My Grandma’s Angel Biscuits
This week marks the third anniversary of Cooking is My Sport. My blog baby is three years old, guys.
Should I feel like a proud mom? Cause I kinda do.
I still remember when CIMS was first ‘borned’. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to format my posts, write out the recipes, take the pictures.
It was actually kind of a hot mess.
Kinda like my first major solo effort at baking.
Let me just give a useful piece of advice upfront for any of my followers who are excellent cooks, but not so excellent bakers: start with something easy. Something that doesn’t require too much know how or technique. Something you’d have to try REALLY hard to mess up.
Don’t be like me. Don’t make your first baking experiment biscuits.
Chances are, you’re going to mess them up. Like I did.
I didn’t realize that a good biscuit dough still has visible chunks of butter it. I didn’t know that it wasn’t like bread dough and therefore should NOT be kneaded. I didn’t know that finding a warm place to let the dough proof did NOT count as setting it on top of the preheated oven–which made the bottoms of the biscuits start baking before I even placed them in the oven.
I was completely clueless guys. It wasn’t pretty. Don’t be like me. There are plenty of novice baker recipes on this blog I can recommend for you to try if you’re just trying to get your feet wet.
But for those of you who are a little more wet behind the ears with baking, then I really do think you ought to pay attention. Cause you really do want to make these. Trust me.
The recipe for my grandmother’s angel biscuits was actually the first recipe I posted on the blog. I decided to start with that one for a number of reasons: first being it’s a family recipe and therefore very close to my heart. Second, it was around the time that I was learning from my mistakes & getting pretty good at making them. And third: they’re some of the best biscuits I’ve ever had.
As the blog’s birthday came around, I was considering what recipe I would make to celebrate it. Cake was obviously something I considered, but if you’ve been following along lately you’ll know that I’ve done a few over-the-top cakes over the past few months already. I’m kinda over cake (at least for now) I felt I should try and do… something else. That something else is a flashback post where I remade the recipe for my grandma’s angel biscuits, and also did some tweaking to the language of the initial recipe that better reflects the lessons I’ve learned from trial and error making them.
I’ve made these biscuits for breakfast where we ate them smothered in sausage gravy, or schmeared with butter/jelly or butter drizzled with syrup. I’ve made them for dinners where I fried chicken cutlets and had myself a homemade chicken biscuit that can more hold its own against anything Chick-fil-A cranks out. I’ve made them for holidays where we eat them on the side with our epic feasts. And, I’ve also made them for no other reason at all than just because I felt like having one (or two.) The leftovers, if you have any, also refrigerate very well. Whenever you want to reheat one, you can either slice it in half and reheat in the toaster, or cover with a damppaper towel and microwave for about 20-25 seconds. It’ll taste just as tender and flaky. Promise.
Taking me and my biscuits to this week’s Fiesta Friday #141, cohosted this week by Julianna @ Foodie on Board and Zeba @ Food For The Soul.
***********************************************
My Grandma's Angel Biscuits
Recipe by Jess@CookingIsMySport.com
Ingredients
- 1 package of regular or quick acting active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
- 2 tablespoons warm water
- 1 cup shortening (I put mine in the freezer overnight to make it as cold as possible)
- 5 cups of all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar, plus 1 tsp divided
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups buttermilk
Directions
Grease 2 to 3 round cake pans (one or two half sheet pans will work as well)
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Sprinkle the one tsp of sugar over the yeast. Let it sit for ten minutes. (If the yeast does not foam with small bubbles on top after 10 minutes, the water was probably either too hot too cold. Think ‘baby bottle warm’: this is what you want.)
Cut shortening into pre-sifted dry ingredients with a pastry blender, with 2 forks OR (my personal preference) by running the shortening over a box grater in 4 qt. bowl until mixture looks like bread crumbs.
Stir in buttermilk & yeast mixture until dough leaves side of bowl. (The dough is going to be VERY sticky and soft. To avoid a mess, rub extra flour on your hands, or on a rubber spatula when mixing.)
Turn dough onto generously floured surface. Gently roll in flour to coat, shape into a ball. Knead lightly 25 to 30 times, sprinkling with flour if dough is too sticky. (This is where it gets a little tricky. I reallyreallyREALLY want to emphasize the important of the word GENTLY here. My own past missteps have finally made me realize that when handling biscuit dough, the less you actually ‘handle’ it, the better. Avoid even clenching your palms around the dough. I use my fingertips to pat. Your palms carry heat, and heat will melt those marvelous shortening chunks that create tender, flaky biscuits.)
Roll or pat 1/2 inch thick. Cut with 2 1/2 inch round cutter. (You can also use a knife or bench scraper to cut them into squares) Place about 1 inch apart in cake pans. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in preheated oven until the biscuits have doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Heat the oven to 400°. Remove plastic wrap from pans, then place them back into oven and bake until golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes. Spread tops with butter.
I’m a big biscuit fan and these sound super good! I can imagine how wonderful they are topped with sausage gravy!
It’s pure heaven Nancy. Thank you!
Congratulations Jess – 3 years wow! Quite an accomplishment. Love these biscuits and learning from the do’s and dont’s. I’m sure the buttermilk gave it a nice, airy texture. They look fantastic!
It’s crazy that it’s been three years already. I’ve loved every minute of it. Thank you Loretta!
Happy blogiversary! Its amazing how time flies when you are having fun. Great way to share your grandma’s angel biscuit recipe too. Looks very tender and delicious:)
Thank you Lily; it almost seems like just yesterday when I just started. 🙂
Such perfect looking biscuits, and great tips. Happy Blogniversary! 🙂
I hope I can take some of the ‘scary’ out of making biscuits with this recipe. They’re not that hard once you get some practice. Thank you!
Happy 3rd birthday to CIMS!
Thank you so much Gina, I appreciate it!
Hahaha!! Oh my god I’m totally a novice baker, i SUUUUUCK at baking!!
Happy blogaverssary you beautiful woman <3
Girl trust me, I used to SUCK. I’m addicted to sugar and carbs though, so I was determined to get it right Hell or Highwater lol Thank you so much <3
I wish I had your persistence!
I love biscuits and have never tried making them with yeast. I’ve heard the term angel biscuits before but really didn’t know what they were. Now I do!! Congratulations on your 3 years anniversary, happy to know you and I am especially glad that I found your beautiful blog with so many amazing recipes.
Angel Biscuits are some of the best biscuits I’ve had. Soooo light and fluffy. It’s been so wonderful following you and your blog as well. I’m honored to have your attention. Thank you Suzanne! 😉
Happy Blogiversary Jess! These biscuits look so soft and tender. I love a great biscuit especially smothered with butter and honey!
Nothing beats a biscuit lol Thank you Julie!
Congratulations Jess…. Biscuits looking amazing. Must try
Yes, please do! They’re a guaranteed winner. Thank you very much 🙂
Hey Jess! Congratulations on being 3 years old! And what a lovely recipe your have to share with us today! I want to eat these biscuits with Everything! Happy Fiesta Friday to you! 😀
Thank you Julianna! Happy Fiesta Friday to you as well, have a great rest of your weekend 🙂
Happy three years blogging, Jess! Great advice and tips here for baking, which I can only do with a recipe book. Keep up the great work!!🙂🙂💚
Thank you Eartha, I appreciate that 😀
Congrats on your 3rd blog anniversary, Jess!! These biscuits are perfect 🙂
Thank you very much Freda! 🙂
These are beyond fabulous! SO good!
Congrats on your 3rd blog anniversary. Woo hoo! My blog started out as a “hot mess” too BTW! 😉 We’ve come a long way. 🙂
I have to say, I agree with that assessment Josette lol Thank you–we certainly have come a loooooong way 😉
I couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t seen this post in my reader… somehow WordPress “unfollowed” me! :/ What on EARTH!?! I’m going to see what else I’ve missed over here at CIMS. Needless to say- it’s FIXED! 🙂
*thumbs up* Thanks Josette 😉
Ahhh… I was craving biscuits all weekend. I will definitely try these this week when I make stew 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Awesome, they go PERFECT with stew. Hope you try and like them, thank you.
These biscuits look soo amazing. I have an addiction to biscuits so this is definitely something I’ll want to try. Happy 3rd blog birthday, Jess! We started blogging around the same time. Mine isn’t until the first week of November. How are you adapting to life in the Bay Area?
Thank you Andrea! Yes, I remember that we DID start around the same time. Looking forward to your blog’s anniversary!
I like it here very much, though I gotta say it’s these fall months that make me miss Michigan a tad bit. No apple orchards in the bay area that I’ve seen so far lol But the food scene is kinda making up for that 😉
These look amazing! Thank you for the recipe. Perfect for winter days baking (:
You’re too kind, thank YOU. These biscuits do VERY well on the side with a winter dish like stew, chili or casserole 😀
Those look delicious!!!
Thank you Kelley, they really are 🙂