I originally wrote this article on the heels of three days in Knoxville, Tennessee. First at the Southern Food Writing Conference and then at the International Biscuit Festival, all in June of 2017.
The festival was all about biscuits and it was fun to see so many varieties on the theme. I even was asked to do one of the demos – check out this photo from the festival! The table was taller than most – haha! – and necessity became the mother of invention. Nothing like baking biscuits, standing on an apple crate!!
Two Fresh Baked Biscuit Recipes and a Fun Way to Grill Biscuits
Since that original post, I’ve revamped and today this post holds two recipes for baking biscuits and a fun way to grill day-old biscuits for a whole new taste treat. At the end of the post, an interview I did with South Carolina dairy Farmer, Watson Dorn about real deal locally made Buttermilk. Keep reading, its good info to know, particularly if you are into making homemade buttermilk biscuits.
All Local Ingredients Make a Good Biscuit Recipe, Great!
As always, I try practice the mantra I preach of using local products and with this recipe it was easy. Start with any variety of Southern Biscuit Flour from Newton, NC – all purpose, self rising or their biscuit blend, Formula L will all work well – more on the nuances of working with each in just a few.
All of the Southern Biscuit Flours are milled with North Carolina’s own soft winter wheat. If you select the all purpose flour, then proceed with the recipe exactly as it is written. Use the self-rising flour and you may omit the baking powder.
If you want to really make it easy, buy Southern Biscuits Formula L. This is a delicious complete biscuit mix and only requires the addition of buttermilk (and the cheese, of course!)
Easy to keep it local as you make and bake these drop biscuits.
In addition to local North Carolina flour, I used local butter from Charlotte NC’s Uno Alla Volta ; and either Ran Lew Dairy Buttermilk from Eli Whitney, NC or Hickory Hill Milk Buttermilk from Edgefield SC. The blue cheese part of this recipe features one of the best: Clemson Blue Cheese.
Heidi’s Next Day Grilled Blue Cheese Biscuits
2 1/2 cups all purpose Southern Biscuit Flour ( see notes that follow the recipe for using the self-rising flour or the easy-as-pie Formula L)
a pinch of salt
1 Tbsp. organic or GMO free Baking Powder
1 Tbsp, organic sugar
6 Tbsp. COLD Uno Alla Volta butter – keep the butter in one piece for easier grating
1 cup COLD crumbled Clemson Blue Cheese
1 cup Hickory Hill Milk Whole Milk Buttermilk
Measure the dry ingredients into a large bowl and then use a whisk to blend them well and remove any lumps or clumps of flour. In the biscuit baking world, lumps and clumps of flour are not your friend.
Keep it cold
Next, use a box grater to grate the cold butter in the bowl with the flour. Thanks to my friend Chef Matthew Krenz for first sharing this biscuit baking tip with me. Lots of biscuit recipes say, “cut the butter into small pieces. Then, work it into the flour until the mix resembles coarse cornmeal.”
But in doing it this way, you run the risk of overmixing and warming up the butter. One of the reasons biscuits rise, is from the steam released from the cold butter in the batter. In the biscuit baking world, warm butter or fat is not your friend.
Heidi’s Biscuit Baking Tips and Tricks
Important to note here that you may use any type of high quality fat in your biscuits – local leaf lard from your favorite pork producer or local beef tallow from your favorite cattle rancher work equally well. As does your favorite high quality olive oil. I like using the rich, golden Kores Estate ultra premium extra virgin olive oil from the Olive Crate. Pour the olive oil into a shallow plastic container and chill until it is firm – really firm – in a solid mass. Grate into the biscuit dough as you would the butter.
Next, add the Clemson Blue Cheese. You may buy this already in crumbles or you can crumble it yourself. The key is to chill it down before you add it to the batter. In the biscuit baking world, cheese is always your friend.
Use a large fork to blend the cheese and butter into the flour slightly breaking up the little pieces. A fork is better than your hands, as a fork won’t heat the batter up and your hands – especially if you have hot hands- will. In the biscuit baking world, keep your cool – until the biscuits are baking, warmth is not your friend.
Finally add the buttermilk
For us in Charlotte, a lot of South Carolina is as local as much of North Carolina; and so I thought it would be fun to incorporate Clemson Blue Cheese into this recipe. Clemson Blue cheese is made with whole milk from Hickory Hill Milk, a three-generation family-run dairy in Edgefield, SC. owned by Clemson alum Watson Dorn and his wife Lisa.
As I feature Clemson Blue cheese in this recipe, I thought it would be fun to use Hickory Hill Milk’s Buttermilk as well as Clemson Blue Cheese is made with milk from Hickory Hill.
This whole milk buttermilk is not homogenized, so you need to shake it up before you pour. In North Carolina Ran-Lew Dairy Buttermilk is another wonderful choice. and here’s a Fun FAQ from back in the day, that not many people know. It was actually Hickory Hill Milk’s owner Watson Dorn who taught Randy Lewis, owner of Ran-Lew Dairy how to make buttermilk! Watson shared the method and coached Randy through the process over the phone! The rest is history.
One third North Carolina dairy to note is Riverbend Creamery in Lincolnton NC. Full disclosure, I’ve not been to Riverbend but its on my list to go to visit soon. My good friend Chef Mary Jayne Wilson of Thoughtful Baking Company, uses Riverbend milk and buttermilk in all of her baked goods, and she loves this local dairy. Go visit soon, check out their website for farm tours and shop hours and, they also sell homemade ice cream on site!
Back to the Biscuit recipe: Measure and stir the milk into the flour mix. Use the fork to blend, just until the milk is combined with all the flour. The mix should be sticky.
More Tips and Tricks for delicious biscuits every time
Rolling out biscuits and cutting them with a cutter offers up all sorts of opportunities to over process your dough. You don’t want to add too much flour as you roll or pat out the dough – this will bake into biscuits that may resemble a hockey puck. Likewise, take care if and when you use a biscuit cutter. Don’t twist the cutter back and forth to cut a round out of the dough, just dip the cutter first into a bit of flour – just enough to coat and then cut the biscuit with one quick down and then up motion.
To all together avoid the problem of kneading in too much flour, its easy to start by making drop biscuits. I like to bake then in a cast iron skillet. Aside from a nice homemade look to your finished biscuits, the cast iron adds a nice golden crust to the outside of the biscuits. I personally like that crispy crunch the crust offers. Spray the pan with a bit of cooking spray to lightly coat the pan. Remember, this isn’t cornbread, its biscuits where cold is king; so, no need to heat the pan first.
For perfect drop biscuits, use an ice cream scoop. Scoop up balls of the batter and place them side by side in the pan. Using the scoop keeps the biscuit size uniform. Placing them side by side helps them to support each other during the baking time. This way the biscuits rise to their full potential.
Before baking, gently dab the top of the biscuits with a bit of melted butter. Bake the biscuits in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
Next Day Biscuits are equally as good – maybe better!
Here is how to make my “Next Day Biscuits”. Slice day old biscuits in half. Place them, cut side down, on a buttered cast iron griddle, to grill the cut side to a toasty finish.
Serve them as they are, or top with your favorite local honey.
If you’d rather make roll and cut biscuits instead of the drop variety, here is your new go-to recipe. It’s also easy – just remember to keep all of your ingredients cold and you’ll have light and fluffy results you are going to love.
Real Deal Buttermilk Biscuits
Start with a stick ( that’s 8 Tbsp.) of cold butter
2 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 cup whole milk buttermilk
Ingredients Gathered, Let’s Bake Biscuits
Begin by grating the cold butter on a box grater. Grate over a sheet of parchment paper. Carefully, fold the parchment paper up and around the grated butter. Place the grated butter in the freezer until you are ready to add it to the bowl. Starting your bis
Whisk the flour in the bowl to get rid of any clumps. Then add in the frozen butter. Use a whisk or wooden spoon to gently distribute the butter evenly in the flour. As you stir, make a small well – or a hole of sorts – in the center of the bowl of flour. Pour the cold buttermilk directly in the center of the bowl, all at one time. Stir the buttermilk into the flour and butter in smooth strong strokes. Take care not to over mix.
Test kitchen chefs at Southern Living Magazine suggest this takes about 15 strokes. I’m going to say 15-20.
Turn the dough out onto a parchment lined cutting board. Quickly but carefully gather the dough into a ball and gently pat the mix into a rectangle. To throughly distribute the butter in layers in your biscuits, we’ll use a technique similar to what you do when you make puff pastry.
Pat, Fold and Turn for Light and Flaky Biscuits
Take care not to knead the biscuit dough. Simply and gently pat the dough out and then fold it in half. Give the dough a quarter of a turn; and pat it out once again. Repeat this folding, turning and patting process 3-4 times, but take care not to pat the dough down too hard. If at any time, you feel the dough getting warm, just pop it in the fridge or freezer for a minutes or two. I can guarantee it will be worth the extra wait time.
Finally, use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a 1 inch thick slab. Use a biscuit cutter of any shape to cut your biscuits. Take care to cut straight down into the dough. And, don’t twist the cutter. Just cut straight down and then lift the cutter right back up.
Place the cut biscuit dough onto a lined baking sheet and bake in a 475 degree oven for 15 minutes. As soon as the biscuits are done, brush them with a bit of melted butter and enjoy!
In the biscuit baking world, Buttermilk is your friend and here is why…
Way back in the day, “butter milk” was simply the whey left after churning the cream into butter. In days before great refrigeration, this original buttermilk had a longer shelf life because the perishable fat solids had been taken out. A natural acid left in the rich sweet milk after the butterfats where removed, helped leavening agents to work better in baked goods. This buttermilk was also good to drink.
No one makes buttermilk like that anymore. I spoke with Watson Dorn of Hickory Hill Milk, and learned the specifics of what I already knew to be true. All buttermilk is not equal.
Most large commercial dairy’s today use low fat or skim milk to make buttermilk. But, as Dorn says, ” the fat is where the flavor is.”
DYI advice on the internet suggest simply adding lemon juice or vinegar to whole or skim milk, to make your own buttermilk. But, I am telling you, don’t do it!
While it will still works for baking, adding the acid this way only serves to sour the sweet milk. The flavor result is an off or acidic taste that doesn’t do your biscuits any favors.
True Buttermilk Takes Time
The milk at Dorn’s family-owned dairy is pasteurized as is required by law; but its not homogenized, so cream rises to the top, believe me, this milk is full of flavor.
To make the Hickory Hill Milk buttermilk, Dorn starts with his dairy’s cream top whole milk and adds a specific culture. The enzymes in the culture begin to slowly add acidity to the whole milk, but do not compromise the rich creamy flavor. Dorn allows the process a full 18 hours to make the buttermilk magic happen. Most other dairy’s hurry it up only allowing 6-10 hours.
The time and effort Dorn and his team put into the Hickory Hill Milk buttermilk pay off in texture and in taste. This non-homogenized whole milk buttermilk has the flavor of buttermilk from years gone by.
In fact, Dorn shared that in South Carolina, Hickory Hill Milk sells a lot of buttermilk to retirement communities. The elderly dealing with memory loss and sometimes dementia often are no longer interested in eating. Its a sad problem and it is hard for the staff to get them the proper nutrition they need.
Nutritionists were pleased to report to Dorn that in serving Hickory Hill Milk buttermilk to residents, the taste seemed to spark a food memory of the biscuits, the cornbread and buttermilk from their childhoods. These patients found a comfort in the flavor they somehow where able to remember from many years gone by. Testimony to the fact that eating (and drinking) local brings with it good memories and is the healthiest and happiest way to go!
About Food and Travel Writer Heidi Billotto
Heidi Billotto is a culinary storyteller, educator, and on-air expert who brings local food to life wherever she goes. She connects small family farmers, independent producers, and regional makers to the people, plates, and media outlets that showcase their work, then shows her readers and followers how to bring those ingredients home to their own tables. Known for her deep relationships, genuine curiosity, joyful style, and sincere passion for all she does, Heidi elevates local food culture on the regular through cooking, teaching, travel, and media.
And whenever you see those five little words, #TellThemHeidiSentYou, know that they are my personal seal of approval. It means I have been there, I believe in the folks behind it, and I am sending you their way with my whole heart. So go on…
Go to a local dairy and buy local buttermilk this week, experience the joys of shopping locally, and #TellThemHeidiSentYou