Butter me up and call me a biscuit

Heather says:

I searched high and low. I tried at least a dozen recipes people swear were from Grandma and now I have it. This is the one I recommend to biscuit novices. This is my choice for those who are scared of rolling pins and feel unsure about kneading

Basic biscuits:

• 2 cups all purpose flour + extra for dusting
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening (COLD)
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter (COLD)+ 2 TBSP
• 1 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Melt the 2 TBSP unsalted butter and pour into a 10″ square cake pan. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl thoroughly combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add the shortening and grate in the butter. If you have a pastry cutter you can work it in that way, but for novices I find a grater simplifies the process. Do not worry about the little bit that sticks to the grater.

Using your fingers work the shortening and butter into the flour mixture. When it is thoroughly combined it will resemble coarse crumbs.

Add the milk and stir until just combined. The dough will be VERY sticky, that is exactly how it is supposed to be.

Heavily dust your work area and hands with flour. Turn the dough onto the floured surface. Fold each side toward the middle. Pick up the dough, redistribute the flour on your work surface, turn the dough over, and set back down. Once again fold each side to the middle. Pick up the dough and turn it over. Set it down and using your hands, gently press it out until it is about 3/4″ thick.

Using a biscuit or cookie cutter, cut the dough into 2″ circles. You can push the scraps together to salvage the last biscuit. Set each biscuit into the buttered cake pan, then turn over.

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

Yields ~ 9 biscuits

My Auntie’s sticky buns!

Ivy says:

There is nothing in this world that tastes more like “home” than monkey bread. My Auntie used to make it- though she called it “sticky buns”- and she never told anyone her recipe. We’d ask and she’d change the subject. We’d try to at least get an idea of how she made them and she’s just shrug and tell us it was quite simple to make. Crafty lady, that Auntie.

I’ve tried several different ways of making the dough, including using different types of cinnamon roll dough and elephant ear dough and nothing was quite right. I got an email the other day from Pillsbury calling it “coffee cake”. It called for using Pillsbury refrigerator biscuits as the dough. Since it sounded a heck of a lot easier than these other, more complicated doughs I had been making, I tried it.

Lo and behold, I just about have Auntie’s sticky buns recipe down perfectly. I think that’s why she didn’t tell us the recipe- no self-respecting Hoosier farm wife would admit to using refrigerator biscuits as the dough for their famous sticky buns.

Because I’m not crafty like Auntie, I will share with you the recipe. The sound you hear is Auntie spinning in her grave.

Monkey Bread (because telling people you made “Ivy’s Sticky Buns” is kinda disturbing)

You’ll need:

2 rolls of jumbo buttermilk refrigerator biscuits*
1 cup of sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (or margarine)
1/2 tsp vanilla

(optional: Lots ‘o’ coffee cake/monkey bread recipes call for things like walnuts, raisins, etc. If you want to add them in, feel free, go with about a half cup for those items.)

Preheat your over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

So you’ll want to break out the biscuits**, cut them into quarters. I used my pizza roller because a. I’m cool like that and b. all my knives were being washed.

Take the cinnamon and white sugar and put it into a largish plastic bag. I used a turkey bag because I need to get more Ziploc bags***.

Toss in the biscuit pieces about 8 at a time and shake it up!

Arrange them neatly in a Bundt pan, tube pan, or 2 9 inch round cake pans. Don’t squish them together, just put them so they are just touching, like so:

If you’re wanting to add walnuts or raisins, now’s the time to do so. Just intersperse them with the dough balls.

Then, in a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter, add the brown sugar and vanilla. Boil it for one minute, then pour over the dough. Poke it in your 350 degree preheated oven for:

Bundt or tube pan: 20 minutes
9 inch cake pans: 15 minutes

Keep an eye on them, because there’s nothing more horrid than burnt monkey bread. Except maybe stinky cookies.

Take it out of the oven, flip over onto a plate, and attempt to wait until it cools to start chowing down. Enjoy!

*Just because I got the idea from a Pillsbury email doesn’t mean you have to use the actual Pillsbury kind. I did, because they were on sale. I probably wouldn’t have, had they not been the same price as the store brand.
**Is anybody other than me kinda scared of the exploding biscuit can? It always disturbs me a little.
***The good thing about using a turkey bag is there’s LOTS of space for shaking. The bad thing is, I think they’re expensive. I wouldn’t know, since my mom keeps buying me turkey bags, in hopes of me getting over the Great Food Poisoning Incident of 1998 and starting to cook the T’giving turkey again. Her foolish ploys will not work on me.

« Previous Page