Did you know that September was National Biscuit Month!? Well, it is and in honor of that I am going to share with you an amazing biscuit recipe.
You see, I have been on a quest for the BEST biscuit for a while now. I started out looking for the best biscuit in local Portland restaurants and then decided I wanted to be able to recreate them at home.
My quest first began back in January of this year when my husband and I had breakfast at the Screen Door.
There are so many ways to enjoy biscuits. One of the best ways is just with a little butter – yum!
Their biscuits were tall, light and flaky, just like a biscuit should be.
And then there was the famous Pine State Biscuits. I had heard about their biscuits for a while, they have even been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives! When I finally got the chance to try them this summer my camera battery was dead so please forgive the cell phone pictures! I had never had biscuits and gravy before but I am now in love. The biscuits with berries and cream was to die for too!
And we couldn’t leave without trying the famous Reggie. (sorry for the terrible picture)
The Reggie is a biscuit with fried chicken, bacon and cheese topped with gravy! All I can say is, OH MY GOSH!
Our next biscuit adventure was just a couple of weeks ago when Tessa and I went to Tasty n Sons, another great Portland area breakfast spot.
We ordered their breakfast biscuit sandwich – this one had egg, fried chicken and cheese. Can I just tell you – fried chicken on a biscuit – brillant!
I have been through quite a few biscuit recipes this past year in my attempts to recreate the tall, flaky and soft biscuits we have enjoyed at the restaurants.
I am happy to announce that I have found it! And I found it over at The Sister’s Cafe, a fun blog done by a group of sisters!
The combination of sour cream and lots of baking powder in the recipe makes a nice flaky and soft biscuit.
The trick to a nice tall biscuit is to roll your dough out to about 1 inch thick.
I used my trusty old biscuit cutter but you could also use the rim of glass dipped into flour.
One of the best things about this recipe is that they freeze really well. With our reduced size family we can’t eat a whole batch of biscuits.
Flash freeze the biscuits on a cookie sheet until frozen solid.
Then just pop them into a large ziploc baggie. You can now have fresh biscuits anytime you want!
We decided to make our own breakfast sandwiches for dinner this week. Everyone agreed they tasted just as good as the ones we enjoyed at the Portland restaurants and way better than the ones you get at McDonald’s and I’m sure they have to be healthier too.
We put together an egg, cheese and sausage version. I just cut discs of Jimmy Dean Sausage and cooked it up in the frying pan.
You could use a fried egg but since we aren’t big fried egg fans here I used scrambled eggs instead and they worked great.
We also did a bacon version.
One thing the recipe does not have you do is baste the top of the biscuit with melted butter. I did this several times during the baking process. I saw them do this at Pine State Biscuits so I decided to give it a try and it made them even better.
The Best Biscuits
Ingredients
- 4 C flour
- 2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp soda
- 1/2 C butter
- 16 oz sour cream
- 3-5 tsp water
- Melted butter
Instructions
- Combine dry ingredients in a bowl or your food processor
- If using food processor, pulse until butter is small and well blended pieces or cut in butter by hand using a pastry cutter
- Add in the sour cream and water and mix well
- Pulse again until well mixed
- Add more water if it is too dry (just a little at a time.)
- Knead a few times on the counter and roll out to 1 inch thick
- Use a biscuit cutter to cut or dip a drinking glass into flour and cut
- Freeze individually on a cookie sheet
- After they are frozen, place in a freezer bag to store
- Use as needed
- Place on an ungreased cookie sheet
- Bake at 400 for 15-17 minutes or until top is golden
- Twice during the baking process baste the tops of the biscuits with melted butter
Holey Schmoley! These are the BEST gawsh darn biscuits ever. I found them after making the cinnamon roll biscuits. I even successfully halved the recipe. Which is good and bad. Good because if I did make the whole recipe- just my hub and I would eat them ALL The Bad being- we don’t have as many leftovers and um- they store really well and don’t get as tough as regular biscuits do. Either way- it’s nice having the option. lOL Definitely going to make some breakfast biscuits if we ever have leftovers again. lol Excellent recipe and from now on- my go to recipe for biscuits. I love that I can just put it in the food processor. Absolute magic! lol Thank you!!!
These are awesome so far….
My husband just made a batch of these and we both really liked them on this icy, sleeting morning in Texas! Mine with rhubarb jam and his was with blackberry. I wasn’t in the kitchen when he was making them but he said he had to add much more water than the 5 tsp called for–tho he was making by hand rather than food processor. (He prides himself on homemade biscuits.) Wonder if the method made the difference? They were delicious and glad we have extras in the freezer now. Hope to make it to Pine Street Biscuits one day.
Thank you.
I was looking for a recipe that did not call for milk and this was it. So simple to make, my 4 year old helped me and I can not believe how easy. Pulled them out of the oven and added honey butter my son added jam.
Why have I not made biscuits before!
So glad you and your son had fun making these. Nothing beats a good biscuit!!
I love the idea that you can freeze these. Do you bake them frozen? Do you use the same time and temperature that you use for the “fresh” ones?
I use the same temperature they just take a few minutes longer.
After freezing I assume they are baked frozen? How much cooking time does this add?
Thanks
DJ
Yes, I bake them frozen and they take a few more minutes
These are not only the best gluten free biscuits I’ve ever made/tasted, they are better than any ones I’ve ever had – even those made with wheat! Wow, is all I can say!
They are yummy, aren’t the! So glad you enjoyed them as much as we do!!
I have been experimenting with freezing my biscuits. We are going on vacation in Oct and wanted to take some, (around 50 biscuits to feed 8 of us ) with us. My husband says the frozen ones taste good but it bugs me that they don’t rise like the fresh ones. I use my mom’s recipe and have recently discovered a recipe adding swiss cheese, country ham, and sour cream. DELICOUS I use White Lily self rising flour. I have wondered if I used all purpose flour and baking powder if they would rise better after freezing. Do you have any thoughts on this? You’re recipe is different from mine, maybe I will try it to see if it works better. Don’t tell my Mom, you know they don’t like for us to stray from family recipes. Haha
This recipe freezes really well – hope you’ll give it a try!
I’ve been searching for years for a recipe for homemade breakfast gravy with crumbled sausage. Anyone?
Earlene, here’s my adaptation of a recipe I got from The Frugal Gourmet (and love!):
1/2 lb. breakfast sausage
2 Tbsp. chopped yellow onion
3 Tbsp. flour
2 cups hot milk (I use a can of Pet Milk (evaporated milk) + water to make 2 cups)
salt and pepper to taste (I use 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper)
Fry the sausage and onion until the sausage is brown and the onion is clear. Drain off all the grease except for 2 Tbsp. Stir in the flour and cook for just a minute. Add the hot milk. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over warm opened biscuits.
Hope you enjoy it!
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
What a wonderful recipe!! I didn’t have sour cream so I substituted a mix of buttermilk and Greek yogurt, and these came out to be the fluffiest biscuits I have ever made. I have been eating them everyday since I made them this weekend! LOVE LOVE LOVE!
This were so yummy! My 3yr old and I made them last night ( we are learning about the letter B this week ) . My family ate them up so fast! We had them with a greta big bowl of soup then we plan on making breakfast sandwiches with the ones we froze. Thanks again for another great recipe!
Hi Leigh Anne,
Do you have a good recipe for biscuits and gravy?
Thanks,
Tammy
Tammy, I don’t – have never made it but would love to find a good recipe. Maybe someone out there will have one and share!!
You had never had biscuits and gravy before???? I can’t even imagine; they are such a staple around here!! That truly astonishes me . . . I guess you have never tried chocolate gravy either! You’re missing some wonderful southern cooking!!!
Anyway, your biscuits look wonderful!! I will have to try those sometime – although they do look a bit taller than the typical biscuits you make for biscuits and gravy . . . but I don’t always eat mine with gravy anyway (shhhh . . . I’d probably be shunned if that were known) . 🙂
Catherine,
Now that I’ve had biscuits & gravy I can’t believe I’ve never had it before. What was I thinking? I have no idea. I guess I now have 50 years of biscuit and gravy eating to make up for!! Think I need your recipe! What on earth is chocolate gravy???
These look delicious! I can’t wait to make them. I am so excited about being able to freeze them for later use. I do this with my homemade rolls, but I bake them first then freeze. I love carbs! Thanks for sharing.
Oh I can’t wait to try these…I’ve been looking for a good biscuit that doesn’t use shortening! Thanks for posting! 🙂
I cannot believe you have never had biscuits and gravy. That is just sad.
You and Karen need to come on down to Georgia and I’ll show you both how to make perfect biscuits and gravy!! Of course, you will have to make the biscuits because you know I don’t roll dough. I will be in charge of the gravy. 😉
Oh, finally!! I can’t wait to try!! I have been years searching for a biscuit recipe… I hope this is the one!
Why is it we all are in search for a great biscuit recipe? I’ll take your word for it, since your tastes are always right on!
White Lilly has been my favorite.I will try these.
Oh my goodness gracious girl! These look awesome! I’m so glad you posted this…I will try this recipe, probably this weekend…I’m making pot roast in the crock pot on Sunday and these biscuits would be a great way to sopp up the gravy! Dang, I can’t wait! Also, that sandwich called The Reggie from Pine State Biscuits….wow! that looks to die for! My mouth is watering here!
Thanks for a great recipe! My husband is the biscuit maker at our house and brought some southern traditions he grew up with to our family. I still can’t do the biscuit/gravy thing, but one of our all time favorites is biscuits with fried apples. Can’t wait to try this.
This is good enough to eat the screen. Can’t wait to make them at home.
YUM!!! Looks great and I too and a HUGE fan of The Sisters Cafe blog…everything I have made from that site has been AMAZING!
2 things:
1. You have me totally missing Portland right now
and 2: I have a feeling I will be gaining weight this weekend when I make these yummy biscuits!
Wow, those look amazing. And thanks for the tips on the great portland breakfast places.
Hooray for such a great biscuit recipe!!! I too have been on the search for a “GOOD” biscuit recipe…looks like you have solved the problem for me. 🙂
And goodness, there looks like there are a ton of fabulous restraurants close by to you that have gorgeous biscuits too! Drooling now!