Biscuits

Being a Texan, I may be predisposed to them but i love good homemade biscuits.

Here's the recipe ive been using for self-rising Biscuits, culled from the internet:

Ingredients:
1/2 Stick of Butter
2 cps. Self-Rising Flour
1 cp. Milk

-Preheat oven to 425 degrees
-Mix flour & cold butter in bowl, combine with pastry knife or whisk until butter is in pea-sized chunks
-Add milk
-Mix well, knead until smooth
-Roll to 1/2" thick
-cut out biscuits using biscuit cutter or sturdy cup (3" or so across seems to me to be the right size for good biscuits)
-Place on greased pan, slightly touching
-Bake approx. 10 minutes or until fluffy and golden

Ive been trying to tweak my attempts since last thanksgiving, i had problems with flat, dry, crunchy ones that did ok but lacked that really satisfying fluff and crust. The recipe i found first called for 3/4 cps. of milk, but i found this to be too dry. I've also noticed that when the dough gets rolled out too thin it also makes for too dry a biscuit.

My last batch was the first time i increased the milk, and it ended up being two batches after i accidently mixed in twice the amount. The first round out of the oven were notably more moist but still not as fluffy as id like. The second half of the dough got put into a container and into the fridge. The next day i pulled it out and kneaded it some more, it was still pretty elastic so I let it rest about 5 minutes and then rolled it out. I did them a little thicker than i had before, probably closer to 1/2" now(think i got it too thin before).

The difference really showed, they rose 2-3 times more than they had before and were nice and moist. Still a little dense though, not quite the same airpockets i associate with really light biscuits. Next i want to try it again with the 3/4 cp. milk, the dryness earlier experienced may have come from rolling them out too thin. I need to work on kneading some more and letting the dough rest, im not very good with bread but that seems to have really helped the loft i got this last time.

More notes to follow as they come out of the oven next time...