  

This recipe will make about 12-15 biscuits depending on thickness.

And now that we've got a full sheet of biscuits, 

we're going to bake it @ 475 degrees Fahrenheit for 12-15 minutes.  

I say start off with 12.  Then check it and if it still looks a little doughy 

in the middle, put it back in for another 3 minutes.

Don't they look great!  We buttered the tops as soon as they came out.  Well, I did.  At this point Nifai has left me for play-doh.

My mouth is watering and I'm about to attack this with a buttered knife.

I love how thick they are!

It was just as divine as I had imagined with that sweet cream butter.

And I thought, "These look so dang good I'm gonna make my own biscuit sandwich." 

So I did.

I even made fresh orange juice, and formed the sausage chub into patties.

Pshhh, who needs McDonald's when you can have McVi's?  

I wish I had eaten this right after I took the picture but someone else in the family, who shall go nameless (but I'm married to him) ate it while I was making a second batch of biscuits.  Who knew one batch wouldn't be enough?!  It's all good babe.
Me and you go together like biscuits and butter anyway.  SMOOCHES!👄😘

Homemade Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup shortening
• 1 egg beaten
• 3/4 cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit
2. In a medium size mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients.
3. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles cornmeal.  This can be done with a pastry cutter, fork or in a food processor.
4. Make a well in the middle of the bowl and add liquid ingredients.
5. Mix together until it forms a ball.
6. Turn ball out onto floured surface
7. Knead ball 10-12 times
8. Roll dough out to about 3/4 inch thickness
9. Cut biscuits with a circle cutter about 3-4 inches in diameter
10. Place biscuits on lined baking sheet
11. Combine scraps together and form ball, kneading 3-4 times if needed.
12. Repeat steps 7-9 until dough is all used.
13. Bake for 12 minutes
14. Remove from oven and check to see if it is baked through.  If still doughy in middle, place back in oven for 3 more minutes.
15. When done, brush tops with butter
16. Drizzle with honey if desired and serve immediately.