When I was a young girl, we would visit my great-grandma Anna in Mount Airy, NC. Every time we visited, she would make homemade biscuits, she didn’t even use a recipe. And sometimes she would sing to me while she prepared her baked goods. I can vividly hear her singing, “Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Can she bake a cherry pie charming Billy?……” in my memory today! She was a farmer’s wife; a hard working and strong woman who lived through the Great Depression and then some. I cannot make a biscuit without thinking of her! While my great-grandma used Crisco, I was determined to play around and make my own southern biscuits recipe with butter! I have been making these biscuits for my little family for years now, and I decided it was time to share it with everyone! I hope you enjoy them, and maybe you’ll make biscuits and sing *”Billy Boy” with the children in your life too!
Ingredients:
- 4 cups of All-Purpose Flour (sifted – Grandma always sifted her flour!)
- 8 teaspoons of Baking Powder (look for aluminum free – I use Rumford)
- 2 teaspoons of Sea Salt
- 1 1/2 sticks of Butter – room temperature
- 2 cups of Buttermilk (Grandma always used buttermilk, but you can use whole milk in this recipe.)
Southern Biscuits Recipe:
1: Sift 4 cups of all-purpose flour into a large mixing bowl.
2: Add 8 teaspoons of baking powder and 2 teaspoons of sea salt to the flour. Stif to combine.
3: Cut in 1 1/2 sticks of room temperature until the flour mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4: Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add 2 cups of buttermilk into the well.
5: Stir to combine. I find using a fork to work best for this part.
6: Butter a large baking pan.
7: On a lightly floured surface, divide the biscuit dough into 16 even pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and set on the pan. Then gently push each one down a bit to flatten it.
8: Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven until a toothpick comes out clean. Approximately 15 minutes.
9: When the biscuits are finished baking, remove from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Then use a spatula to remove the biscuits from the pan and place in a basket or on a plate. Enjoy!
*If you don’t know the song “Billy Boy” you can hear and learn it here:
