Recipe Southern Biscuits (for BBQ Shrimp)

[CraigC]

These are the biscuits that we have with the "BBQ" shrimp. We decided that one recipe isn't enough to soak up all that sauce, so Karen makes 3 recipes because I am a .
Ingredients
1 Cup all-purpose flour,sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 Cup plus 1 tsp buttermilk (we have been using a powdered buttermilk)
Directions
1) Preheat oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2) In a bowl combine the dry ingredients and blend well (if using dry buttermilk powder, add it with the dry ingredients) .
3) Cream in the butter with your fingers, a fork or dough blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4) If using liquid buttermilk, add a little at a time and using your fingers, fork or dough blender, work it in until you have a smooth dough ball. Don't over work or over handle the dough.
Alternative
If you used the buttermilk powder, slowly add the amount of water required to get the amount of buttermilk needed.
5) On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to a circle about 7" in diameter and 1/2 thick.
6) Using a 1" cookie cutter, cut out 12 rounds. You can reroll the leftover dough to make more, but they will be denser than the others.
7) Place the biscuits on the baking sheet and bake until golden on top, about 15 minutes.Serve warm.

For presentation, you can place around the shrimp. Remember, you are probably going to want to make more than one batch.

 

[Morning Glory]

Buttermilk scones are similar to this in the UK - your biscuits are our scones. Your cookies are our biscuits! Far as I know we don't get dried buttermilk here but we do get fresh buttermilk. Alternatively, a little lemon added to normal milk to sour it will suffice, I think.

 

[medtran49]

You might be surprised about the powdered buttermilk. I know a lot of people over here were, seems it's not a well known product. It lasts forever it seems like in the refrigerator after it's open. It's found with the powdered milk. I know, duh, but you'd be surprised how many people asked when it was first mentioned in a U.S. forum.

 

[Morning Glory]

You might be surprised about the powdered buttermilk. I know a lot of people over here were, seems it's not a well known product. It lasts forever it seems like in the refrigerator after it's open. It's found with the powdered milk. I know, duh, but you'd be surprised how many people asked when it was first mentioned in a U.S. forum.

Quick search and the only type I can find in the UK are American imports at what seems to be very high prices. Not sure what you pay for it but £17.20 = $23.12. I can easily get fresh though.

 

[medtran49]

There are some vendors on Amazon selling for close to that over here as well, but I was actually talking about in the store. I know that you guys don't tend to have huge supermarkets like we do in outlying areas, but I would imagine powdered and/or tinned milk would be considered pantry items in those areas. Even over here we have areas that only have a small store with limited selections in rural areas. My dad lived in one, it was a good half hour once you got out to the Interstate before you got to a "city" with the big chain supermarkets. I believe it can be an even longer drive in the western part of the country where the huge cattle ranches are.

 

[Morning Glory]

I know that you guys don't tend to have huge supermarkets like we do in outlying areas, but I would imagine powdered and/or tinned milk would be considered pantry items in those areas

We have large supermarkets just about everywhere and most of them do on-line deliveries so its easy to check what they have on the shelves. We do get powdered milk here but not with a great deal of choice. Tinned milk too - but again probably only 2 brands. Neither are really considered a store cupboard item here probably because nearly all shops that sell food, sell fresh milk - and the fresh milk aisle in major supermarket is really extensive. There is a big dairy industry in the UK and a long tradition of using fresh milk. The traditional milkman who delivered daily is dying out although still operating in some areas. I know @Elawin has a milkman.

I've noticed before that there is much more of a culture of using dried foods in the US. We do get packet mixes and so on here but they are not used so much. Its maybe something to do with the small size of the UK - most places have relatively good access to supermarkets. I have one at the end of my road (Aldi)!

 

[medtran49]

See, I would never call Aldi a good store. The one and only time I have ever set foot in 1, which had JUST opened in that location, if I remember correctly it was still in it's opening week, a good bit of the produce was rotten through an through, or had rotten spots in it, or was over-ripe and ready to go rotten, and they only carried Aldi brands for everything else, which after seeing the produce they carried I wasn't about to try. And this was in a prettty affluent area. Now, I've read that not all stores are like that here, don't know, don't care. First impressions and all that. The disgusting produce in that store just totally turned me and Craig both off to them, particularly and especially because they should have had the best of the best given it was their grand opening. And, again, I don't know about other parts of the U.S., but Aldis are very, very small stores here in South Florida compared to the other chains, basically just a bit bigger than a convenience store where we live, and the size of the grocery store in the tiny little town my dad used to live in.

I'm sure Aldi's are probably like Wal-Marts. Our Wal-Mart generally has great produce, even better at times than the what I'll call "premium" chains; yet, the 1 closest to our daughter has eh, it's okay produce. In other words, it needs to get used pretty quickly. But we don't shop there because we have a closer store with just as good, if not better prices on produce, with much better prices and better quality proteins, besides the fact that it's a pain getting in and out of Wal-Mart.

 

[Morning Glory]

but Aldis are very, very small stores here in South Florida compared to the other chains,

Oh yes - Aldi are small stores here too compared to Tesco's or Sainsburys. I've not had any issues with the quality of produce from Aldi so far here - there is just much less choice. But I perfectly understand if you had a bad experience you wouldn't want to go back.

 

[Elawin]

The first Aldi in this area was huge, but they didn't have any more choice than their smaller stores, just more of everything. I wasn't particularly taken by it because they never seemed to have much food that I liked, but I have often bought electrical goods from there. For food, I find Lidl is better, although their stores are smaller except for the one in our town centre, which used to be a builders supplies warehouse before they took it over. Wal-Mart is known as Asda in the UK, and I find the quality of their fresh food not at all good. The dairy my milkman works for is Muller, and their food is excellent - they don't just do dairy produce. They even deliver compost and topsoil, as well as animal food and fresh veg. They are not generally cheap, although they do have some regular items and some occasional offers cheaper than Tesco. They also have one advantage - my milkman has knocked a couple of times when all does not seem quite right.

 

[medtran49]

I just realized I may have given wrong impression re milk use here. The vast majority of people do buy fresh milk here. I'm sure there are milk deliveries here and there, but most people buy it at the supermarket. Tinned and powdered milk are mostly used for cooking purposes, and you very rarely see anybody buying them, they are just there if you want to use them, though I believe some use them to stretch fresh milk. There has also been introduction of a "shelf-stable" fresh milk/cream product that can be kept in your pantry for a certain amount of time until opened, and then must be treated as fresh milk/cream and go into the refrigerator from what I understand. I personally have not used any, but those on a U.S. based forum I visit that have swear they are just like using fresh milk/cream.

We have a favorite bread recipe I used to make a lot when we still ate a lot of bread that uses powdered whole milk, mostly I think because it was in a bread machine cookbook that used a timer so you could set it and come home to freshly made bread. That machine has been long gone for years and years, but I still use the powdered milk because the bread isn't "right" if I use whole milk instead of the powder/water mixture. As well, we have a couple of old recipes that use tinned milk because of lack of refrigeration and/or milk cost/rationing in the area/time they came from, and they don't taste right or come out right with fresh milk, one of them being mashed potatoes that are part of a Cajun meal. I actually prefer mashed potatoes made with tinned milk, it just seems to give them a deeper, richer flavor even than using whole cream.

I found the buttermilk powder originally when I was buying milk powder once for the bread noted above. Had never heard of it before, but I always ended up throwing away a good bit of the fresh buttermilk I'd buy when we needed it. I'd try to remember to freeze it in ice cube trays, but... Now, we keep a container of the powdered stuff in the fridge and pull it out to use in biscuits or salad dressings or chicken marinades, etc, and there are no leftovers to throw out.

 

[Elawin]

I just realized I may have given wrong impression re milk use here. The vast majority of people do buy fresh milk here. I'm sure there are milk deliveries here and there, but most people buy it at the supermarket. Tinned and powdered milk are mostly used for cooking purposes, and you very rarely see anybody buying them, they are just there if you want to use them, though I believe some use them to stretch fresh milk. There has also been introduction of a "shelf-stable" fresh milk/cream product that can be kept in your pantry for a certain amount of time until opened, and then must be treated as fresh milk/cream and go into the refrigerator from what I understand. I personally have not used any, but those on a U.S. based forum I visit that have swear they are just like using fresh milk/cream.

We have a favorite bread recipe I used to make a lot when we still ate a lot of bread that uses powdered whole milk, mostly I think because it was in a bread machine cookbook that used a timer so you could set it and come home to freshly made bread. That machine has been long gone for years and years, but I still use the powdered milk because the bread isn't "right" if I use whole milk instead of the powder/water mixture. As well, we have a couple of old recipes that use tinned milk because of lack of refrigeration and/or milk cost/rationing in the area/time they came from, and they don't taste right or come out right with fresh milk, one of them being mashed potatoes that are part of a Cajun meal. I actually prefer mashed potatoes made with tinned milk, it just seems to give them a deeper, richer flavor even than using whole cream.

I found the buttermilk powder originally when I was buying milk powder once for the bread noted above. Had never heard of it before, but I always ended up throwing away a good bit of the fresh buttermilk I'd buy when we needed it. I'd try to remember to freeze it in ice cube trays, but... Now, we keep a container of the powdered stuff in the fridge and pull it out to use in biscuits or salad dressings or chicken marinades, etc, and there are no leftovers to throw out.

The only recipes I use that need buttermilk is when I made soda bread, but I cheat and add lemon juice to fresh milk and warm it. It has exactly the same effect in the recipe. I don't use buttermilk often enough to warrant buying it, and even dried ordinary milk would end up being thrown out through going stale.

 

[Morning Glory]

The only recipes I use that need buttermilk is when I made soda bread, but I cheat and add lemon juice to fresh milk and warm it. I

Yes. I do that too!