Beaten Biscuits

You can’t get much more Southern than beaten biscuits. They are hard to make, very hard to make, but worth the time and energy. You really do have to beat the biscuit dough. I believe in White Lily flour for biscuits, self-rising for regular biscuits and all-purpose for beaten biscuits. White Lily is very soft, low-gluten flour that just makes wonderful biscuits. Most of the recipes call for lard, which I don’t eat. Here are some versions using butter. The proportions of flour to fat vary greatly. One recipe uses no leavening. The biscuits are raised by the beating.


Beaten Bisuits from Nathalie Dupree's New Southern Cooking

6 cups All-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
1 tablespoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking powder
1 cup Shortening (I use butter)
1 cup Milk

Mix the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder in a bowl or in a food
processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the shortening and cut in or
process until the mixture is the consistency of coarse meal. Pour in the
milk and stir or process just until the dough holds together. If it is
dry or crumbly, add more milk. If it is too wet, add more flour. Knead
briefly in the food processor, then turn out onto a floured board or beat
1,001 times with a rolling pin. when it's ready, the dough should "snap"
when you hit it. Fold the dough in half. Roll out the folded dough until
it is 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a 1-1/4-inch biscuit cutter into small rounds.
Prick each round with a fork, making two parallel sets of holes in the
biscuit. Keep rolling out the dough, folding before cutting, until all
the scraps are gone and you have made about 100 biscuits. Preheat the oven to
350 degrees. Place the biscuits on a lightly greased pan. Bake for 30
minutes, until crisp, but not browned. They should open easily when split
with a fork. They will keep for weeks tightly covered in a tin or in the
freezer. Split in two before serving.

Food Processor Beaten Biscuits
This one has lots of butter.
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, chilled
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup ice water

Mix flour with salt, Cut butter into small pieces and work into flour, as if making pastry. Mix milk and ice water together. Pour mixture into flour mixture and beat until mixture forms a ball. Continue to "beat" the dough 2 minutes in a food processor or 5 minutes with a mixer.

Roll out dough 1/8-inch thick on a lightly floured surface and cut out circles with a 1 1/2 inch biscuit cutter or the lip of a small glass. Place the rounds on ungreased cookie sheets, prick on top with fork tines, and bake at 350 degrees F until they just begin to brown on the edges — 15 to 20 minutes.

Makes 36 biscuits.

Beaten Biscuits
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
1/4 cup butter, chilled and cut
into small pieces
1/3 cup light cream
2 tablespoons cold water (optional)


Directions
1 Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2 Sift flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar together.
Use a fork to "cut" the butter into the flour until it looks
like coarse meal. Using a standing mixer, or a wooden
spoon, mix the dough as you slowly add the cream. Mix well
to form the dough into a ball, adding water if needed.
3 Place the dough onto a tabletop, and knead slightly.
With a mallet or a one-piece rolling pin, beat the dough a
few times to form it into a rough rectangle. Fold the
dough over, and then beat it out again. Repeat this process
until the dough becomes white and blisters form on the
surface, about 15 minutes.
4 Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 2
inch rounds, and prick the top a few times with the tines
of a fork. Place on greased baking sheets.
5 Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden.

Here is my favorite biscuit recipe. I got it from my cousin. It is incredibly easy.

Betty Carol’s Whipping Cream Biscuits
2 cups White Lily self-rising flour
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 cup whipping cream
Combine all the ingredients into stiff dough. Knead the dough and roll out to about 3/8-inch thick. Cut out the biscuits and bake in a greased pan for 10 to 12 min. at 350. You don't really even need the sugar. it just helps the biscuits get a nice golden brown color.

Now, make some biscuits and make tomato sandwiches. Yum. My mother liked biscuits and gren onion sandwiches.