NATIONAL BUTTERMILK BISCUIT DAY

May 14th ushers in National Buttermilk Biscuit Day to celebrate this high-rising breakfast staple.

Biscuits are made using baking powder or baking soda as a leavening agent rather than yeast. A typicalbuttermilk biscuit recipe contains flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, and buttermilk. They are often referred to as a “quick bread,” indicating they do not need time to rise before baking. While being made, the dough is beaten and folded to incorporate air, which expands while baking, causing the biscuit to rise.

Before the American Civil War, biscuits emerged as an inexpensive addition to meals. This sturdier bread product soon became popular as people realized it absorbed the gravy on their plate better than plain bread. Soon a new family favorite, biscuits, and gravy, was created.

Supermarkets offer canned biscuits that are refrigerated until ready to be baked. In 1931, Ballard and Ballard patented these refrigerator biscuits.

Biscuits have been a staple of the Southern United States cuisine for many years and are often made with buttermilk. Traditionally served as a side dish with butter, they are also served at breakfast with molasses, light sugarcane syrup, maple syrup, sorghum syrup, honey, jam, or jelly, or as a breakfast sandwich.

Share your favorite recipes and biscuit combinations. Aside from biscuits and gravy, give these biscuit ideas a try:

Use biscuit dough to make pizza crust. Partially bake the dough before adding toppings.

Whenever you have fresh fish, serve homemade biscuits. Catfish and biscuits are particularly delicious.

Who likes tomato sandwiches during the summer? When fresh tomatoes ripen on the vine, slice them up while they're warm. Add a little bit of mayonnaise and sprinkle of salt and sandwich them between two warm biscuits.

Don't forget dessert. Biscuits make an excellent base for strawberry shortcakes. Just add a little sugar to your dough to sweeten it. You'll make up the rest of the sweetness with the strawberries and whipped cream.

Within our research, we were unable to identify the creator of National Buttermilk Biscuit Day.

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Captain Meriwether Lewis, Lieutenant William Clark, and their crew depart on the Corps of Discovery.

Marie Smith Jones was the last native speaker of the Eyak language. She spoke the language fluently, and it was possible, through her, to create an Eyak dictionary with the help of the University of Alaska.

Best known for being a filmmaker before his time, George Lucas created the Star Wars franchise when much of the technology didn’t exist to produce it. Lucas continues to push the boundaries of filmmaking with magical finesse.

Valerie Still played professional basketball for 12 years in Italy. She also played one season with the Washington Mystics in the WNBA.

In 2004 as a college student, Mark Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook, Inc. At the time, it was known as The Facebook.

I took this one from the link at the National Day website.
https://www.spendwithpennies.com/easy-homemade-buttermilk-biscuits/

Flaky Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits

PREP TIME 10 minutes minutes
COOK TIME 20 minutes minutes
TOTAL TIME 30 minutes minutes
SERVINGS 10 biscuits
AUTHOR Holly Nilsson
Nothing tastes quite as delicious as flaky buttery biscuits served warm out of the oven.
Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup cold butter
1 cup buttermilk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450°F.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, & salt.
Add the cold butter to the bowl and use two forks or a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour until the butter resembles large crumbs the size of a pea.
Gradually add the buttermilk and stir with a spoon just until moistened. (You may need about 2 tablespoons more or less of buttermilk).
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and gently knead a few times until the dough holds together.
Pat the dough into a square and fold it over on itself 5-6 times (this creates the layers in the biscuits).
Pat the dough to 1-inch thick and cut using a sharp biscuit cutter, reshaping the scraps as needed.
Place the biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet and bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden.

Notes:
Ensure butter is COLD. I place the butter in the freezer for a few minutes before starting.
Cut in the butter until you have coarse crumbs about the size of peas.
When cutting the biscuits, don’t twist the cutter. Just do one simple cut straight down. If twisted, this seals the edges and the biscuits won’t rise as well. The dough can also be pat into a rectangle and cut into squares.
Use a sharp biscuit cutter. A round glass will produce the same size, the blunt edge will cause the same issue as above.
Don’t overmix, the dough needs to just hold together and the butter needs to stay cold. Handling the dough too much will result in a tough biscuit. The heat from your hands will melt the butter.
Use a lightly floured surface so you don’t add too much additional flour to the dough.

Nutrition Information
Calories: 164, Carbohydrates: 21g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 7g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Cholesterol: 18mg, Sodium: 224mg, Potassium: 220mg, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 230IU, Calcium: 102mg, Iron: 1.3mg

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