This is not a fancy-shmancy flaky buttermilk layered biscuit, but another quick-and-easy-get-it-on-the-table recipe. Better and cheaper than a mix, and fast enough to make every day. With a little elbow grease, you can have fresh homemade biscuits in the oven in about 6 minutes, and on the table in another 12.
From my mother-in-law.
Biscuits makes 12
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- 2 cups flour
- 1 Tbs. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then add:
- 1/4 cup oil
- 3/4 cup milk
Mix till dough forms a ball, then knead 20-25 times in bowl (thus the large mixing bowl). Kneading just a little makes a less crumbly biscuit. Kneading too much will make a tough biscuit. Kneading in the bowl saves time on cleanup later, since the counter will have just a dusting of flour where you rolled & cut.
Pat or roll 1/2″ thick (or as desired) and cut into 2″ circles with a small Sponge Bob cup. You don’t have a Sponge Bob cup? Try another character, or in a pinch, a regular small cup or biscuit cutter. Place on a cookie sheet and bake about 12 minutes, til bottom just begins to brown. Butter while hot, and serve warm.
On the correct way to butter biscuits:
Biscuits should be buttered while hot, fresh out of the oven. Everyone wants butter on their biscuits, so don’t bother asking. Even if you do ask and they say no, they really do want butter. They just don’t know it yet.
Look for a natural crack in the biscuit, and insert a fork. Don’t actually cut it in half; just lift the top gently. Use fork to slice a small pat of butter off the stick (no need to soften butter). The fork holds the butter much better than a butter knife, especially better than a warm one that is being used to split hot biscuits. Slip into biscuit and drop the top back into place, leaving butter to melt quietly inside.
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Never thought I’d experience hunger pains while blog reading…
Thank you for the recipe and tips. I’ll try this tomorrow morning.
Yum. And thanks for several laughs in one post!
~Karen
even easier and faster if you use self-rising flour. I never rolled them out either — just pinch of a piece of dough the size you want, form it into a ball, place it on the pan and flatter it with the back of your fingers. This is the recipe I always used for biscuits when my children were young. It is also good as a topping for pot pie and even okay as the crusty part of a cobbler pie.
We made the biscuits yesterday and they were yummy. Thanks for the recipe.
Another thanks, here. Much easier to make than the ones with butter, less fat than my previous favorite recipe, and still yuummy.
I just made these, only with whole wheat pastry flour instead of white flour and half as much salt. And I used a plain, boring small glass.
Ha Ha. Receipe sounded great but I got a bit confused when it said to ‘butter the biscuits’. I live in australia and that sounded weird until I realised that what you are probably making here are what we call scones! I was looking for a butterless biscuit recipe. maybe I should enter ‘butterless cookie recipe’ also!
yours sounds like a great recipe anyway. I will try it one day!
marcia,
Yes, I think our biscuits are more like your scones – but unsweetened. Aren’t scones often sweet?
And our cookies are your biscuits. Our fries are your chips, if I’m not mistaken. I wonder what you call our chips? And how do crackers compare among the continents?
Yeah Scones are more often sweet but ppl also make savory scones eg pumpkin scones. what do you do with your ‘biscuits’ do you put jam and cream on like we do?? also what is Gumbo and also Grits? hear those alot in books and movies!
Chips here can mean either hot chips (fries) or potato chips in a bag (eg Lays, smiths, cheezles etc).
Crackers are crackers (that you put cheese etc on top of or dip into dips (eg French onion dip). Also called Jatz (the brand name) sometimes we also call them biscuits (eg biscuits and dip) just to confuse matters!
Amazing how the same thing can be called so many different names among western countries! We are so similar in most other ways.
I guess the funniest thing I have come across most is the confusion between thongs (footwear here) and flip flops. Your thongs are our G-Strings! (underwear). In New Zealand Flip flops are called Jandals. Weird!
Any more questions you may have re this sort of thing I am happy to answer as I find it really intereseting to learn about the differences and similarities between us as we are very much the same but seem to differ in the smallest things such as biscuits and scones!
Thanks
Marcia.
Marcia,
Biscuits are nearly always eaten buttered, and often but not always topped with jam or honey. When we have them with dinner, we eat them on the side with only butter – like a slice of bread. If we wait til our meal is done, they become dessert with something sweet on them. I don’t know how common this is, but that’s how it happens in our house.
Kim,
And, I’m feeling much better at running my little crew around here! Blessings! ~Summer Nichols
I love your blogging style! You have a great sense if humor and I love reading about how your living real life! It warms my heart to see that we have so much in common! I’m not sure if that is a compliment to me because I only have three kids! The chaos abounds some days, nevertheless! I’m just starting to cook from scratch and it had revolutionized my life, starting with a cheaper grocery bill! I love this biscuit recipe! Thank you for letting us in on your wonderful life! It makes me smile and Thank God for You!
Thank you, Summer and welcome to our blog! Trust me, it only gets better and easier with practice and older children.
I’m cracking up. My 5 year old always says she doesn’t like butter. She has no idea that I put it on just about everything she eats
Thanks! a friend just sent me this link (waves to Dori-A). I too live in australia and am v. interested in how you live happily with so many blessings ( We only have 8). Also the wonderful things you do/cook/make! And as Maria said your fab sense of humour, I often pop in and have a sqwizz when I have a minute to spare and your blog brightens up my day. God Bless you all!
cheers
Monique aust.
monique,
Thanks for introducing yourself. It’s always fun to hear from new readers, especially from afar! And I have to ask, what in the world is a sqwizz? Sounds like a great word for scrabble but I’ve never seen or heard it. I always learn new things from my faraway readers!
Oh Blush, I meant Marcia, not Maria, sorry!
It just means “to have a look” at something. Australian slang I guess, and quite old fashioned at that lol! While we all speak “English” there are so many variations, slang etc. Even across the generations! Here it even changes from state to state, as someone else was saying in relation to shoes, food etc.