Angel Biscuits

by lefoodsnob 

Updated 12.30.2020.

Not that you need an excuse to make some biscuits, but I have been waiting for an excuse to make these biscuits for a long time. The original recipe was sent to me by my grandma. I have long since misplaced the recipe but the draft has been waiting for me to finish for at least a year if not two. I don’t remember much about the article, other than these are famous biscuits made at a restaurant somewhere – possibly in the south. Per the directions below, these biscuits are perfect with pulled pork.

Perhaps they get the name Angel Biscuits because they are so light and fluffy they are practically heavenly. They’re basically a cross between a roll and biscuit – not as dense as your normal biscuit. And they are so, so, so, so easy to make.

The original recipe suggests using ¼ teaspoon of salt. I changed my recipe to ½ teaspoon but am willing to bet you could use a whole teaspoon. As delicious as these biscuits are, it struck me immediately that they tasted like they needed salt. There’s no good way to add salt to bread once it’s baked.

5f72de66-3f06-4fbe-af19-f690c23f1e13

Also, I baked mine between 15 and 18 minutes. The first batch I accidentally rolled out to ¼-inch thickness and baked for 18 minutes (because in my mind I read to bake them for 15 to 18 minutes, not 10 to 12 as was suggested in the original recipe). The second batch I made sure to get a good ½-inch thickness. These I baked for 15 minutes, at which point they were very slightly browned on the top. Then I realized the bottoms weren’t browned at all, so I threw them back in for a few more minutes. You must make sure to pat them out to ½-inch thickness, not ¼-inch. They just don’t rise enough if you have a short biscuit to start with.

Speaking of rising, I recommend you crow these together on the pan so that the lack of space helps the biscuits lift. I randomly had some biscuits crowded together because I was running out of room on my pan. These biscuits raised nicely. The biscuits that had plenty of air space barely raised at all!

The recipe called for a two-inch biscuit cutter. When I measured the diameter of my biscuit cutters, I found the two-inch cutter was tiny. Definitely not something you could pile pork on! I used my largest cutter, which was probably at least three inches in diameter. So when using a bigger cutter and making thicker biscuits, you’ll need a longer cooking time (duh).  I upped the suggested cooking time range from 10 to 12 to 10 to 15 minutes. 

I believe a 2 ½-inch cutter makes a nice slider-sized biscuit.

 

 

ingredients.

  • 1 c. buttermilk
  • ⅛ tsp. baking soda
  • 1 T. active dry yeast
  • 1 T. sugar
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • ½ c. warm water
  • 3 to 3 ¼ c. flour
  • ½ c. shortening

directions.

  1. Mix buttermilk and baking soda together in a bow or measuring cupl. Mix yeast, sugar, salt and water together in a second bowl or measuring cup. Let stand until foamy. Combine flour and shortening, stirring with a fork until mixed well. Mix in both the buttermilk and yeast mixture. (Dough will be wet and sticky.) Cover loosely with a plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. 671acb2d-9e95-4c96-80fd-10858ac6db73
  2. On a heavily floured cutting board or counter top, pat out dough to ½-inch thickness. Cut biscuits with a two-inch cutter. Place on a baking sheet and let rise 20 minutes.  
  3. Meanwhile preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake biscuits 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. If your oven doesn’t brown (like mine), you can force them to brown by turning on the broiler for a minute or two – make sure your biscuits are not right under the broiler though or you could accidentally burn them. Split and fill with barbecued pulled pork, thinly sliced ham (or other deli meat).

Recipe rating: 

Categories: biscuits and sconesTags: , , ,

4 Comments

Leave a comment