Home is where biscuits are baking. Baking powder biscuits to be exact. Even more specifically, Dad’s baking powder biscuits. Oh, my Dad’s baking powder biscuits… Light, flaky, golden carby-ness. The choices are difficult on a sleepy Sunday morning. Which pillowy one to pluck first hot off of the cookie sheet? Do I want honey and butter? OR should I slather creamy sausage gravy over the top? Awww…heck, forget the diet today! Eat both!
My comfort food of choice is the seemingly easy-to-make baking powder biscuit. Flour, a little sugar and salt, some shortening, a splash of milk and baking powder mixed and rolled out. Easy right? No. If you want tips on biscuit making, watch the Buzz on Biscuits video below!
After years of trying to decipher a working recipe from watching Dad throw a little of this and a little of that into a bowl, I think my Bodacious Baking Powder Biscuit recipe is pretty close to Dad’s. However, true biscuits Jedis have perfected their craft over time in remote places far, far away!
On the Yellowstone River’s raging banks lies the tiny town of Gardiner, Montana…known as the town through the iconic Roosevelt Arch and gateway to Yellowstone’s North Entrance. Gardiner, in peak tourist season, buzzes with excited families on summer vacation, camera-wielding visitors speaking languages translated from the world-wide-web, and the occasional long-time local trying to escape traffic off of main street, Highway 89.
As much as I adore Yellowstone National Park, I can do without it’s ever-growing crowds, grizzly-bear paparazzi and buffalo taunting hi-jinks. So, while in Gardiner I’d recommend taking a left turn on the Jardine Road, just before the Yellowstone River bridge. Up this near-vertical, switch-back, gravel road, you’ll find the birthplace for my biscuit obsession….Jardine, Montana. Tucked in a valley, under the shadow of Bald Mountain, Jardine is now an abandoned gold mining town.
on the photo is.
As a kid growing up in Jardine, one of Dad’s gigs was chief biscuit maker and cook, feeding the hungry elk hunters at Buster Hughes’s hunting camp. These biscuits needed to be 1.) hearty enough for a snowy elk hunt, and 2.) taste decent using the supplies you on hand. (The nearest big town was over 60 miles away. Getting there in the 1960’s winters wasn’t an easy task!) I have no doubts Dad received a lot of advice and opinions about his biscuits from old boys like my Grand-Dads!
Like the bighorn sheep commonly found in the surrounding mountains, folks in this country aren’t strangers to chasing up and down hill sides. Dad was no exception as he dug ditches, hauled wood, and moved rocks for long-time Bald Mountain and Jardine resident, Clyde Gilbert (deceased).
Not too long ago, Son B and I were extremely blessed to visit Jardine with Mom and Dad. Peppered in stories, Dad showed us the former sites of his youth. The now empty lot where Grand-Dad’s old mud-chinked log cabin sat. A long ago rock-walled drinking establishment now turned residential property. And Gilbert’s mountain home, perched about 7,200 feet above the hustle and bustle below.
(Current Home to Hell’s A-Roarin’ Outfitters)
Current Bald Mountain residents, Warren and Susan Johnson (along with their kids Jeremiah and Aimee), have worked tirelessly over the years to transform this mountain-side into an amazing retreat! Talk about hard-working, genuine, down-to-Earth folks!
Named for the nearby country, Hell’s A-Roarin’ Outfitters offers summer horseback riding day-trips and fall hunting expeditions is search of trophy-worthy game. Hell’s A-Roarin’ is also known for its annual horse drive over Memorial Day weekend. Going down main-street Gardiner and up the mountains into Jardine, Warren and his wranglers move his horse herd from their winter pastures to summer grazing on the mountain. The culmination of the horse drive features live music, great food, even better discussions and a live-auction. All proceeds from this fabulous event go to purchasing Action Trackchairs for wounded U.S. servicemen and women! Wow!
It’s hard to top an event like Warren’s horse drive, but I’ll try to by thinking about topping Dad’s baking powder biscuits with butter and honey…
Flaky and tender, with a slight sweetness, my biscuit clone recipe is perfect with almost any topping you can think of. Fruity jam, creamy sausage gravy, sandwiched around bacon, egg and cheese, or Son A’s favorite–butter and honey! Perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dessert like my Simple Strawberry Shortcake recipe, these baking powder biscuits will hit the spot.
You’ll notice my Bodacious Baking Powder Biscuit recipe contains vegetable shortening. Yes, I know this contradicts my own recipe blog rules of being able to read the ingredients…hydrogenated, mono, diglycerides…blah! But this is what Dad always used in his biscuit recipe. It’s a tried and true tradition using what he had in the kitchen. Trust me! I didn’t become a biscuit-dough eating junkie overnight!
PrintBodacious Baking Powder Biscuits
Tender and flaky, this baking powder biscuit topped with honey and butter is a comforting breakfast treat! Don’t stop at breakfast though…Bodacious Baking Powder Biscuits are perfect for a mid-day meat and cheese snack, or for dessert in Simple Strawberrry Shortcakes!
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the cutting board
2–1/2 tbsp. granulated sugar
1–1/2 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt (kosher or table)
3/4 cup vegetable-shortening*
1–1/4 cup milk (whole or 2%)**
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Combine the all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Using a pastry cutter, two-butter knives, or your fingers, cut the vegetable shortening into the flour mixture until pea-sized particles form. Add milk and mix until just combined.
Turn dough onto a well-floured board. Dust dough with additional all-purpose flour and gently form dough into a ball. You may need to incorporate flour from the board into the dough. Try to not overwork the dough. Flatten the dough ball into a disc about 1-inch thick. Fold disc in half, turn and fold in half again. Gently flatten the dough until it is about 1-inch thick.
Using a 3-inch cutter, cut rounds out of the dough. Place onto an un-greased baking sheet. Combine dough scraps, re-roll dough and cut as needed. Try to limit the number of times the dough is re-rolled. The tenderness of the biscuits is reduced each time you re-roll and cut the dough.
Bake the dough for 13-15 minutes or until tops are golden brown and biscuits have risen. Remove baking sheet to a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve immediately.
Notes
*Butter can be substituted for the vegetable shortening. Be sure the butter is cold before adding to the flour.
**If you prefer buttermilk, substitute 2/3 cup of the milk with buttermilk. You’ll use 2/3 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup regular milk (whole or 2%).
IMNPB
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