Some summers when I was a kid we’d take family road trips to visit Ma’s kinfolk in Tennessee, up in the Appalachians. My great granny lived in a trailer at the end of a tiny road in a place called Shady Valley next to a little mountain creek that was icy cold — melted snow. That’s where I caught my first crawdad and kissed my second cousin and smoked my first cigarette and picked wild raspberries and hid in a root cellar and played in the rain like you can’t do in Texas. I’d sleep on the couch or in a tent in the yard or sometimes just in the car. It was some pretty magical times.
And my granny made the best biscuits in the world. She never measured, she hardly thought about it — she just mixed up some flour and fat and milk and voila. Bad Ass Biscuits.
Then she went on with the sausage and gravy. Granny, you are breaking my heart! I miss her and her biscuits. So I make my own biscuits now and remember that sweet mountain home. Here’s how you can, too.
- 1¾ cups flour
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons butter (frozen or at least very cold)
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- Combine dry ingredients in a big ol’ bowl.
- If your butter is frozen, use a coarse grater to grate it into the flour. If it’s just cold, dice it and toss it around in the flour.
- Use your fingertips to mix the flour with the butter, sort of squeezing little bits to break up the butter and get it coated in flour. It should look grainy.
- Add the milk all at once and mix it up quickly.
- Turn it onto a floured board and knead by folding it over itself several times. Thirty seconds of kneading is plenty. Be gentle with it.
- Roll or pat it out into ½ inch thickness.
- Cut with a biscuit cutter or the rim of a glass.
- Put on a cookie sheet, ungreased. Bake at 450 degrees Fahreheit for 12-15 minutes.
- Eat those hot flaky biscuits and think about my cool granny.
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The LEARN TO COOK Book is Here!
By popular demand, Learn to Cook is now available in print! Over 300 pages of knowledge between two soft covers.
Learn To Cook is designed to get you cooking for yourself like a civilized human being! Drawing from a lifetime of cooking and over two years experience making instructional cooking videos, author Hilah Johnson has produced a beginners’ cookbook for today’s young adults. The casual, straightforward style will appeal to anyone with a sense of humor and the focus on fresh, simple recipes will appeal to anyone who loves to eat. The book includes chapters on menu planning, knife skills, grocery shopping and more, plus a comprehensive spice chart and over 150 recipes from breakfast to dinner to snacks in between.
I create short-form, educational, and occasionally hilarious cooking videos geared towards beginner and intermediate cooks, as well as people who are just looking for simple, low-cost recipes. Everything is made from scratch, people!
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks now I know how to make Biscuits and it’s easy. Keep the video’s coming we are a watching
Thanks for your support and encouragement!
just found you- you have the best cooking podcast ever!
Hey there! Thank you!
You’ve definitely inspired me to go on a rampage to find the best biscuit recipe. So far, I’m between Alton Brown’s and America’s Test Kitchen’s. Do you mind if I blog your recipe?
Thanks!
Jenny
Blog it up!
El done-o. I’m a little biscuited out, haha.
Hey Hilah I just discovered your cooking show and I absolutely love it. You are inspiring me to go in the kitchen and try these recipes for my self. Keep up the great work, because I am sure you and your show will go very far. You have fan for life in me.
Whoohoo!!!
wait…how do i get to see the extra video…i have a deep feeling its goint to be extra hilarious. i liked “you prob have sum people coming over that you dont really like much so give them those funy ass buiscuits.” hahahaha i almost died laughing..
Laloali, check out the home page of the website and sign up for the newsletter. Then you’ll get info on the secret webpage and the password to see it. It’s worth it.
Hi Hilah
I recently discovered your Hilah Cooking podcast and I love you. Best cooking show and figure-out-how-to-do-it demos anywhere. You should be on the Food Network. They need somebody like you, to get it done, keep it real, and keep us smiling through it all.
Thanks for doing what you do.
A new fan!
Scott
Thanks, Scott! You just made my day and it’s not even 7 am! Thank you for watching and commenting. It’s great to get feedback from people.
Yours,
hilah
How are you? Im Leo from Argentina.
You are a very good cook.
The way that you explaint how to cook is awesome!!!!!
Hola Leo! Gracias por comentar! Espero que los hacen!
Your fluffy, delicious Bad Ass Biscuits saved my family from choking on the anti-tank slugs that were my feeble attempts at biscuitry.
Thanks Hilah!
You are welcome, Rhoda!
Like magic! how i wished! am not the only person that benefited from this!…..Hilah infact ur unique keep it up!
Thank you, Sulei! I hope you try the biscuits!
My Mom has the same sifter!! It also looks quite prarie-dog-like.
Ha! That sifter was the very same one I grew up with, that my mom always used. Mama don’t bake much no more.
Hilah,
am a layman in baking but for the biscuits i tried and my family wants more. do something on the souvery scones and Victoria sandwich cake. i will be grateful.
Regards,
mirriam
Hi Mirriam!
I’m happy you had success with the biscuits! I have a savory scone recipe here. I’ve not heard of the Victoria sandwich cake, but I will look into that.
Thanks for writing!
-hilah
Hi Hilah~
Just started having fun watching your show. I like what I’ve seen because it’s seems simple and versatile. I wanted to comment on this recipe because my daughter, Charlotte, is comparing the ingredients to Joy of Cooking’s, and I think you mention that’s the recipe you used, so I’m confused. Theirs calls for baking soda and sugar. Did you say add soda on the video? (It’s not listed above as an ingredient) Thanks!
Hi Kay!
Omigaw. You have saved these biscuits from doom! You’re right. It should read baking soda, not powder. Regular old sweet milk biscuits would require baking powder, but using buttermilk only baking soda is needed to rise. Thanks so much for pointing that out; I fixed it in the recipe.
I just double-checked my JOC and didn’t find anything about sugar, though. Wondering if they changed it from one edition to another. I have the 2006 version.
Also, it makes me so happy to hear that you’re cooking with your daughter. It’s such a great way to bond and teach a life skill at the same time.
Here’s to you and Charlotte and a lot more fun in the kitchen!
Can I use this biscuit dough to make your fried pies?
Hey Steve! I have never done that, but I think it would work. They will puff up a LOT more than pie crust will. You might even want to try baking them if you use this dough – that seems like it would work better than frying come to think of it. Let me know if you try it!
Hilah I love your biscuits. I hope you have some chocolate biscuits.
I just tried your biscuit recipe delicious! An easy way to make buttermilk at home is to add 1 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice per every 1/2 cup of milk.
Hi Celeste! That is a great trick to remember. Glad you liked the biscuits!
you list 1 tablespoon of baking soda… is that correct?
Hei Hilah
Lovely videos – an engaging photogenic lass clearly foreordained to the constellations of foodie stardom! Groveling aside, beg to offer a variation on tactical biscuitry: Instead of rolling the dough and using the biscuit cutter just gently pat it out and push the edges in to approximately even thickness – doesn’t need to be an even rectangle or circle any shape is fine. Using a sharp paring knife slice to approximate trapezoids – this will yield more crispy edge and a higher rise. Gently push any leftover bits adjacent to eachother on the baking sheet. The biscuits will not be perfectly geometric, but esp with comfort cookery taste & texture outrank presentation:) (standard internet disclaimers: IMO – YMMV – not a physicist – don’t know anyone by that name – come back with a warrant – I was only following orders – &c)
Thanks! I’ll sometimes cut them into squares when I’m in a hurry, too. It certainly is faster! And more crispy edges, yes.