Biscuits. How southern can you get? I grew up with biscuits as a kid. Mom and her mom made them all the time. Who knows how many different recipes there are, but the basic recipe is pretty simple and only a bit labor-intensive. Most contain only flour, baking powder buttermilk, and a few other things. I don’t make them as often as I should, but the Greenhouse Biloxi, my favorite coffee shop and biscuit-making place, is just down the street, so I do not do completely without.
The things you can serve inside a biscuit make up an endless list, but my all-time favorite is fig preserves. The problem is that figs are hard to come by and real homemade fig preserves are even harder to find. There is a lady at the local farmers’ market that makes fig preserves but she sells out quickly, and then there is none to be had till the next year. Of course, other jams or preserves are good too, especially with a tab of good quality butter. Blueberry is probably my favorite, after figs. I also love a good biscuit with breakfast sausage, ham, bacon, a fried egg, or cheese. In a pinch, I’ll buy the sausage and biscuits at the store, but in truth, it’s a poor substitute.
The Greenhouse on Porter in Ocean Springs and Biloxi do some pretty wonderful things with biscuits, including making one with sweet potatoes and another served with smoked salmon, red onions, and capers. Of course, there is nothing wrong with keeping it simple, like adding a slice of ham and some relish. The Greenhouse also has a daily biscuit special, one savory, one sweet that can be pretty amazing. The most recent sweet biscuit was oatmeal, ginger biscuit with vanilla roasted apples and sweet fluff and the savory biscuit was mushroom and rosemary with tomatoes and goat fluff. Pretty creative, don’t you think?
Get the flour and buttermilk out or head over to the Greenhouse, life is better with biscuits!
Greenhouse on Porter Biscuit Recipe
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 stick cold butter
- 1 cup full-fat buttermilk
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt & pepper.
Chop cold stick of butter into half-inch cubes. Using your fingers, squish the butter into the flour mixture until the largest pieces are about the size of peas.
Stir in the buttermilk, mixing only until the dough comes together, but be careful to not overwork the biscuit dough.
Dump the dough onto a floured surface and roughly shape into a square about an inch thick. Cut into 9 pieces.
Place biscuits on a parchment-lined pan and bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
