Grandma's Biscuits

I decided to make biscuits from scratch tonight to go with our chicken and rice. My heart raced as I saw how lumpy they turned out. I thought "What did I do wrong?" Then it hit me -- nothing.

I must confess that over the years Grand's (and more recently the generic version of Grand's) biscuits is what I turn to. In fact, I am pretty sure I can count the number of times I have ever made biscuits from scratch. Why, you ask? Well, it is a bit time consuming and it makes a big old flour mess all over my kitchen. Regardless tonight I wanted to make the biscuits that I grew up with eating at my grandparents home -- my Grandmother's recipe. My sister compiled a wonderful cookbook for all the ladies of our family this year and thankfully she had this in it. See, my Grandma is suffering from dementia and her memory is spotty. This blessed treasured recipe was provided by my sister along with a few other family favorite's that we grew up with in California. I am so grateful that she has these and has passed them on to me. I would have never realized that I wanted it until it was too late.....like someone got dementia or something.

So, getting back to my biscuits tonight. I pull them out of the oven and they don't look right and I am worried. I then realized that good homemade (Grandma made biscuits) never look like canned biscuits! See these were lumpy and Grand's are smooth -- probably from all of the fake oils and such! My Grandma's biscuits are made with good old fashion REAL butter, flour, sugar, eggs (the kind from a chicken that have not been recreated in the Pillsbury lab) and milk from a cow (not the powdered stuff). Once I realized that these were indeed perfect and just the way I remembered them.

My Grandma always seemed to keep her kitchen so tidy as she made these and I never could figure out how she could accomplish that with all of that flour. It could be that I barely could see up on the counter as a little one watching her make these for My Grandpa' breakfast (biscuits and gravy or pancakes was his Saturday morning feast each and every week). Maybe she did have a big mess, but I did not know. My kitchen, on the other hand, looked like a bread factory blew up in it once I finally got them in the oven. However, it did bring back another sweet memory from childhood and that was eating the left over dough that Grandma would let me have before she made the"dud" biscuit (you know real homemade biscuits there has to be one that is funny shaped because it is made with the left over dough. Sometimes it is a bit drier that the rest of the batch because it has been worked so many times. You won't find that in Grand's biscuits!). Ah, yes I did take a nibble (maybe two...three...four...should I get tested for saminila from the egg? Funny, how we never worried about those things back in the day....I wonder if I have worms from all the raw homemade dough I have eaten over the last 30+ years?) and was flooded with sweet childhood memories.

Dinner was a hit.

I am certain that my Grandma's biscuits are going to replace canned in our house. Not only did we thoroughly enjoy them at dinner, but I thoroughly enjoyed the process of making them for my family!

Grandma Love's Biscuits:
3 C all purpose flour
2 1/2 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 TBSP baking powder
3/4 TSP salt
3/4 TSP cream of tartar
3/4 C butter
3/4 C milk
1 egg lightly beaten

Oven 425F
Sift together into a bowl the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cream of tartar. Add the butter. With a fork or pastry blender, cur the butter in until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in the milk and egg just until combined. Turn the dough onto a floured board and knead lightly 4 or 5 strokes. Roll or pat into a 1/2 to 3/4 - inch round. Cut with a 2-inch biscuit cutter (I used the top of a glass). Place on a baking sheet (I like them touching because it keeps them soft on the edges) and bake 10 - 15 minutes. (For elevation of 500 feet or more, use 4 tsp. baking powder.)