Southern Style Biscuits – First Try!

If you know me then you know I love Popeye’s Chicken. One of the things I love the most are their buttermilk biscuits. I would sleep on a pillow made of them if it were possible. They go great with anything!

I decided to try my hand at making my own southern style biscuits. I knew there might be some hiccups along the way since baking isn’t my forte…I’m more of a grilling person.

Here I combined the dry ingredients (check below for the full ingredient list)

Here I combined all the dry ingredients

So I’ve never used Crisco before, but it’s like butter under the perfect conditions. I’ve never been so impressed by a hydrogenated substance before!

After mixing in the Crisco

After gradually adding in the milk

Flour and roll the dough out into a 1'' thick sheet

Use a glass as a cookie cutter...or a cookie cutter if you actually have one

Keep cutting and rolling out the dough until…

Baking time!

And voila! (I used some egg wash on the top. Maybe it was a bad choice but I made these at 4AM. Bad choices were kinda the norm at the time.)

One of the biscuits got eaten before the picture was taken magically disappeared.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
3. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.

This recipe is called J.P.’s Big Daddy Biscuits

Note: The one thing I’d do different if I had to do it all over again was bake them at 350-400 degrees F instead of 425 degrees F. The bottoms kind of came out too dark, and I think they could’ve risen up some more. But other than that these came out pretty good! I’ll definitely try them again someday, so look out for that post!

Quadruple Chocolate Cupcakes

What happens when you want cake and Ferrero Rochers? Quadruple chocolate cupcakes happen!

A close up of the amazingness

That’s right! FOUR sources of chocolate!

1. Dark chocolate frosting
2. Chocolate cake mix
3. Chocolate chunks we’re gonna put in the cake mix
4. The Ferrero Rocher you’re gonna stuff the cupcake with!

Ingredients

Cupcake Batter:

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chunks (1/2 cup is really just a guideline…go nuts…well not too nuts)

Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Bar Melted

First I made the batter, easy enough. Then I had to figure out how to  place the Ferrero Rocher in the cupcake tray without it overflowing.

Solution: Fill the cupcake bay 1/3rd full, place the Ferrero Rocher down, then fill the rest up to a little bit less than the top.  Works out great! Also, make sure to spray some PAM or something on the tray before laying your batter down, it makes it easier at the end to take them out!

Toss that in the oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Make sure to put a toothpick through the top of one of the cupcakes…if it comes out clear, your cupcakes are ready!

Follow the frosting instructions while the cupcakes bake and lay the frosting on when the cupcakes are cooled down a bit.

More goodness

You’re might be wondering if the frosting is a bit runny…well you’d be right! These pics are from the first time I made these and I didn’t have proper shortening so I had to use canola oil or something. Total frosting FAIL!

But I made them a second time with proper shortening and this is what I got:

Crappy cellphone picture of my second try at frosting

Make sure to share these with your friends, since they will hate you if you don’t (personal experience)!

Enjoy!