Biscuit Recipe
Tom is the family biscuit maker and this is the basic White Lily biscuit recipe on the back of the White Lily black label sack with his changes. For some reason, White Lily leaves out baking soda for buttermilk biscuits. It is a must.

2 cups White Lily flour (generously serves 4). We prefer to use the black label White Lily not the self-rising. It is easier to control the ingredients and salt levels. .

- 1 Tbls. baking powder (double acting like Clabber Girl)
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda (We sift it to catch any lumps)
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- (optional) 1/2 tsp. sugar if you are using a tart jam like apricot. Seems to marry the biscuit and the jam better. Don't know why. It may be our personal taste.)
- 4 Tbls. or 1/4 cup Crisco, or unsalted butter (some people go half Crisco and half butter). If using butter, make sure it is cold. It is easier to cut up into small pieces. Work the fat into the dry ingredients until it is the consistency of coarse cornmeal. You can use a wire pastry blender, fork, or your fingers. Whatever works best for you.
- Add 1/3 cup of buttermilk to the mix. Stir very gently just enough to combine the wet and dry ingredients. If you over-mix, the biscuits will be tough. If the biscuit dough is too wet, add more flour. Better to be a bit on the wet side than the dry side.

Dump the dough onto a well floured board (it will be very sticky). Gently press the dough together so it sticks together (don't over do it). Either pat flat or use a floured rolling pin. We usually roll ours out to about a 1/4" to 1/2" thick. Then cut the biscuits to the size you want. They don't have to be round. If you don't have a biscuit cutter, you could use a glass. Left over scraps press back together again gently and repeat the process.

This recipe is very easy to size down. For two people divide the recipe by 4 (1/2 cup to 1/3 cup White Lily, etc.)

Have you oven hot (we usually have ours a 375 degrees). We like the small 2" biscuits since they are bite size and we can have several different jams, or jellies, or honey at the same meal. For us, they cook in about 7 minutes. To avoid overcooking them we turn our oven off and leave the biscuits in there until the just begin to be lightly brown on top, perhaps one to two minutes more. You need to watch them. It is very fast.

We use essentially the same recipe for chicken and dumplings except we make the dough on the wet side. We like big fluffy dumplings; so, for the two of us we divide the dough into 4 parts and make into a ball (1/2 the above recipe). It works best if your hands are wet since the dough is very sticky. Drop the dough into the simmer broth, cover, and it is usually done in about 10 minutes. Test with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, you are ready to eat. The dumplings are about tennis ball size.

A note about using at least the old White Lily for regular baking stuff. It is a very light flour which is why it is great for biscuits, but if you are making say brownies, or large pancakes, even for cookies you are better off using a regular all purpose flour such a Gold Medal, or King Arthur. Brownies for instance are chewier and the large pancakes will hold together better when flipped.

Sherrie