Mark's Fried Biscuits

While I was at Mark and Faith's house, I did lot of cooking for the 11 of us.  (Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, because the newborn only partook indirectly, of course.) They are temporarily incapacitated by not having an oven, so I had to get a little creative (for me) -- I cook quite a bit in my oven.  I noticed they had several cans of store-bought biscuits in the frig.  I asked Faith how they baked them without an oven.  Did they use the toaster oven?  She said that Mark makes his biscuits in a frying pan!  She described the procedure, and I decided to give it a try.  And let me tell you, it was fun!  But then, I'm an adventurous cook.

First, you heat a cast iron frying pan until it's just smoking.  Then you add lots of oil and butter.  Don't let them burn, before you put the biscuits in.  Pack them in. I fit a whole pack in this pan. And turn the heat down as LOW as you possibly can. It helps to have gas heat, which they do, because you have more control over the heat.

Then cover the biscuits with a tight lid, and force yourself NOT to check on them, b/c then you'll release the heat.  Basically, you've just turned the pan into a small oven.  If you don't keep the heat WAY down, you'll burn them.

When they are big and puffy, flip them over.  Be aggressive. You'll mar some of them, but as my dad always says at the table,  "If you think it looks messy now,  you should see it in 10 minutes."  He does have a point.

Replace the lid and finish baking them.  You'll need to get them nice and toasty to cook all the way through the middle.  The children told me that my biscuits are better than Mark's (CROW!!!) because mine were cooked through, and his are often doughy in the middle. It may be a matter of not fiddling with them.  Mark is clearly a fiddler.

And here is one of the finished product:

Don't forget the butter.  I may try this at home, although I like homemade biscuits better, so I'll use my own dough.  I mean, I ask you:  is there anything better than fried dough?