Mystery Meals: Biscuits

This is one of those recipes that I love to find in my magical box for a variety of reasons. One, it’s written in my grandmother’s very distinct handwriting so that is just special to me. Two, it’s simple and quick. Three, it has just enough information to get started but not enough to keep you from having to guess along the way which is always entertaining. It’s this type of recipe that reminds me how much grandmas of the past “just knew”. It’s like the recipes that just say “Cook until done” with no further explanations.

I actually remember having sour cream biscuits somewhere in my past so this is definitely not a novel idea but it is very quick which excited me. However, I had my first hiccup just trying to purchase the ingredients because Easy Time Biscuit Mix is not something I could find in store or online. In fact, a cursory search on Google didn’t even reveal a picture or history of the brand so maybe it was more of a long forgotten regional thing? I decided that it must be similar to baking mixes such as Bisquick but was unsure of the amount so I decided to wing it. I decided to go with Jiffy biscuit mix because it came in a box, instead of a pouch, so I hope the quantity would be similar.

Beyond that the recipe was easy and straightforward. You were to mix everything together but it didn’t specify if the margarine was to be melted or not. I forgot to set my margarine out to come to room temperature so I took the lazy way out and decided that you most definitely were meant to melt it. Not a clue if it made a difference. With all the ingredients it was obviously still too wet. Much more a batter than a dough, even for a drop biscuit, so I added some extra baking mix to thicken it up. Truthfully, I should have added more but I was nervous that they wouldn’t be fluffy and would be dry. I’ll also say that the batter/dough was frothy which doesn't sound appealing but that’s the best description I have. Perhaps the Jiffy mix had a higher baking powder ratio to react with the sour cream? This made dropping the biscuits difficult and a bit messy. It also resulted in flat spread out biscuits.

Finally, the main piece of missing information was the cooking time. I started with ten minutes because that was the instructions on the mix box but it also required a far higher temperature so I figured that wouldn’t be long enough. In the end, it was closer to twenty-five minutes and the bottoms were quite golden but the tops were only slightly so as you can see.

So, how did they turn out? Absolutely delicious! Like I will make those again and perhaps add a cheese or a herb like rosemary. Really, they were fluffy on the inside with crispy edges and the tang of the sour cream was perfect. Truly great!