Cornmeal Biscuit Redux

  We are thawing from Thursday's snow here in East Tennessee.  Today was a perfect day for Creamed Chicken and Cornmeal Biscuits for dinner.  But I realize I didn't tell you before what to do with leftover dough when I gave you the recipe.  Take the scraps and give it a couple of quick kneads, just enough for the dough to come back together.  Re-roll, or re-pat as I prefer, to an 1/2 inch thickness and punch out more biscuits.  You should be able to get about 5 more biscuits, plus or minus one.  I place mine on the small baking tray from my toaster oven, leaving about an inch of space between them, and pop them in the oven at the same time as the skillet.  But here's the kicker, they will get finished faster than the creamed chicken & biscuits.  Bake them for about 10 minutes, or until nice and golden brown.  They will rise up much higher than the biscuits in the chicken.

Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

  This beauty is my biscuit pan - makes drop biscuits look awfully purty.  The recipe I'm sharing today is designed to take advantage of a cast iron pan, whether it's a drop biscuit pan like this, or even a skillet or griddle.  This recipe is from Lodge Cast Iron, and is also featured in Cast-Iron Cooking for Dummies.  The biscuits will come out tender and fluffy like a drop biscuit, but with the taste of a good ol' buttermilk biscuit.  At the end of my post, I'll include variations from both sources.

Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

Makes 7 biscuits

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or vegetable shortening -- cold
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

  Preheat your oven to 450°F.

  In a mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients together.

   Make sure you are using cold butter or shortening, and cut into the dry mixture with a pastry blender, fork or knife method. The mixture will have a coarse crumb consistency when you are ready for the next step.

  Pour in the buttermilk, and stir just until everything is blended. Take care not to overmix.

Drop Biscuit Pan method: If you have a drop biscuit pan, spoon in the dough into each well, filling it pretty full. I used a 7 well cast-iron pan. If you don't have a pan - see the next step.

Skillet or Griddle method: Mound the dough into about 7 biscuits onto your griddle or in your skillet. (Make sure these are oven-proof!).

  Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.

Variations:

For parsley biscuits, add 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley.

For a garden vegetable biscuit, add 2 tablepoons finely grated carrots, 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley, and 1 tablespoon of finely chopped green onion.