Easy Buttermilk Buscuits

Here they are! I finally found an (easy) and doable recipe for biscuits, the American kind. You know, the ones you get for breakfast in the States, the ones our mothers or grandmothers made at the crack of dawn every morning.

I gathered up the gumption to make them while reading a John Grisham novel, A Painted House. It's a fabulous read and nothing to do at all with law and wire transfers. Grisham works his magic by taking you back to rural Arkansas in the early 1950's. I highly recommend the read. This was my second read through it, soaking up the homemade cooking going on throughout the novel.

I'm not much of a bread-maker. I love bread, a carbaholic if you like but living in France has transformed my desire to rise (full pun intended) early in the morning to have fresh bread baking with my first cup of coffee. (The coffee's important, along with freshly baked anything in the morning to accompany it!).
I also thought that biscuit-making would be difficult, laboring over dough, getting the hands really sticky and flour all over the kitchen. Not so! In fact, this recipe calls only for three ingredients: self-rising flour, butter and buttermilk. (Hold your tongues you ex-pats living abroad, buttermilk can be made with 1 tablespoon lemon juice in 8 oz/250 ml of milk.) And the French do have self-rising flour, farine pour gateaux, though the word gateau is very vague meaning anything from crackers (gateaux aperitifs) to cookies to big, fluffy (North) American wonders.

I decided that if women were making these babies daily back 50 or 60 years ago (and counting) and doing so for breakfast, a time of the day that the least amount of cooking time is desired and every day or so that they couldn't take that long to prepare. Very true. Mix the flour with the buttermilk until you can form sticky balls, roll in butter and snuggly assemble in baking dish. If you have an iron skillet, even better. I don't and used as you can see a simple pie dish. Not problem.

Baking time requires 15-20 minutes but in a really, really hot oven. I was advised to bake at 450°F, that's pizza oven hot. I worked it out to a nice 230°C. I must try again with a more generous rolling in the butter bit.

Serve hot, straight from the oven. You will be greatly rewarded with the smiles and excitement the smell of these baking mamas will have on family and guests. The children and French husband knew exactly what to do when I pulled them out of the oven and called them in for a late breakfast: butter, maple syrup and bacon strips, fried to a crisp. With a fresh pot of coffee it was the best breakfast we had had since our last trip to the States.

Easy Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups (300 g) self-rising flour
1-2 cups (250 ml - 500ml) buttermilk
pinch of salt
butter

Preheat oven to 230°C / 450°F. Place flour in large mixing bowl, begin adding milk in increments until dough is soft and elastic but not sticky (you may add a bit more flour if needed). Work the dough for several minutes right in the bowl (this will help in the rising of the biscuits during baking time). Place metal baking dish or iron skillet in oven to warm it up. When dish is hot, remove from oven, butter and pinch off tennis ball-size balls of dough, roll in butter and place in buttered baking dish or iron skillet.