Brenda Gantt Biscuits: Easy Southern Eats

Brenda Gantt biscuits are a slice of good-old down-home southern goodness. Here, you’ll find her biscuits with clear, simple, straightforward instructions and easy swaps for self-rising flour.

Serves: 16 Time: 25 minutes Cookbook: Cooking with Brenda Gantt FB

When I think of the South, the first thing that comes to mind is homemade biscuits. Biscuits are at the heart of every get-together in the South and it is not hard to understand why. Buttery, flaky, and warm biscuits rule breakfast and dinner tables. Fresh from the oven, there’s nothing like a biscuit slathered with jam or stuffed with ham.

If you’ve never had them hot and steaming, now is the time to make them! They really couldn’t be easier to make, and the tangy, rich taste of buttermilk will make you melt. Today we’re featuring an authentic southern biscuit recipe from Brenda Gantt, a Southern grandma who has been making these famous biscuits every day of her life. And, as she says, it’s gonna be good y’all!

Jump Ahead:

• ❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
• 🥣 Ingredients Needed to Make Grenda Gantt Biscuits
• 🍴 Equipment You’ll Need in the Kitchen
• 🥄 How to Make Brenda Gantt Biscuits
• ♾️ Biscuit Toppings and Variations
• ❓ Brenda Gantt Biscuit Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Simple: Brenda’s recipe is so simple! We knew it would be relatively easy, but we were surprised by just how easy this was to make. You only need a few ingredients and one bowl to mix everything in. Even more good news? Cleanup is a cinch. *Happy sigh* We love Brenda Gantt recipes.

Home-style: These are home-style baked biscuits at their best. They come out tasting like grandma made them – just the way biscuits should be.

Scalable: It’s incredibly easy to scale this recipe. The recipe makes 16 biscuits, so if you want an even larger pile of warm fluffy goodness, multiply the ingredients accordingly. Want 24? Multiply the ingredients by 1.5. Want 32? Double it. And so on.

Ingredients Needed to Make Brenda Gantt Biscuits

To make these staples of southern goodness, you’ll need several main ingredients you might already have on hand.

• White Lily Self-Rising Flour or Homemade Self-Rising Flour: Self-rising flour is super easy to make, so there’s no need to go out and buy a bag of self-rising White Lily flour if it’s not in your pantry. For this recipe, you can make your own self-rising flour by combining 4 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 2 tablespoons of baking powder.
• Buttermilk: Whole buttermilk makes good biscuits. That’s all there is to it. You’ll only need two cups of buttermilk, so a quart will give you enough for two batches of biscuits.
• Vegetable Shortening: Brenda uses Crisco shortening – as do many home cooks in the south. If you’d rather not, we suggest substituting butter or lard for Crisco. Butter, and even lard, is healthier than vegetable shortening.

Equipment Needed In the Kitchen

Pastry Mat

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Mixing Bowls

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Biscuit Cutter

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Cast Iron Skillet (12-inch)

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• Pastry Mat: We use a pastry mat every time we make bread, cookies, biscuits, or any other dough. It keeps our surfaces clean while providing a perfect space to flour for rolling out, kneading, or cutting dough.
• Large Mixing Bowl: You only need one large bowl to mix all the ingredients in. We found that a medium bowl was a bit too small.
• Biscuit Cutter or Round Cookie Cutter: You have a few choices when it comes to creating perfect rounds. A biscuit cutter, a large round cookie cutter, or even a cleaned tin can works well for this purpose.
• Cast Iron Skillet: You’ll put the biscuits in a prepared cast iron skillet, then put it directly in the oven to bake. A large skillet will hold around 10 biscuits.

How to Make Brenda Gantt Biscuits

You’ll be surprised by how easy it is to make these delicious biscuits. A bit of mixing and patting, and you’ll be putting your biscuits into the oven before you know it.

Make your self-rising flour

If you didn’t purchase self-rising flour, then you’ll need to make it. Thankfully, this is a simple process. Just mix your flour, 2 tablespoons of baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of salt with a whisk until thoroughly combined. Voila! You’ve just made self-rising flour.

Make the dough

Once you’ve made the flour, form a well in the center, then add your vegetable shortening (or softened but not melted butter or lard) and buttermilk. Now for the messy part! Starting with the outside edge, mix flour with your hand into the center well of buttermilk and vegetable shortening. Continue this process until the flour, buttermilk, and vegetable shortening are fully incorporated. You should have a slightly sticky dough when finished.

Cut out the biscuit rounds

Flour a work surface, then turn out your dough ball. Using your hands, pat down the dough into one large round until the entire surface area is 1/2 inch thick.

Using a biscuit cutter or large round cookie cutter, cut the biscuit rounds. Place them into a buttered cast iron pan or greased baking sheet. You should have around 16 individual biscuit rounds.

Bake the biscuits

Bake the biscuits at 500 degrees F for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. You may need longer depending on how hot your oven gets. Keep an eye on them and pull them out when they’re golden brown.

Biscuit Toppings and Variations

Southern-style biscuits take well to a variety of toppings. In fact, many southern eateries have menu items based on the “biscuit sandwich.” Here are a couple of suggestions to inspire your own creativity when crafting new family recipes.

Classic Butter: If you ask a Southerner, there’s no better way to dress a biscuit than with a little bit of butter. Okay, a lot of butter. Buttered biscuits are the real thing.

Ham Biscuit: Another classic Southern way to eat these biscuits is to put a piece of country ham inside and make a type of biscuit sandwich.

Jams and Jellies: There’s no better way to use your fruit preserves than to slather them on a warm, flaky biscuit for breakfast. This is what enjoying homemade buttermilk biscuits is all about.

Pie or Cobbler Filling: If you’ve made up a fresh batch or pie filling, scoop out a spoonful and enjoy it on these biscuits. We love eating this peach cobbler filling with biscuits!

Brenda Gantt Biscuit Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

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