Buttery Homemade Biscuits

What's up foodies? Y'all doing good? You good? You good? I'm good! You good? Okay, good.

There's nothing like a good, flaky biscuits to go along with you morning breakfast! I loooove a good biscuit, and these biscuits are everything you need in a biscuit. I have been making these biscuits for quite some time now, and they are my favorite. It took me a while to perfect this recipe, but after some time, I finally got it right.

The secret is using Self-Rising flour. Before making these biscuits, I always used All-Purpose flour, but it wasn't until my mom suggested that I use Self-Rising flour that I finally decided to try it. My mom told me that self rising flour is better for biscuits because that's what she uses in her biscuits (which I may share the recipe for one day). If you can, I strongly recommend that you use White Lily self rising flour. White Lily is THE flour for making biscuits. I got go all into the science of why the White Lily brand is the best for making biscuits, but I'm here to share a recipe, not give a science lesson! But trust me, White Lily works. I understand that everyone isn't able to get White Lily, and if you can't, just use another high-quality flour.

Another secret to these biscuits is I like to use half and half instead of just regular milk. I find that the mix of cream and milk gives me a better taste and texture, but you most definitely can use regular whole milk, but watch the amount you use because half and half is a little thicker than regular milk.

Now, I know that I already have self rising flour in the biscuits, and it already has salt and baking powder in it, but I also like to add a little baking powder just to add little more 'rise' in the biscuits and a little salt for flavor.

NOTES: 

- Make sure that the butter is really cold, I put mine in the freezer for about 25 minutes to make sure it's really cold.

- I put my butter in the food processor with a few tablespoons of flour to make sure nothing stuck, and pulsed it a few times until the butter was cut into small pieces, and then added the butter in with the flour. You can also just make these biscuits it your food processor if you have one that big enough. 

- If you want to make layers in your biscuits, fold the dough over on itself a few times before cutting them (refer to the YouTube video below).

Ingredients:

- 2 1/2 cups self rising flour (White Lily recommended)

- 1 tsp. baking powder

- 1 tsp. salt

- 1 tbsp. sugar

- 1 stick ( 8 tablespoons) butter, very cold

- 1 cup half and half

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a mixing bowl. sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Cut the cold butter into the flour with a pastry blender, fork, or two knives until its in small pieces. Next, make a well in the middle of the butter and flour mixture and pour in the half and half. Mix the half and half into the flour mixture until it forms a dough. Flour your counter top, and then turn the dough onto the floured surface. Knead the dough a few times to incorporate some of the flour, and then flatten it out with your hands or a rolling pin, and then cut the biscuits out with your floured biscuit butter. Place the biscuits into the pan of your choice, spread the tops with melted butter, and make for about 12-15 minutes in the preheated oven.

I really hope you enjoy this recipe, remember to visit my YouTube channel for the video recipe. If you make this, please let me know how you liked it. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gx9W0XFAkA

Cranberry Pecan Loaf Cake

Cranberry Pecan Loaf Cake

                                                        Cook time: 45-55 minutes 

                                                   Servings: Yield 15-20 servings 

What's up foodies? Y'all doing good? You good? You good? I'm good! You good? Okay, good.

Okay, this recipe is probably one of my favorite recipes because I pretty much nailed it with the recipes the first time I made it. This load cake is inspired from a cake that I once had from the bakery at a Publix grocery store. It was a few years ago when I was in a Publix in another city (we don't have one in my city). I went there and passed through the bakery section where this lady was standing there holding a tray with plastic cups. She asked "Would you like to try some of this cranberry pecan cake today?" I replied "No!" I really did want some, but I was being modest. I caught up with my mama and she had some of it to. I tried some of hers and was amazed at how good it was. I went back to the bakery section and bought two of these cakes. I went back maybe a couple months after that and was able to get one and have never had another one since. I first, I though maybe I was just coming at the wrong time. Then, I thought that maybe they only serve them around a specific time of year because of the cranberries being in season. But I soon realized that the cake contained dried cranberries, which can be purchased anytime of year. So, then I just came to the conclusion that maybe everybody didn't enjoy the cake as much as I did and they didn't sell well and so they decided to stop selling them. Either way, I am going to call them one of these days and just asked if they still sell them.

If we had a Publix where I live, I would most definitely check to see if they had them every day, but since the nearest one is about 45 minutes away, that's just not convenient. So, about two or three weeks ago, I decided to sit down and make my own recipe at home, and I think I did a pretty good job. This flavor in this cake is almost the same as the one I purchased from Publix.

In the recipe, you'll see that I use sour cream and half and half. I found that the sour cream really gives this cake a great moistness and I love the richness they half and half adds.

Notes:

-You don't have to make this in a loaf pan, the ones that I purchased from Publix were in loaf pans, I just wanted to get the full effect. You can make this in a 13x9 inch pan or a tube pan, but the cooking time is going to vary depending on the pan you use.

- If you don't have half and half, you can substitute it with regular milk. 

Ingredients:

- 12 tablespoons butter

- 1/4 cup brown sugar

- 1 cup white sugar

- 1 cup dried cranberries

- 1/2 cup chopped pecans

- Juice of one orange

- 1 teaspoon orange zest

- 2 eggs

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1/2 cup sour cream

- 1 cup half and half

- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

- pinch of salt 

Directions:

About one hour before you start making the cake, put the cranberries into a small bowl and add in the orange zest and the freshly squeezed orange juice and stir. Let the sit for an hour, allowing the juice to be absorbed by the cranberries.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 2- 9 inch loaf pans.

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until fluffy and combined. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating until the egg is combined. Add in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Alternate adding the flour and the sour cream and half and half. Once all the flour and half and half/sour cream is added, fold in the pecans and the cranberries that have been sitting in the orange juice. Pour your batter evenly into the two loaf pans and bake for about 45-55 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. After the cakes come out of the oven, let them cool for about 25 minutes before serving. 

I really hope you enjoy this recipe. I found it to be quite delicious. Make sure to visit my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVS-VN3HMfEh1wr41rd7ImA) to view a video of this video and more. Thanks for visiting.