I grew up eating canned biscuits. I liked them. We never had homemade biscuits except for when we had a meal at my grandmother’s. It wasn’t until I took Home Ec. when I had my first experience with making easy southern biscuits. After I learned how to make biscuits, we had homemade biscuits at meal time.

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Easy Southern Biscuits

The Flour -

Being from the south, there is only one flour for baking and it is White Lily. They mill it from soft winter wheat and it bakes lighter and fluffier. Honest!

When we lived in Montana, if I wanted light and fluffy baked goods, I had to order my flour online or have family members send it to me. If not, I used other brands like Wheat Montana and Gold Medal. I’m not bad-mouthing either brands because I love Wheat Montana flours. but it doesn’t compare to White Lily. And with Gold Medal, all of my baked goods came out heavy.

Wheat Montana Prairie Gold white wheat flour is amazing if you don't care for the taste of other whole wheat flour. Try the Prairie Gold.

The Fats or Oils-

I'm sharing a little secret... you don’t have to use solid shortening. Instead, I use butter. I’ll never forget the first time I made biscuits using butter, I was out of Crisco. I was not expecting the biscuits to turn out. It amazed me when I pulled the pan from the oven and saw those golden brown discs. And I giggled when I opened a biscuit and saw where a tiny piece of butter had melted inside, giving it a buttery taste.

I don’t use a pastry cutter; I like to put my butter in the freezer for about an hour and then grate it. When I don’t have time to wait the hour, then I cut the butter into pieces before adding it to the flour. Once it’s in the mixing bowl, I cut it in by hand.

While working with older ladies over the years, I learned two things about making biscuits. One–your dough needs to be a tad sticky. Not too dry, but not so sticky you can’t handle it. Two–don’t over knead it. Be gentle and mix it just enough where everything comes together. Don’t beat the life out of it!

If you want rolled biscuits, I’m not a roller. Everything stays in the bowl. I lightly knead it a couple of times, then form it into a log and pinch off pieces. Then I roll them around in my hand and press down just a little and place them on the pan. Sometimes, I place them on the pan first and then lightly press them. Just remember to not over work the dough.

But if you want rolled biscuits, you can roll this dough out and cut them. It’s up to you. Pinched biscuits = less mess. And it is an art, learn to make beautiful pinched biscuits by practicing. Trust me when I say, I've baked some ugly biscuits over the years. 😀

If you don’t have self rising flour on hand, you can make your own. It’s super easy. In fact, I make my own when I can’t get unbleached flour.

The Liquid-

For all of my baking that calls for milk, I use dry milk and mix it a few minutes before I use it. You wouldn’t believe how much money I save by making the milk for my baking. You can’t tell a difference. I've even soured the dry milk with a little vinegar, if a recipe calls for it.

I don’t use buttermilk in my biscuits, but you can if you choose. You will need a little more buttermilk than the ¾ cup I use of regular milk.