Cathead Biscuits Food

CATHEAD BISCUITS

Steps:

• Mix dry ingredients and sift into mixing bowl, then cut in lard or crisco until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
• Stir in buttermilk until it is incorporated with the flour mixture. The dough will be kind of wet and very sticky.
• Flour your hands and turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough in the flour just enough to make it handleable - you don't want it to stick to your hands too much, but don't work in too much extra flour either or the biscuits will be heavy and taste of raw flour.
• For each biscuit, pinch off a piece of dough about the size of a large egg or a small lemon and pat out in the ungreased pan with your hands. You don't want it to be really flat, just pat it down a bit so it's relatively biscuit-shaped and about 1 inch high.
• Bake at 475 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Keep your eye on them while they're in the oven so they don't burn.
• Brush tops of biscuits with melted butter, if desired.

CATHEAD BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat. (You can also bake the biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet.)
• In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Pour in buttermilk and mix until just barely combined. It will be a shaggy mass. (Alternatively, you can mix the dough in a food processor: Pulse to combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add butter and pulse until it resembles coarse meal. Pour in buttermilk through feed tube and pulse until just barely combined.)
• Turn shaggy mass out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead lightly, using the heel of your hand to compress and push dough away from you, then fold it back over itself. Give dough a small turn and repeat four or five times. (You want to just barely activate the gluten, not overwork it.)
• Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out dough 1 inch thick. Using a 3 1/2-inch round cutter dipped in flour, cut out rounds (press cutter straight down without twisting so biscuits will rise evenly when baked).
• Place biscuits on prepared sheet. (If biscuits are baked close together, sides will be tender. If biscuits are baked farther apart, sides will be crisp.)
• Reroll scraps once. Do not simply roll them into a ball; this will create a knot of gluten strands. Instead, place the pieces one on top of the other in layers, then roll out dough and cut out more rounds.
• Bake until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool just slightly. Serve warm.

FLUFFY CATHEAD BISCUITS WITH HONEY BUTTER

Steps:

• For the biscuits:
• Arrange rack in middle of oven; preheat to 400°F. Whisk buttermilk powder, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl until evenly distributed and no lumps remain. Add 2 cups water and whisk to combine. Add lard and butter.
• Add 2 cups flour and mix with a fork until mixture resembles porridge. Using fork, press fats against side of bowl to cut into smaller, irregular, flattened pieces.
• Fold in remaining 1 1/2-2 cups flour by the half cup with fork until a wet dough forms. Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface. Dust top of dough with more flour. Gently fold dough into itself until it feels like a pillow and is no longer sticky. Using a floured bench scraper or butter knife, divide dough into 12 equal pieces.
• Working with 1 piece at a time, dip cut sides in flour and gently roll into a ball with your hands. Nestle each ball side by side in a large cast-iron skillet or on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake biscuits until lightly browned, 25-30 minutes. Brush with melted butter, if desired. Serve with honey butter.
• For the honey butter:
• Combine honey, butter, and salt in a medium bowl. Mash with fork until just combined but not emulsified.

SANDY'S MISSISSIPPI DELTA CATHEAD BISCUITS

Steps:

• Blend above ingredients in a mixing bowl.
• Dump a hand full of flour on a pastry cloth or whatever.
• A brown paper sack also works.
• Newspaper also works just fine.
• Dump the blended dough onto the flour.
• Pour a dash of oil into your skillet and smear it around with your fingers.
• Coat the inside of the skillet and the palms of your hands with oil.
• Knead the dough for about 30 seconds, rolling it in the flour and thickening it.
• Halve the dough.
• Halve it again, making 4 pieces of dough.
• Roll each piece of dough between your hands, making it into a ball, then put it in the skillet.
• Use a spoon or a pastry brush and put a little oil or bacon drippings on the top of each unbaked biscuit.
• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Bake 25 minutes.
• Broil/toast for 1 or 2 minutes.

CATHEAD BISCUITS

Steps:

• Work the shortening into the flour until it's like coarse crumbs. (I use a spoon to do this). Add the buttermilk and stir until makes a ball in the bowl. You can either pinch off the dough or cut it with a biscuit cutter. I use a tin can because I like to make these biscuits good size like my mama's biscuits.
• Grease or spray pan. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes until brown on top.
• This recipe only makes 8 biscuits if you make them like I do.

CAT HEAD BISCUITS WITH SAWMILL GRAVY

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400°F Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray; set aside.
• For the biscuits, in a medium bowl, gently stir together the 3 cups flour, the buttermilk, and butter until the dough just comes together. On a floured surface, pat the dough into a 1 1/2-inch-thick round. cut the dough into six 4-inch circles; transfer to the baking sheet. Bake about 25 mintues or until golden brown.
• For the gravy, in a large skillet, cook the sausage over medium heat until brown, breaking meat up with a fork as it cooks. Using a slotted spoon, transfer sausage to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat from the skillet.
• Heat the remaining fat over medium heat and whisk in the 4 1/2 tablespoons flour; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in the milk; increase heat to medium-high and simmer about 3 minutes or until thickened. Stir in the sausage, pepper, and salt. To serve, split the biscuits and top with generous spoonfuls of gravy.

CATHEAD BISCUITS | LODGE CAST IRON

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease two 12-inch cast iron skillets and set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together. Add the lard and cut it in with a pastry cutter or rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture is just crumbly. Gradually stir in just enough buttermilk to form a soft ball of dough.
• Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface, knead about 8 times, then shape by hand into biscuits about 3 ½ inches across and 1 inch high.
• Arrange the biscuits fairly close together in the prepared skillets and bake in the upper third of the oven until golden brown and craggy on the outsides, about 17 minutes.

SOUTHERN "CATHEAD" BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450°F
• Measure 1 cup of buttermilk into liquid measuring cup. I use 3/4 cup whole milk with a splash of Heinz White Vinegar. Let sit a few minutes until you need it.
• In a medium bowl, measure the flour by spooning it into a one-cup measure and leveling off with a knife. (This is very important!) Sometimes I sift it. Most of the time I do not.
• Make a deep well and add the oil and buttermilk.
• Stir gently until moistened. Sprinkle with even flour to allow handling of the dough.
• I shape my biscuits by hand but you could also roll them out and cut them. Place them in a 9x9 Pampered Chef Baker (stoneware.) I have used Pampered Chef stoneware for the last ten years and it has never failed me. However, for those of you still using metal bakeware, just use a regular square baking pan.

CAT HEAD BISCUITS

Steps:

• Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Grease 9" cake pan. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Rub butter and shortening into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal (I use a pastry blender). Stir in buttermilk JUST until combined.
• Use greased 1/2 c measuring cup or large spring loaded ice cream scoop to transfer 6 heaping portions of dough into prepared pan, placing 5 around the perimeter and one in the center.
• Bake until puffed and golden brown, 20-25 minute Cool in pan 10 min then transfer to wire rack. Serve.

CATHEAD BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Combine 2 cups of the flour with the baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the shortening and 3 tablespoons of the butter until the mixture is the size of small peas.
• Add the buttermilk, and stir until the dough is just mixed and starts to form a ball.
• Rest the dough in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Sprinkle a work surface with flour. Transfer the dough to the floured surface, and sprinkle with a little extra flour. Knead the dough 3 to 4 times. Do not overwork the dough. It will make the dough tough and difficult to work with.
• Flatten the dough into a 3/4- to 1-inch-thick disk with a rolling pin. Cut out biscuits with a large 4- or 5-inch biscuit cutter.
• Bake the biscuits until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
• Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Brush the hot biscuits with the butter. Turn on the broiler. Broil the biscuits until desired brownness.

CATHEAD BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C). Grease an 8-inch cake pan.
• Sift flour and salt together into a large mixing bowl. Make a dent in flour by pushing flour from center toward sides of bowl. Add 2 walnut-size lumps of shortening and a splash of buttermilk to the flour where you made the dent. Work the shortening into the flour using fingers in a twisting motion (rub thumb against pointer and middle finger motion) until the shortening is fully incorporated into the flour.
• Pour buttermilk into the flour about 1/4 cup at a time, continuing to work it in with your fingers until the buttermilk is completely incorporated into a sticky dough.
• Roll dough into 8 large balls and drop into prepared cake pan, working around the outside and putting the last one in middle to fill the pan. Press dough balls with back of fingers to flatten until they touch and are about 3/4- to 1-inch thick.
• Bake in preheated oven until the tops are golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Brush tops with melted butter.

BUTTERMILK CATHEAD BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 450°.
• In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
• Cut in the shortening, using your fingers or a pastry cutter, until the flour mixture has the consistency of course-ground cornmeal.
• Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and add the buttermilk.
• Stir the mixture until the buttermilk is fully incorporated.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead carefully a couple of times.
• To make the biscuits, pinch off a 3-inch ball of dough and mold a slightly rounded ball.
• Place the biscuits onto an ungreased baking pan.
• Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the tops of the biscuits turn a light golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter.