Buttermilk Biscuits

This week, Stella has been a little maniac; alternately tearing around the house at top baby-speed and clinging to me like a howler monkey. I hope I'm not alone in feeling like some days, I absolutely live for baby's bedtime. The countdown begins at 5 o'clock - "the witching hour" for the uninitiated - when without fail, the screaming begins for no discernible reason. Forget trying to make dinner in any sort of relaxed fashion - for every addition to the pot, there is five minutes of attempted distraction, redirection, and then of course soothing a bumped head when the previous two prove unsuccessful at keeping her happy and out of immediate danger. So you'll understand why, when 7:30 rolls around, I am ready to toss her into her crib from the doorway and run in the other direction. Still, a few hours later I find myself missing her.

Thankfully, Stella does intersperse her screaming fits and tours of destruction with moments of hilarity and sweetness. She will now give kisses (open-mouthed, heavy on the saliva), and occasionally grants us a quick snuggle, although if you're holding her, she'd much rather bounce on you or scale you like a mountain goat - don't you know that ribs make the best footholds? Some other fairly recent developments of note:

• Dancing! At first it was the cutest little bouncing jiggle, now she stomps back and forth and kicks one leg out at a time, like a tiny Elaine Benes
• Clapping her hands, especially if you prompt her with "yay Stella!!!"
• Waving bye-bye in context (she also tries to say bye-bye)
• Using mama and papa for the appropriate person - and sometimes she simply shouts, "MOM!" when she requires my immediate attention
• Standing up - VERY briefly - with nothing to hold on to 
• Brushing her hair with her baby brush (grinning hugely if we tell her, "oh, pretty!") and chattering while holding a cell phone to her ear 
• Playing her favorite game, "where's Stella?" over and over again (pictured below)

Sometimes she doesn't get it quite right though, and covers her ears when I ask where she is. Or perhaps she's just annoyed with my voice? I can't imagine why. At any rate, it has been great fun watching her develop into this little person. I'm just as excited for every new skill she acquires now as I was the first time she rolled over, cooed, smiled.

Due to the aforementioned clinginess, any activities not taking place on the couch became impossible and thus, the only sweet treats I made this week came from a boxed mix. And who cares, they were good. The only reason these biscuits got made was because they were an integral part of dinner and my husband was home early to handle the baby wrangling for a few minutes. This was actually the first time I'd made biscuits from scratch, and if this was a classier food blog, I'd feign embarrassment at having eaten 29 years' worth of whack-a-biscuits from a can, but I ain't ashamed. Still though, these biscuits are so easy and so much tastier that I can't see going back to the Grands.

The recipe calls for 1/2 butter and 1/2 bacon grease or lard for the fat. I didn't have the latter on hand and I'm fairly certain I won't any time soon, so I used all butter, which made my biscuits lean a bit toward the bready side, but nevertheless delicious. I think 1/2 butter and 1/2 vegetable shortening would provide the flaky texture most people strive for in a homemade biscuit, so I will attempt that next time.

Buttermilk Biscuits
from Perfect Buttermilk Biscuits via The Repressed Pastry Chef

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp  baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter (chilled and cubed)

2 tbsp bacon fat or lard (chilled and cubed)

1½ cup buttermilk

 . 

    Preheat oven to 500° F  and set oven rack to the center of the oven.

    Combine dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse to blend. Add chilled butter and lard and pulse until the mixture looks pebbly (do not over mix).

Remove from the food processor and put this mixture in a bowl and gently stir in the buttermilk (I use a fork) until just incorporated.  The dough will be very wet and sticky at this point.

Turn onto a generously floured board and generously flour the top, and fold over, flour, pat, fold, flour until workable but still a little tacky.  This should take about 5 folds.  Try not to add too much flour, as that will toughen the biscuits, and do not knead the dough, which would also toughen the biscuits.  Simply fold and pat out flat.  The final pat before cutting should leave your biscuit dough about 1/3 inch to 1/2 inch thick.

Cut biscuits using a floured biscuit cutter or the floured rim of a drinking glass and put them on a baking pan prepared with a baking sheet or lightly greased or sprayed with nonstick coating, with the sides just kissing each other.

Put them in the oven, close the oven door, and turn the temperature down to 450° F.  Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove and serve immediately.