Mrs Bug's Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

Outlander Kitchen

I've made a lot of biscuits, but I rarely make drop biscuits (and have never made them for this channel before.) This is a great intro recipe if you've never made biscuits, and are less work (and less mess) than a rolled biscuit.

These are pretty sweet as is, so I would serve them with (more) honey or some jam, and of course as much butter as you feel comfortable eating. If you're looking for a more savory application, like with sausage gravy (my personal favorite), leaving out the honey might be a good idea.

This is not exactly the recipe in the book, but it's very close: http://outlanderkitchen.com/posts/mrs-bugs-buttermilk-drop-biscuits-from-the-fiery-cross

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:05]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with heather on this episode we are
[00:09]: going to be working once again from the
[00:11]: outlander kitchen cookbook by theresa
[00:14]: carl sanders pretty sure i got that
[00:16]: right
[00:17]: um
[00:18]: and we're going to be making mrs bugs
[00:20]: buttermilk drop biscuits
[00:23]: we've made several other kinds of
[00:24]: biscuits before
[00:26]: but all of those i'm pretty sure have
[00:28]: been rolled out and cut
[00:30]: these we don't have to do all that we're
[00:31]: just gonna
[00:33]: scoop them into the pan and cook them
[00:35]: like that so
[00:36]: they're a little bit easier in my
[00:38]: opinion
[00:39]: so
[00:41]: i've already measured out my flour
[00:43]: in this one but first we're going to
[00:45]: deal with our wet ingredients um
[00:49]: i have
[00:50]: the buttermilk and i have it in a little
[00:52]: bit of a bigger container she says to do
[00:54]: this in a small bowl but i'm just going
[00:56]: to do it in my
[00:59]: measuring cup why dirty something else
[01:02]: to this i'm going to add some honey so
[01:04]: i'm going to use you know my lovely
[01:06]: plunge plungers
[01:08]: and we need teaspoons which is not that
[01:11]: much
[01:13]: so
[01:15]: i'm just going to show you how i measure
[01:17]: this stuff
[01:19]: just
[01:21]: squeeze it in
[01:23]: until it fills up the whole thing
[01:26]: there you go
[01:31]: we're going to put the
[01:32]: honey in with our buttermilk and i'm
[01:35]: going to use this to kind of scrape it
[01:37]: off
[01:39]: and just stir this and a little bit of
[01:40]: honey on my
[01:42]: finger
[01:43]: so we're just going to try to stir this
[01:45]: in although this buttermilk is cold as
[01:48]: requested so
[01:51]: um i don't think it's going to stir in
[01:53]: very well
[01:55]: and then i have quite a bit of butter
[01:58]: that has
[02:00]: been melted this i chose unsalted butter
[02:03]: there's no
[02:06]: recommendation here but for this
[02:07]: particular purpose i chose unsalted
[02:09]: butter because we are going to be adding
[02:11]: salt to the recipe so
[02:13]: we're also going to add this
[02:15]: right into
[02:18]: our
[02:20]: buttermilk and honey mixture so it's
[02:22]: going to get a little lumpy
[02:24]: the butter is going to
[02:27]: clump up in the cold but that is what
[02:30]: we're looking for so don't worry about
[02:32]: that
[02:34]: so that's it for our wet ingredients i
[02:37]: said i have my all-purpose flour no
[02:39]: leavening in this yet
[02:41]: um already measured out in a large bowl
[02:44]: and we're going to add this is an
[02:46]: interesting ingredient i've never added
[02:48]: corn starch
[02:49]: to my biscuits before but we're going to
[02:51]: add a little bit of cornstarch
[02:55]: i'm not usually super picky about that
[02:58]: but
[02:59]: got as much out as i could
[03:02]: cornstarch we're going to put some
[03:04]: baking powder in here again quite a bit
[03:06]: of baking powder this is gonna be some
[03:09]: of our leavening
[03:13]: there we go
[03:16]: and then
[03:19]: some baking
[03:20]: soda
[03:24]: yes it's open a very small amount of
[03:26]: baking soda
[03:30]: [Music]
[03:33]: there we go
[03:38]: it's fine
[03:41]: baking soda
[03:42]: and salt like i said
[03:45]: adding salt here and this is just my
[03:47]: usual kosher salt i generally use
[03:49]: diamond crystal
[03:53]: there we go
[03:55]: so that's all of our dry ingredients
[03:57]: all of our wet ingredients and now we
[03:59]: just have to mix the two first we're
[04:01]: going to use a whisk to combine these
[04:04]: combine the dry ingredients
[04:06]: it will help get out any lumps
[04:08]: aerate it a little bit
[04:16]: and mix it all up
[04:19]: there we go
[04:21]: and now
[04:22]: we're going to add our lumpy she does
[04:26]: um tell you that it will be lumpy our
[04:28]: lumpy buttermilk mixture
[04:30]: into
[04:32]: our dry ingredients
[04:34]: and splash it all over ourselves you
[04:35]: know that's just like i do
[04:39]: you don't have to
[04:44]: so there i got out all of the butter and
[04:48]: honey and everything that i could and
[04:50]: we're going to just
[04:52]: stir this
[04:54]: pretty gently you don't want to beat
[04:56]: this
[04:57]: biscuits you want to be kind of gentle
[04:58]: with
[04:60]: until the cheesy says it's just mixed
[05:02]: and the batter pulls away from the side
[05:03]: of the bowl so
[05:06]: i'm just going to stir it gently
[05:43]: okay i'm gonna stop trying to get all of
[05:46]: the
[05:48]: um
[05:48]: [Music]
[05:49]: dry mixture into my dough because i
[05:52]: think we've mixed it enough there's not
[05:55]: that much left so
[05:57]: yes
[05:59]: should be good
[06:01]: i'm going to clean up a little bit
[06:03]: so that i have room to put these in my
[06:05]: pan okay
[06:07]: so we're gonna bake these in a cast iron
[06:09]: skillet this has not been preheated and
[06:12]: it is not
[06:13]: greased at all as per the recipe um she
[06:18]: says to use a greased quarter
[06:20]: cup
[06:22]: i'm gonna use this pretty large it's
[06:24]: about a quarter of a cup um
[06:26]: disher that i have
[06:28]: to place three in the middle and then i
[06:31]: think it's nine around the outside so
[06:34]: hopefully that will work out
[06:38]: and this is one of these smaller so she
[06:41]: says a 9 or a 10 inch
[06:44]: um
[06:46]: yeah 9 or 10 inch cast iron pan
[06:49]: or if you don't have that you can sorry
[06:52]: you can use the uh use a cake pan and
[06:55]: that'll be just fine
[06:58]: [Music]
[07:06]: so i did not get quite as many but again
[07:09]: i think this is about a quarter of a cup
[07:11]: but i did not measure it so
[07:15]: um
[07:16]: mine might be slightly larger than
[07:18]: they're supposed to be
[07:19]: [Music]
[07:21]: but whatever they'll be fine they may
[07:23]: take a little bit longer to bake
[07:25]: that is all
[07:27]: and these are going to look kind of
[07:28]: rough kind of shaggy that's what they're
[07:30]: supposed to look like
[07:32]: now
[07:33]: um
[07:34]: my oven has been preheated to
[07:37]: 450 degrees
[07:39]: and
[07:40]: uh we're going to bake them for 15 to 17
[07:44]: minutes she says or until
[07:46]: the tops are golden usually it takes
[07:50]: longer than that in my experience to
[07:52]: actually get the tops to look golden
[07:55]: we'll see how long it takes and let you
[07:56]: know
[07:57]: but while that is happening
[07:60]: i'm going to
[08:02]: uh
[08:02]: melt
[08:03]: some butter i'm going to choose salted
[08:05]: for this
[08:06]: and when they come out of the oven we're
[08:08]: just going to brush the tops with some
[08:10]: salted butter that's all
[08:13]: she doesn't say salted but i'm choosing
[08:15]: salted for this particular
[08:17]: part of the recipe while i chose
[08:18]: unsalted for the other one it's a little
[08:20]: bit more flavor on the outside in my
[08:22]: opinion
[08:23]: so
[08:24]: and then she says
[08:26]: you're basically done at that point cool
[08:28]: them for five minutes before serving
[08:31]: we'll see how long they last
[08:33]: all right
[08:34]: so in just a minute we'll let you know
[08:35]: what we think and show you what they
[08:37]: look like
[08:45]: on this episode of cooking the books
[08:46]: with heather you watched me make mrs
[08:48]: bugs buttermilk drop biscuits from
[08:51]: outlander kitchen
[08:53]: we've made a lot of biscuits but these
[08:55]: are
[08:56]: uh by far the easiest ones we've made
[08:58]: for this channel drop biscuits
[09:00]: are generally pretty easy um and this
[09:03]: one actually you don't have to
[09:06]: grate the butter or cut the butter into
[09:09]: cubes or
[09:10]: um
[09:11]: mix it into the flour with your hands to
[09:14]: get all the nice little uh bits of flour
[09:18]: that helps your
[09:20]: biscuits to be flaky and rise high and
[09:23]: get the sort of layering thing going on
[09:26]: there's none of that with this recipe
[09:29]: putting warm
[09:31]: just melted butter into the cold
[09:33]: buttermilk helps get those kind of small
[09:36]: pieces in there without that so that's
[09:39]: easy
[09:40]: and then uh you just
[09:42]: scoop them into the pan and bake them
[09:44]: that way so
[09:46]: super easy not the easiest recipe for
[09:48]: biscuits i've ever made but
[09:50]: pretty close
[09:52]: so
[09:54]: that's it's a super easy recipe for
[09:56]: biscuits if you've ever made biscuits
[09:57]: this is a good one to start with because
[09:59]: you really can't mess it up honestly
[10:03]: we did find ours to be
[10:05]: a little bit dense
[10:07]: but i think that i
[10:10]: could have baked them a little bit
[10:12]: longer i got nine from
[10:15]: my
[10:16]: uh mix whereas she gets 12 so i probably
[10:20]: made mine a little bit larger
[10:22]: than
[10:23]: she does so it probably took a little
[10:25]: bit longer to bake i did bake mine for
[10:27]: about a little over the 15 minutes
[10:31]: and they were actually brown on the top
[10:33]: getting brown on the top just as just in
[10:35]: that amount of time which is unusual for
[10:38]: me uh she does say to bake them
[10:42]: on the upper middle rack so for me i put
[10:45]: it on the second level down so not as
[10:48]: high as it goes but one level down and
[10:50]: that might have helped it brown a little
[10:51]: bit better but i have baked bake them
[10:54]: pretty high before anyway
[10:56]: you do bake them
[10:58]: at a high temperature so
[11:00]: i found them to be a little bit dense
[11:02]: and
[11:04]: i served mine with
[11:06]: sausage gravy which i love biscuits and
[11:08]: gravy
[11:09]: but they are a kind of sweet biscuit
[11:12]: that honey made them much sweeter than i
[11:14]: expected
[11:16]: so it's not the perfect combination not
[11:18]: the perfect vehicle for the sausage
[11:20]: gravy
[11:21]: but still it was delicious um
[11:23]: i think these are much better probably
[11:25]: served
[11:26]: as is i think they would be a great easy
[11:30]: option for strawberry shortcake
[11:32]: uh unlike the
[11:34]: i think the
[11:36]: one of the first recipes we made for
[11:37]: this channel was a strawberry shortcake
[11:40]: with a biscuit on the bottom as the as
[11:42]: the shortcake part i think these would
[11:44]: be really good with that if you wanted
[11:46]: to use them as a dessert they're already
[11:47]: pretty sweet
[11:50]: so
[11:52]: they definitely go a little bit less
[11:54]: savory
[11:55]: if you
[11:56]: wanted them to be a little on the salty
[11:58]: side i would just leave the honey out
[12:00]: honestly
[12:02]: but yeah i thought they were delicious
[12:04]: they were super easy if you end up
[12:06]: trying them let me know in the comments
[12:08]: down below
[12:09]: give me a thumbs up and hit the
[12:11]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[12:13]: me make something else next week