Soppin, Sweet Potato, Angel and Catheads - Biscuits by Any Other Name Just Wouldn't Be the Same Honey Child, Especially with Chocolate Gravy

Some of ya’ll might think biscuits are those things you pop out of a can, well you‘d also probably say the Pope is Catholic. Both statements are true, but there’s so much more to it than many ever imagine. For those of us who have tasted hot from the oven homemade biscuits, the others can’t compete. Goodness gracious sakes a live, it’s divine. Of course ever good cook has their recipe.
Ingredients do matter as Southern flour makes better tasting biscuits than the national brands due to the wheat they use. They are lighter, don’t brown as dark and have more of a biscuit taste, as opposed to a chewy bread taste. But if you’ve never tasted the difference, you’d never know the difference. Of course I’m partial to Martha White flour as it is milled in my home town.

Soppin' Biscuits

Whip some butter (room temperature) into sorghum and dip your biscuit in – honey that’s what they call soppin’. Take a bite, spoon a little more up on the biscuit and you’ll be saying ya’ll in no time. Now you can sometimes find sorghum at the groceries or you can have some shipped. It’s the juice from the sorghum cane that is boiled down to thick syrup. (Don’t confuse it with black strap molasses.)

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Oh and that glorious sweet potato can be added for a biscuit that you can serve on buffet, stuffed with slices of smoked turkey or honey baked ham and a little hickory or Jack Daniels mustard. Lands sake, it’s a gorgeous color, a little sweet and the sweet potato harmonizes with the ham or turkey.

1 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
3 Tbsp. Shortening
1 cup Mashed Cooked Sweet Potatoes
1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/4 cup Sugar
1/8 tsp. Ground Nutmeg
1/4 cup Milk
Into large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Using pastry blender or two knives, cut shortening into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Blend in Sweet Potatoes and spices. Add milk all at once and stir with fork until mixture comes together. On lightly floured board, knead 10 times. Roll out on lightly floured surface to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with biscuit cutter dipped in flour. Arrange on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees F. for 12 minutes or until golden and puffed.

Angel Biscuits

Surely you’ve bitten into one of those angel biscuits that are heavenly! Also called bride's biscuits, these are popular with novice cooks because of their use of two leaveners which makes the recipe virtually foolproof. The dough needs to be refrigerated overnight giving them a yeasty buttery taste. Top with butter and homemade fig or pear preserves, grape jelly, blackberry jam, apple butter or your favorite. Slice and serve with Tripp country ham – the best!

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 envelope)
1/4 cup plus 1 pinch of sugar
2 tablespoons lukewarm water
5 cups self-rising all-purpose flour
1 cup cold solid vegetable shortening, cut into small pieces
2 cups buttermilk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and the pinch of sugar in the lukewarm water and let stand for 5 minutes, or until foamy. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix the flour with the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles small peas. Add the yeast and buttermilk and stir until the dough just comes together.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead 5 times: the dough should have a soft, moist texture. Return the dough to a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough overnight.
Transfer the chilled dough to a lightly floured surface and knead 10 times. Roll out the dough to a 16-inch round 1/3 inch thick. Using a 2 1/4-inch biscuit cutter, stamp out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather the dough scraps, knead 3 times and reroll, then stamp out more biscuits as close together as possible from the rerolled dough. Discard the remaining scraps.
Lightly butter 2 large baking sheets. Brush the tops of the biscuits with the melted butter. Fold the biscuits in half, then brush the unbuttered sides with the remaining melted butter and place on the prepared baking sheets. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let the biscuits rise in a draft-free place for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 400°. Bake the biscuits for about 15 minutes, or until browned on the bottom and light golden on top. Serve warm.

Cat Head Biscuits

Then there’s the cathead variety, so called for their size. The dough is generally rolled in your hands into a ball and placed in a skillet rather than cutting them out of rolled dough into uniform sizes and shapes. Rest assured the ingredients have nothing to do with anybody’s kitty cat. Oh and these are good with red eye, sausage, milk, sawdust, or chocolate gravy.

Chocolate Gravy
1 cup sugar
½ cup flour
2/3 stick butter
½ tsp. salt
3 cups milk
½ cup cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
Melt butter in skillet. Remove from heat. Stir in dry ingredients. Gradually stir in milk and mix well. Return to heat and stir constantly as it thickens. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Stir and sever over hot biscuits.

Crock Pot Apple Butter
2- 3 lb (50 oz) jars unsweetened apple sauce3 lbs granny smith apples4 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar1 ½ cups apple cider or juice4 tsp cinnamon1 tsp cloves
1 tsp nutmeg2 tsp allspice
½ tsp salt
Peel and cut apples into small chips. Place all ingredients in the crock pot and stir. Cover and cook on low overnight (eight to ten hours). Remove cover, stir and taste. Continue cooking for a few more hours, uncovered, until some of the liquid has gone and butter has cooked down a bit. Pour into jars and refrigerate or can according to canning directions. Oh it’s going to smell and taste wonderful!
Serve over hot biscuits.

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