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     Title: Tips For Making The Perfect Buttermilk Biscuits
Categories: breads, breakfast
     Yield: 1 servings

     1    good recipe for biscuits
     1    light touch with dough

 THE PERFECT BUTTERMILK BISCUIT Thanks to Eula Mae Dore, a great
 Southern cook from Avery Plantation, La., I've learned to make the
 best Buttermilk Biscuits I've ever had. Eula Mae says a good biscuit
 is one of the best things to have on hand for quick meals. She uses
 them in emergencies to make simple sandwiches filled with scraps of
 ham or cheese and serves them with pickles and a small salad. For
 dessert, she warms a biscuit or two and makes a shortcake with fresh
 fruits or berries. She has convinced me that you can't have too many
 biscuits on hand. Eula Mae learned to cook and bake from her
 grandmother, not from cookbooks, and the artfulness of her
 preparation was a joy to watch. Here are some of her biscuit-making
 tips: + First go out and replace your baking powder, unless you
 bought it within the last four months. More baking flops occur from
 old, tired baking powder than from any other cause. And don't rely on
 the old test of checking the freshness of baking powder by putting a
 spoonful in a glass of water to see if it fizzes. Baking powder, like
 a carbonated drink, can fizz a little and still be almost flat.
 Buying new baking powder costs very little when you consider the cost
 of baking failures. + Next, Eula Mae insists that sifting the dry
 ingredients four times is the reason her biscuits are perfect. I
 tested the recipe sifting and not sifting and, indeed, sifting does
 make a slightly higher, more tender biscuit. + After you cut the
 biscuit dough, put the pieces on a baking sheet upside down. This
 ensures a taller, lighter biscuit by making sure any edges crimped by
 the pressure of the cutting don't interfere with the rise. (The
 French use the same trick when making puff pastry.) + The tip that
 helped me the most was using less flour than usual. Eula Mae's dough
 was soft and sticky. She handled it gently, dusting her hands and the
 dough with only enough flour to make the dough manageable. The result
 was a lighter biscuit.


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