Cathead Biscuits Recipe

Although I’m a born and bred Northerner hailing from New Jersey, I began baking professionally whereas dwelling in Birmingham, Alabama. Earlier than transferring to the South, I’d solely ever encountered one kind of biscuit: a tall, buttery, buttermilk biscuit with flaky, neatly-stacked layers. This widespread selection (which I’ll seek advice from from right here onward as a “minimize biscuit”) is what many People think about a Southern-style biscuit. And it’s—but it surely isn’t the one one. After I moved to Alabama, I shortly realized that the field of Southern biscuits is vast. Inside the principle classes of minimize biscuits and drop biscuits, there are myriad variations: cream biscuits, candy potato biscuits, angel biscuits, benne seed biscuits, and my specific favourite, cathead biscuits. 

Cathead biscuits, a wide range of drop biscuits, are fairly fashionable within the American South, however lesser recognized elsewhere. These further giant biscuits are crisp and golden on the skin, whereas remaining exceptionally fluffy and moist on the within. As a bonus, they’re a lot simpler to make than traditional minimize biscuits. Earlier than I dive into the actual wonders of cathead biscuits, it’s essential to know the 2 foremost strategies used to make biscuits.

Lower Biscuits vs. Drop Biscuits

The principle distinction between cut biscuits and drop biscuits rests in approach—the previous is rolled and minimize, whereas the latter is solely dropped onto the pan, both with a measuring cup, cookie scoop, or a pair of arms. Whereas minimize biscuits are tall, layered, and flaky, drop biscuits are softer, fluffier, and extra tender. 

Most minimize biscuits recipes name for rolling, folding, or stacking the dough to create flaky layers. This step is essential to reaching tall, flaky biscuits, because the butter melts and produces pockets of steam contained in the pastry, however the technique leaves plenty of room for person error. Work the dough an excessive amount of, and also you’ll develop extra gluten, leading to dense, bready biscuits; transfer too slowly and the butter inside will soften, compromising the biscuit’s flaky construction. Since drop biscuits don’t require rolling or chopping, there’s much less threat of overworking and warming up the dough. The dough may also take up extra liquid with out changing into too troublesome to deal with, as there’s no rolling or folding concerned.

A Temporary Historical past of Cathead Biscuits

Cathead biscuits are a supersized number of drop biscuits, so named for his or her gargantuan dimension because the biscuits are fairly actually as large as a cat’s head. Rumor has it that these biscuits date again to the Civil Warfare when, to save lots of time, cooks merely plopped mounds of dough onto a baking sheet. Some Southerners say these colorfully-named biscuits originated in Appalachia; others, the Mississippi Delta. For sure, the biscuits turned a regional staple, and at this time, yow will discover them at barbecue joints, truck stops, meat-and-threes, and residential dinner tables throughout the American South. The fluffy inside makes it a perfect car for sopping up gravy, meat juices, or no matter else is in your plate.

In a 1996 overview for the New York Times, journalist Rick Bragg famous that only a few Atlanta eating places nonetheless served conventional Southern-style meals. He argued that the area’s finest home-style cooking might be present in properties themselves, opening with an outline of the biscuits he loved at 75-year-old Mrs. Ruby Pearl Barber’s kitchen desk: “Down right here they name them cathead biscuits, as a result of they’re concerning the dimension of a kitten’s head, crispy on the skin, fluffy on the within, slathered with muscadine jelly and white butter, or opened up and smothered in white milk gravy.” The one downside? These biscuits weren’t on the market.

It’s exactly because of this that cathead biscuits have remained considerably of a Southern secret: they’re the South’s humble, on a regular basis biscuit, discovered at greasy spoons and on checker-clothed tables. Until you grew up within the South or selected it as your adopted dwelling like I did, it’s solely attainable that you just’d by no means encounter one.

Although minimize biscuits nonetheless stay the usual in eating places, bakeries, and grocery aisles, cathead biscuits have begun to earn nationwide recognition as Southern bakers and cookbook authors, together with Cheryl Day and Jocelyn Delk Adams, have begun to share their recipes for the Southern staple. In 2013, Biscuit Head—an Asheville, North Carolina breakfast store specializing in cathead biscuits—catapulted the lesser-known selection into the national spotlight, incomes accolades for his or her fluffy, extra-large biscuits. It’s the store that first launched me to cathead biscuits, and the primary time I tasted one, I marveled over its tender crumb and unexpectedly gentle texture. It was not heavy nor greasy—it was ethereal and plush. I’ve been hooked ever since. 

Dialing within the Components for the Greatest Cathead Biscuits

In my quest to develop a recipe for gentle, fluffy cathead biscuits, I began with a fundamental biscuit ratio (one of many normal tenets of baking): one half fats to 2 components liquid to a few components flour. As a result of drop biscuits can deal with extra liquid than a minimize biscuit—since they don’t need to be rolled and minimize—I elevated the amount of buttermilk to just about equal the quantity of flour. I additionally elevated the quantity of fats to yield a lighter, airier biscuit, because the butter melts within the oven and creates pockets of steam. Buttermilk contributes moisture and tang, its acidity reacting with the leavening agent to provide an increase. As soon as I’d settled on a fundamental system, I sought to reply two main questions: Which varieties of flour and fats would yield the fluffiest, most tender biscuits?

All-Objective Flour vs. Cake Flour

It’s not simply custom that makes Southern biscuits higher than the remaining—it’s the substances used, too. Earlier than nationwide transportation networks enabled extra widespread, cross-regional commerce within the early nineteenth century, all flour was milled from native wheat—gentle pink winter wheat within the South, and a mix of soppy and laborious wheat within the North. “Arduous wheat has the next protein content material (11-15%) than gentle wheat (5-9%), that means the previous has extra capability for gluten growth than the latter,” explains former Severe Eats editor Kristina Razon in her guide to the types of flour. The lower-protein flour made Southern baked items (together with pound cake, pie crust, and biscuits) significantly tender. White Lily—the South’s signature flour model—nonetheless makes use of 100% gentle pink winter wheat (for a protein rely of 9%) and is barely out there regionally. White Lily’s low protein content material of 9% means it produces gentle, fluffy pastries, and is good for getting ready cathead biscuits.

In case you don’t stay within the South, it might be troublesome to find White Lily flour. You’ll be able to, nonetheless, create the same product by mixing all-purpose flour (sometimes 10–11% protein) and bleached cake flour (7–8% protein) That is the strategy Day takes in her recipe for cathead biscuits, calling for a 50/50 break up. However I questioned if utilizing two varieties of flour was actually essential. A part of the enchantment of cathead biscuits is, in any case, its ease and unfussiness. 

To find out if mixing two varieties of flour actually made a distinction, I examined this biscuit recipe with cake flour, a 50/50 mix of all-purpose and cake flour, and solely all-purpose flour. 

• Cake flour: The biscuits made with solely cake flour have been too crumbly and spongy, extra carefully resembling a scone or shortcake than a biscuit. They lacked structural integrity and crumbled simply when lifted off the plate.
• 50/50 all-purpose flour and cake flour: The biscuits made with a 50/50 break up of cake flour and all-purpose flour have been considerably extra tender and fluffy. The crumb was tender and gentle, but sturdy sufficient to qualify as a biscuit.
• All-purpose flour: The biscuits made with solely all-purpose flour have been satisfactory, however barely powerful and dry. Positive for smothering in gravy, however much less ideally suited for a breakfast sandwich or consuming out of hand.

Briefly: It’s completely value searching for out cake flour in order for you gentle, pillowy biscuits. Keep away from unbleached cake flour, although which might flip the biscuits dense, as former Severe Eats editor Stella Parks famous in her article on bleached cake flour.

I additionally advocate utilizing bleached, enriched all-purpose flour (equivalent to Gold Medal or Pillsbury) for this recipe. Each acquire sufficient construction from a average protein rely (10–11%) and endure a bleaching course of to additional soften the wheat, yielding a extra tender crumb. Keep away from King Arthur all-purpose flour right here, which has the next protein rely of 11.7% and may result in denser biscuits. (You’ll be able to learn extra concerning the numerous varieties of flour and their protein portions in this guide to types of flour.)

Butter vs. Shortening

Some bakers, together with Day and Delk Adams, use butter as the one supply of fats of their cathead biscuits, however loads of dwelling cooks I met in Alabama bake their biscuits completely with vegetable shortening, like Crisco. Every kind of fats has its benefits. Shortening consists of 100% fats and has the next melting level than butter, which helps the biscuits maintain their form and yields a crumbly, crisp, and tender crumb. Relying on fashion, butter can vary from 80 to 85% butterfat, with the rest being milk solids and water. That water evaporates within the oven, creating pockets of steam contained in the biscuits and leads to lighter, flakier biscuits. Butter additionally brings richness and taste that shortening lacks. 

Initially, I suspected a mix of butter and shortening may create the optimum biscuit. Butter would carry wealthy taste and lightness, whereas shortening would contribute tenderness and construction. After testing numerous ratios of butter to shortening to see which might yield the fluffiest biscuits, I discovered that any amount of shortening—starting from 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup—made the biscuits barely gummier and more durable. I in the end opted to make use of simply butter, which I grate to create smaller items which are fast to include, decreasing the possibility of meltage.

5 Ideas for Making ready Cathead Biscuits

Preheat the pan. A method generally used within the South to make cornbread, preheating the pan maximizes browning on the edges and backside of the biscuits. 

Drop the batter in equal parts. Don’t fear about being neat or exact if you drop the biscuits into the recent pan—the biscuits are supposed to be craggy. However dot attempt to make every biscuit about the identical dimension so that they bake evenly. 

Use chilly butter. Because the biscuits bake, the chilly butter melts, creating pockets of steam that produce layers within the baked biscuits. In case your butter is just too heat, it’s probably it’ll soften into the dough earlier than it’s even had the possibility to bake, leaving you with biscuits that don’t have that distinctive flakiness.  

Add a bit of sugar. Although they comprise a smidgeon of sugar, these biscuits are usually not discernibly candy. Granulated sugar merely seasons the dough and aids in caramelization. 

Experiment with mix-ins. With equal components sugar and salt, these biscuits can skew candy or savory. Attempt folding in finely-chopped herbs, shredded cheese, chocolate chips, or dried fruit. Serve the biscuits on their very own (I like them break up and full of a pat of butter and honey), use as the bottom to your dream breakfast sandwich, or, for a real Southern strategy, smother in sausage gravy.