Buttermilk Biscuits

As a southern girl, I take my biscuits seriously. I’ve tested out lots of recipes, some good, some not so good. Through trial and error, I’ve found a few tricks that lead to a tasty biscuit.

1. White Lily flour. I can not express to you how much I love White Lily. It’s a soft flour, which means it contains less gluten, making your biscuits light and fluffy instead of tough. Cake flour is a good substitute, but nothing beats White Lily.

2. Buttermilk or whole milk. Adds flavor. I've tried skim & 2%, they create a lackluster biscuit.

3. Salted butter. Most recipes call for unsalted, but I think that little extra bit of salt is crucial to a truly tasty biscuit.

4. As little kneading as possible. Just get the dough to hold together. More kneading = more gluten, more gluten = tougher biscuits. You don’t want gluten-y biscuits.



This recipe is adapted from Food & Wine, last months issue, I believe? They were on the cover, and they were calling my name. These are thinner and crisper than a lot of biscuits, but I like them a lot. They are perfect in the morning with bacon, or with dinner. Substitute garlic salt for the salt, and add 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder and they’d be perfect with spaghetti.



Buttermilk Biscuits
Adapted from Food & Wine

I cube my butter into pretty small pieces before adding it to the batter. I find using my fingers to cut it in works best. Just make sure you butter is super cold. Rub the pieces in between your fingers, until you have pea sized pieces through out.

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks salted butter, cubed and chilled, plus more for spreading
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 400° and position racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk the flour with the salt, baking powder and baking soda. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives (or your fingers), cut in the butter until it is the size of small peas. Add the buttermilk and stir until a shaggy dough forms.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface; knead until it comes together. Pat the dough 3/4 inch thick. Using a 3 1/2-inch round cutter, stamp out as many biscuits as possible. Reroll the scraps and stamp out more biscuits.

Transfer the biscuits to the baking sheets and bake for about 30 minutes, until golden and risen, shifting the pans halfway through baking. Let the biscuits cool.

Also! The winner of my Tate’s Bake Shop giveaway is Anika! Congrats! I hope you enjoy your cookies and cookbook.

Plum Berry Crisp plus tips on freezing berries!

You have no idea how good it feels to finally be back here, sharing a recipe with you. My life has been all sorts of crazy lately. Soon after I got my camera back from the repair place (it was gone nearly 20 days!!), we had company staying with us and then my sweet puppy Otis was bitten by a rattle snake.



Since then, it has been non stop Otis care, doing everything we can to get him well. At first his prognosis was not good at all - we were all prepared for the worst. But this crazy dog has too much life in him, the rattle snake wasn’t enough to bring him down. He’s home now, and expected to make a full recovery. It’s so incredible to be able to write out those words, we were so sure he wasn’t going to make it. We should probably rename him miracle!



In all the hullabaloo, the month of July passed me by in a blur. Only today have I had the time to get in the kitchen and bake up something new. I wanted to use what was in season, so I picked up a bunch of fruit from my local orchard. Blackberries, blueberries and plums galore.



This crisp is a celebration of August, with its late summer fruit, and a dash of cinnamon in the topping to hint at fall. It’s sweet, and a little tart, it may be my new favorite crisp recipe, the berry and plum combination is incredibly tasty.



Plum Berry Crisp
adapted from Epicurious

For filling
1 1/2 pounds purple plums, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
1 1/2 cup blueberries
1 cup blackberries
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (I used white sugar, as I was out of brown, you could cut down on the sugar if your fruit is super sweet!)

For topping
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into bits and softened
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in upper third.
Toss together all filling ingredients in a 2-quart shallow baking dish and bake 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, blend together all topping ingredients in a bowl with your fingertips until butter is evenly distributed and mixture is crumbly.
Stir fruit filling, then sprinkle oat mixture over it and bake until topping is crisp and golden and fruit is bubbling, about 30 minutes.



I have tons of berries left, so I thought I’d share my tips for freezing them fresh. I meant to take pictures but, well, I forgot!


1. wash and dry the berries throughly

2. lay them in a single layer on a cookie sheet

3. freeze for about 2 hours

4. remove from freezer, place in zip lock bags

5. put them back in the freezer

6. enjoy a taste of summer even in the dead of winter!


Freezing them on the cookie sheet is the most important part, that way you don’t have big clumps of berries in your freezer. You can remove the amount you want to use without having to defrost the whole bag!