Voted one of the best biscuits in the U.S.
How many times while we are traveling do we eat at a great restaurant and then soon forget about it? Well, I never do. I have talked about Loveless Cafe several times here and this is one restaurant that we actually made it back to again and for the second time enjoyed their wonderful biscuits for breakfast. I always knew if we got back to Nashville we would eat at Loveless again, and we did on our way back from Asheville last summer. Loveless Cafe’s Biscuits have been voted one of the best restaurant biscuits in the U.S. and of course they aren’t going to share their recipe.
For over 60 years guests have been sharing meals with family and friends at Loveless Cafe. LC is located in southwest Nashville at 8400 Highway 100 and has been serving meals since 1951. It use to be a 50’s style Motel and still has that sign by the roadside. You can’t miss it and if you pass it by, you will be sorry.
To me, there’s nothing better than a hot biscuit out of the oven with room temperature softened butter. Now, my husband would disagree because he loves to put either honey or molasses on his biscuits.
I changed a few ingredients in Mother’s Kitchen copycat recipe. For one, why use buttermilk powder when I can use 2 cups of buttermilk; and since I had some Lard in my pantry I used that in place of the vegetable shortening. Also, I decreased the sugar to 1/8 cup because I don’t think any biscuits needs to be sweet. This recipe sounds similar to the Angel Biscuits we use to make back in the 70’s. Whether it is or not, I think it measures up to Loveless Cafe’s biscuits.
Mother’s Kitchen’s recipe called for vegetable shortening. Did you know that Crisco and other vegetable shortenings have taken out the trans fat from their product? It does change the results in some products; cake decorating frosting/icing is one example (will make curdle). Another example is if you notice your crackers (boxed) breaking easily, look at the box and you will probably see that they have been changed and there is no trans fat in the product. So I used Lard. If I were to use something like Crisco, I might try half Crisco and half butter.
So, this may not be the exact recipe from Loveless but it could possibly be a close runner-up. My husband, loved them and as you can see he drizzled “his” honey all over the biscuit halves.
BLAST FROM THE PAST: Dijon Ham and Cream Cheese Biscuits is one of my favorite little appetizer type biscuits. Give it a try.
After you have dissolved the yeast in the warm water you will add it to the buttermilk.
After mixing the biscuit dough and kneading about 6 times I rolled out to about 1/2-3/4″ thick and cut with a 1 1/2″ biscuit cutter.
Have your melted butter ready to brush on the tops of your freshly baked, browned butter. This is my favorite brush I got in Brugge a few years ago. It is only about 1/4″ thick.
The iron skillet was greased with lard. You could spray with cooking spray or use Crisco and you can also just bake on a cookie sheet, but this skillet made the crunchiest biscuits.
I told you my husband loves honey.
- 1 (¼-ounce) packet active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons lukewarm water (105º to 115ºf )
- 5 cups Southern soft-wheat self-rising flour (Martha White if you can find it)
- 1/8 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup vegetable shortening (I used lard)
- 2 c. buttermilk
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, melted
- Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water in a small bowl. Set aside until the yeast looks foamy. Stir together the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Use your fingertips to cut in the shortening (or lard) until the pieces are the size of peas. Stir the buttermilk into the dissolved yeast. Stir into the flour mixture using a fork, just until moistened. (at this point the dough can be refrigerated)
- Lightly coat a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and set it aside. Knead the dough lightly, about six turns. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a ½-inch thickness. Stamp out biscuits with a 1 1/2-inch cutter. (Don’t twist the cutter or the biscuits will rise taller on one side.)
- Gather, roll, and cut the scraps. Arrange the biscuits with sides touching on the prepared baking sheet - pack them in tightly. Cover with a damp lint-free towel. Let the biscuits rise in a warm place until they have doubled in bulk, at least 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 425ºf. Bake until the biscuits are lightly browned, about 15 to 20 minutes. Brush the tops with the melted butter and serve hot.
- The original recipe called for 1/4 cup sugar. I felt like that was too sweet for a biscuit so I cut that in half and used 1/8 cup sugar.
4 Comments
Kaye
February 25, 2015 at 7:01 pmCan’t wait to try this!!!
Susan
February 27, 2015 at 10:16 amMaybe I missed something, but if this recipe makes 80 biscuits I might could eat them, but the results wouldn’t look good on me! Can I freeze them, and if so, should I freeze them before I cook them on a cookie sheet, or after I cook them. They look soooo good!
Thanks,
Susan
Sherry
February 27, 2015 at 11:27 amSusan, if you use a 2″ cutter it may make 30. You could half recipe but would have to measure and half yeast. If you want to freeze here is how I would do it. Freeze on cookie sheet first and when frozen put in freezer bags. When ready to bake here is exactly how I do it. Remove from freezer and put on greased baking sheet. Turn oven on required temperature and after it has preheatd put biscuits in oven. They may be partially frozen but will bake beautifully. This is how I do my scones also.
Sheri
March 2, 2015 at 7:14 pmI love your biscuits! You are a wonder in my book… The butter was great, too in your small containers making me feel like I was being a good girl!