Creamy Biscuits 

FINALLY! I found a recipe that produces my kind of biscuit, i.e. thick, creamy, moist, can be stuffed with eggs & bacon or left floating on a plate of down home white sauce.  I baked up Kelly's Perfect Buttermilk Biscuit recipe over at Sass & Veracity, except I didn't have buttermilk on hand, so I used sour cream.  These biscuits came out beautifully and my folks were scrambling for seconds.  Thank you Kelly!

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 stick COLD butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 3/4 cup sour cream or buttermilk

Heat oven to 450ºF.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.  Add cold butter cubes, and using your fingers tips, pinch and rub the butter through the flour until the mixture looks like small crumbs.  This doesn't take long and using the blender makes for more dishes to wash.

Add the sour cream and stir lightly with a fork just until a soft dough forms.  Knead it in the bowl with your hands about 15 times.  Do NOT overwork the dough.

Press the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it's about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick.  You can do this with a rolling pin if you prefer, but the dough is easily managed with your hands.  Choose a biscuit cutter (or a glass, jar, or can) that is 2-3 inches in diameter and cut as many biscuits as you can from the dough.  Repeat the process with scraps until all dough is used.

For biscuits with soft sides, place them into a ungreased 8-inch or 9-inch cake pan.  The cozier the fit the better. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until medium golden brown.

Now For the Down home White Sauce (Gravy!)

• 2 tablespoons bacon drippings
• 1 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour

• 3/4 to 1 cup warm milk
• salt & pepper to taste

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, warm bacon drippings then whisk in flour until smooth.  Cook flour for up to 2 minutes, whisking constantly.

Slowly whisk in warm milk, constantly whisking to eliminate lumps.  Use up to 3/4 cup milk.  Allow sauce to come to a simmer, season with salt and pepper to salt, whisking to prevent burning.  Lower heat if necessary.  If sauce is too thick, add more milk 2 tablespoons at a time until you have the consistency as you like it.  The sauce with thicken as it cools.

If you make the sauce ahead or need to keep it warm, pour it into a warm bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Allow the plastic wrap to touch the top of the gravy, pushing out all the air from the bowl.  This will prevent a skin from forming on the top.  Use the microwave to reheat on medium power for 30 seconds up to one minute.

The bacon shown in the picture above was made on another day.  Follow my Oven Fried Bacon recipe to have bacon on hand, ready to eat anytime you want it.