[Sca-cooks] Re: Angel bisquits

[Diamond Randall]

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BaronessaIlaria at aol.com
wrote:



  What I want is a good recipe for "angel" biscuits. My grandfather in
Kentucky

  apparently could make them better than anyone in the world, but he
died

  before I was born and if he ever passed the recipe on to my mother
(his

  daughter-in-law), she wasn't able to duplicate them and gave up.

  Unfortunately that side of the family is mostly gone now....



  Ilaria




Johnna replied:

 I am under the opinion that the flours are the main

 key to why the old biscuit recipes never work out these

 days... or maybe it's memories. I'll save your

 query and see what I can locate in my American stuff.



Regina noted:




 I think Johanna has hit on the answer as to why regional breads don't
seem

 to translate from area to area.  I recently got the book
_Cookwise by

 Shirley O. Corriher, a food writer and "culinary sleuth" who
specializes in

finding the scientific reasons Why things work as they do in food
prep

 snip

At any rate she talks about 10 different flours:  Cake (Swans
Down,

Softasilk) for cakes, quick breads, muffins, pancakes; Instant flours

(Shake Blend, Wondra)for Sauce and gravy, blending to lower protein
content;

Bleached Southern all-purpose (White Lily, Martha White, Gladiola, Red
Band)

for Pie crusts, biscuits, quick breads, muffins;

 snip .



 Your grandfather probably used a cake flour, or at least one that
was

 produced from soft wheat and that allowed his biscuits to rise
more.  If

 your family moved north where the grains grown tended to be more the
hard

 wheat variety that soft rise would have been reduced, and nothing would
have

 tasted the same.



Well Ilaria, you still haven't received a recipe,

have you?   Taking pity, I consulted my grandmother's

cookbook notes (which she stole wholesale from her

older sister) and lo! There it was...ANGEL BISCUITS!

I also called mom (who is 80) and got her to expand

the notes somewhat as to the process (which is involved).

It seems if you make it out of the required order, they

don't turn out the same.  As my family is from southern

Kentucky, I suspect this recipe is very close to your

grandfather's because angel biscuits are very well known still

in that area (though my mom only makes them to make

little sandwiches with thin sliced Christmas sugar-cured ham).



Angel Biscuits



2 1/2 cups flour   (specifically: White Lilly All Purpose
Flour)

1 packet dry yeast   (Flessmans?  Definitely not
"rapid-start" kind).


The original note called for cube yeast which I


vaguely recall as a child being kept in the frig.


"Part of a cube" was not very helpful.


Mom said a single modern pack is about right.

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/8 cup or 2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup vegetable shortening (Crisco plain)

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup warm water



Stir in yeast into water and put aside.

Mix all the dried ingredients well together.

Cut in the shortening to the dry mixture until

thoroughly mixed (by hand slowly; electric

mixers do not produce good results).

Pour yeast into room temperature buttermilk.

Stir thoroughly.

Blend/ fold buttermilk/ yeast into dry mixture

completely.  Stir moderately.  DO NOT KNEAD.

Place covered mixing bowl on middle shelf of

refrigerator for 1 day. (Dough will keep for 4 to 5 days)

Take out dough and knead lightly.  Roll out fairly

thin (1/2" or so).  Use a juice glass to punch out

small diameter  rounds (1 1/2" is about right). Place on

baking tray rubbed lightly with shortening and lightly

dusted with flour.  Cover with biscuit cloth (white cotton) for about
an hour

after dough gets to room temperature and allow to rise

slightly.

Bake at 400 degrees F. for 12 to 15 minutes.



Don't forget to adjust for altitude.  This part of the US

is at about 700-800 feet above sea level.  I suspect

that you should adjust the rising time and perhaps the

baking time or temperature.   I think some experimentation

may be in order unless someone has some manual that

converts and corrects baking methods for altitude changes.



The result should be a domed top biscuit with an evenly

light golden brown crust with white dusting and about 3/4"

high.   The bottom should be barely browned and the

inside moist and fluffy.   They are splendid with a light

unprocessed honey.



Akim Yaroslavich

"No glory comes without pain"






--- Diamond Randall

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