My Night Off

Mama is working really late tonight, attending a company meeting. I put the kids to bed at 6:30 and the night is mine.

I hardly know what to do with myself.

I have put Gone with the Wind in the DVD (I know, I know, so un-PC and ahistorical, but it really is one of my all-time favorite movies from early childhood, up there with Star Wars; I even read the whole book as a tween. Ask Mama, I quote it weekly, and if she doesn't recognize an allusion I make, she knows it's some arcane GWTW), am drinking some decaf coffee, eating one of my last chocolate pralines from the Southern Candymakers in New Orleans, and . . . playing on the computer. Actually, I'm about to start editing the church cookbook, but I've been checking email and reading the NYTimes.

Which is when I stumbled across the obituary, per se, of White Lily flour. Now, Texas is not so Southern that I have any memory of White Lily flour (Mom, do you?). But apparently, it is the flour par excellence. I was intrigued with the article in the paper, which describes how the flour has changed since production was moved to the Midwest from Knoxville, despite strict adherence to established procedures. Apparently, White Lily is a soft wheat with low protein and gluten that has been chlorinated. States the article:

"Soft wheat is, in fact, the key to understanding why the South is better known for cakes, biscuits and pie crusts than for yeast breads, which require the strength of high-protein flour. Soft red winter wheat was once grown primarily in the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee and, in the days before national food distribution networks, it was the only wheat widely available in the South. Nowadays, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois are among the largest producers.

"It may also explain why many Northerners’ attempts to replicate Southern delicacies fall flat. Low-protein flour absorbs less liquid, so a recipe designed for White Lily won’t work with other flours. Cake flour or another low-protein flour like Martha White are the closest substitutes." [many pardons, I can't figure out how to block indent for a quote longer than 3 lines, as required]

So, even though the recipe below straight from the article sounds delicious, I'm doomed to failure because all I have in the cupboard is King Arthur unbleached white, cake, and whole wheat flour. Makes me want to check eBay for bags of White Lily. I've made good biscuits myself, though, with aforementioned flour. I include that recipe here too, in case you don't have any White Lily in the house. If you do, invite me over. I'll bring the honey.

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Touch of Grace Biscuits
Adapted from “CookWise” by Shirley O. Corriher (Morrow)

Time: 40 minutes

Nonstick cooking spray

2 cups self-rising flour, preferably a low-protein Southern flour like White Lily

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons vegetable shortening

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 cup buttermilk, or as needed

1 cup bleached all-purpose flour, preferably low-protein flour like White Lily, or as needed

2 tablespoons butter, melted.

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees, and arrange a shelf slightly below center of oven. Spray a 9-inch cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the self-rising flour, sugar and salt. Work shortening in with your fingers until there are no large lumps. Gently stir in the cream, then enough buttermilk so that dough resembles wet cottage cheese. (If you are not using low-protein Southern flour, this may take considerably more than 1 cup buttermilk.)

2. Spread one cup all-purpose flour (not self-rising) across a plate or pie pan. Using a medium (about 2 inches, No. 30) ice cream scoop or spoon, place three scoops of dough well apart in flour. Sprinkle flour over each. Flour your hands. Turn the dough in flour to coat, shaping a ball and shaking off excess flour as you work. Place each ball in prepared pan; biscuits should be touching one another. Continue shaping until all dough is used.

3. Bake until lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Brushed with melted butter. Invert onto a plate, then back onto another. With a knife or spatula, cut quickly between biscuits to make them easy to remove. Serve immediately.

Yield: 12 to 14 biscuits.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Needing to prove my “Southerness,” I decided I had to know how to make biscuits. But, having bad experience with chewy dumplings and hard scones, I was nervous about trying my hand at biscuits. But for the February 2002 full moon—a true snow moon, I gave it another shot. Straight out of the back of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café (with a little help form Laurie Colwin’s book). And, though they were a little short, they were flaky and good, the perfect biscuit. The secret is not to over knead.

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup Crisco

1 cup buttermilk (or soured milk)

Preheat oven to 450°F. If using soured milk, combine vinegar and milk now and let stand, while continuing. Sift dry ingredients together. Add Crisco and blend well until like fine meal. Add buttermilk and mix delicately until it comes together. Dump out on floured surface and knead gently 5 times. Roll out about ½” thick and cut into desired size. Bake in greased pan, with sides touching, until golden brown, 15-18 minutes.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café