Biscuits!

I have lived most of my life below the Mason-Dixon line, but my recipe repertoire is missing a few southern staples.  One of these is homemade biscuits, so I attended a biscuit making class with my colleague Gabriela.  We had a wonderful time!  It was a small class, so we got a lot of hands-on practice making both drop biscuits and cutout biscuits.  Once they were were baked, the cooking school staff served them with fresh fruit, prosciutto, sausage gravy, grits, and the most amazing jam I have ever tasted - blackberry rhubarb vanilla bean.

A few tips I learned about making great biscuits:

• Buy the expensive buttermilk;  it makes a big difference
• Don't use self-rising flour as your bench flour; it makes for bitter biscuits
• Don't twist the cookie cutter as you press down to cut out biscuits; the biscuit will not rise as well.
• Use fresh baking soda.
• Don't over handle the dough.  Mix until just combined and cutout/drop into the pan.