Featured in the very professional looking photo above is a typical Native Sun Farm family dinner. We lovingly refer to it as "Southern Veggie" dinner, but basically it is whatever we have on hand from the farm. As a carb lover, I always insist on some sort of vehicle for butter, aka a piece of bread. Both of my favorite southern breads come from recipes adapted from the Betty Crocker cookbook. Below I've listed a few variations that we really enjoy.
Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups bread flour (sometimes I replace one cup with whole wheat flour)
1 tablespoon suger
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt (prefer course salt)
1/2 cup butter or shortening
1 cup buttermilk (or 3/4 cup plus one tablespoon whole milk)
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in bowl with whisk until combined. Cut in butter or shortening using a biscuit cutter (preferred) or two knives. The mixture should look crumbly. Add buttermilk or milk using a rubber spatula (or your hands!) to distribute evenly. If dough is very wet, sprinkle with flour. Transfer dough ball to a flour surface and knead about 10 times. Over-kneading makes the biscuit tough and under-kneading makes for flat biscuits. 10 times seems to be the magic number for me. Knead by gently pressing ball out flat, folding in half and turning over to repeat. After kneading, press flat into an even circle about 1/2 inch thick. Then either use a biscuit cutter or just cut into evenly sized pieces and place on ungreased cooking sheet. Cook 12-14 minutes or until just brown on top.
Greek Yogurt Biscuits
I'm serious! Admittedly, these are NOT as delicious as buttermilk biscuits but if you eat biscuits as often as we do, it is necessary to slow down on the butter intake. The texture is a little different on these biscuits, but the flavor is great.
Simply replace the shortening or butter above with 1 cup of Greek Yogurt - I've used both full fat and low fat versions and haven't noticed a considerable difference, but keep in mind a lot of low fat versions use stabilizers to achieve the thick consistency. Decrease milk to 1/2 cup. Dough may be wetter. Follow instructions for kneading and baking.
The crust on these is usually a bit crispier and the inside a bit chewier than buttermilk biscuits.
Cornbread
Betty Crocker refers to this recipe as "Yankee Cornbread", which seems to relate to the addition of sugar. I personally think Yankee Cornbread is too sweet and Southern Cornbread is too plain. I make mine half-Yankee and half-Southern. We can just call it "Peace Treaty Cornbread". I strongly recommend cooking this in an 8"-9" round cast iron skillet.
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 1/4 cup corn meal (You can buy locally from
Red Mule)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If using a cast iron skillet, melt butter on the stove and pour into mixing bowl. Then your cooking vessel is already greased! If using a regular 9" round pan, make sure to grease bottom and sides. Mix butter, milk and egg in a bowl with whisk. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl until combined and then combine all ingredients together using a rubber spatula. Pour into greased pan. Bake 22-25 minutes. Enjoy hot with butter and honey!
