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This is a recipe that was given to me way back when I was a Junior Women’s clubber, and it is my very favorite way to enjoy chocolate cake. It is a moist, fudgy dessert, that is more like a brownie than cake.

INGREDIENTS for CAKE

2 sticks butter or margarine
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine margarine/butter, cocoa and water in saucepan., and bring to a boil over low heat. Remove from heat, and add flour, sugar and salt. Mix well and add eggs, sour cream, soda and vanilla. Again, mix thoroughly.

Pour into a greased 9×13 pan, and bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes.

Remove from oven and leave in pan. Frost immediately.

FROSTING

1 stick butter or margarine
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 pound confectioners sugar
6 tablespoons milk
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine margarine/butter, cocoa and milk in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add sugar, nuts and vanilla. Mix well and immediately pour over cake.

Let cool, and enjoy!!!😋😋

This is a blog I did on Multiply that got a huge response. It seems that many would like to make homemade biscuits, but think they aren’t capable or that it is too complicated. For weeks after I published this series of pictures and instructions, I received notes from friends who said they tried it and were amazed at their success.

“WEST VIRGINIA BISCUITS” Sep 26, ’08 8:11 AM
for everyone

Vero’s West Virginia Biscuits

Someone recently subtly hinted that I post my biscuit recipe.

Cooler weather is still around and along with it
comes the yearning for good hot “tummy filling” food.

Try a pan of these with your other favorite breakfast items
(don’t forget the butter and jelly)and you will push back from the table with a big sigh of utmost fulfillment.

INGREDIENTS

(Ingredient amounts are approximate )

2 cups milk

1/3 cup oil

Enough Good quality self-rising flour (Hudson Cream if you can find it) to make a soft workable dough.

A little more oil for the pan.

Use a ten inch pan, (larger if you decide to make a lot more of these). Pour a bit of oil in it and spread it all over the bottom. Just enough for a light coating will suffice.

DIRECTIONS

Hmmmmm….How to type a recipe for something that I’ve made without a recipe for years…Oh well…here goes…

For a family of four… start with about 2 cups of milk in a large bowl …(oh …heat the oven to at least 475* ) I learned on a wood stove and it was hotttttttt believe me.
Put about a third cup of oil in…you can adjust this to your taste…(there are no failures with this recipe…just different finished products) but the taste will basically be the same)

I use waxed paper to roll them out on…put a generous amount of self-rising flour on the paper…(if you use plain flour you will have tough crusts).

Back to the bowl….add enough self rising flour to make a soft dough…not one that will stand up by its self. (It’s hard to say exactly what’s right). I usually suggest……”If its easy to work ..you have it too stiff….if it runs off the counter …you need to add more flour….lol…doesn’t really matter just makes different textured biscuits.

Dump dough out onto your floured surface.

Work the dough just enough to handle…turn it over once…knead as little as possible….too much kneading makes them tough.

Cut with the top of a glass dipped in flour…(I don’t actually cut them out round…just divide the dough into biscuit-sized pieces and shape them with my hands).

BAKINGBISCUITS5.jpg

..put into pan…crowd them ’til the pan is all full (makes them rise higher)Use as heavy a pan as you can find…stainless steel doesnt seem to make them brown well…I use a heavy aluminum one.

Make a dent in the center of each one and fill dent with oil…oil tops of all biscuits as generous as you want…( if it runs out of the pan it burns and stinks ) lol
( one of my favorite pans has a hole in it)

Why the dent???? it keeps them from swelling up in the center like a toad…makes a tall straight sided biscuit…

Don’t worry if they aren’t pretty and round…shape doesn’t affect the taste…my family fights over the middle ones…I prefer the outside ones…more crust.

Bake for about 20 minutes…..turn out immediately…if you don’t, they sweat and taste icky.

Beeeeeeeeepppppp just as I typed this line my timer went off….lol

Just so you don’t waste all that flour on the paper…now…put equal parts flour and bacon grease in a skillet….add enough milk to make gravy the way you like it…pepper it good with black pepper….and

ENJOY…YUMMMMMMMM!!

 MacFarsider:

Funny I see this on Facebook tonight Vero.
I actually made some last night and was snacking on them with my homemade Black Raspberry jam. A perfect combination.

 

 VeroMariquita:

Glad the link worked for you Mac. I wondered if anyone could see it.

Black raspberry jam is my favorite too.

 

 Anonymous:

Made ’em and loved them! Yeah, I’ve got a new biscuit recipe now – buh-bye, Better Homes & Gardens! I didn’t do the dent because I like those “toad bellies” but these were just perfect.

   

 VeroMariquita:

Wonderful!!!! Now the dent also helps hold more oil on the tops and makes a tastier crust. I am so glad you like them. I have eaten them for more years than I want to talk about! lol

 

 viccles2004:

Whenever the Hudson Cream flour gets in stock at Walmart I am going to make these! I have never had anything like these and it sounds like a cross between a biscuit and a roll….but a lot easier because it doesn’t call for yeast. Do you ever make them in a cast iron skillet?

   

 VeroMariquita:

You can use any brand of self-rising flour. You can even use plain flour and add appropriate amounts of salt and baking powder but you will never get them to rise as high. I have tried it over and over. Self-rising flour just has a special “oomph” to it!

 

 VeroMariquita:

I HAVE made them in a cast iron skillet and it works great but it is pretty hefty to get in and out of the oven and to turn over to flip them out. I love cooking with cast iron but have pretty much stopped using it because of the weight. Can you imagine a 15 ” cast iron skillet filled with sausage gravy!!!{#} i would have to yell for hubby and his back-hoe!!

    

 viccles2004:

Lol I know the feeling! I have been tempted to get one of those cast iron skillets that has handles on both sides for added leverage!…when my grandmother passed away, they found that she had around 15 cast iron skillets of almost every size…she loved her cast iron,lol.

 

 Anonymous:

LOOKS GOOD..ILL GRAB ONE IN THE AM..LOL

 

 SpellOfGardenias:

I’m gonna try makin’ these.
I’ll get back to ya how
VERO’S WEST VIRGINIA BISCUITS are….
They sure look Yummy!

  

 VeroMariquita:

Thank you Spelli. I hope you like them. If you have any questions just yell!

 

 SpellOfGardenias:

I don’t really measure much of anything myself.
I usually just eyeball what I need, add a pinch of this,
a dash of that, throw it around in the bowl or whatever
until it’s the consistency it needs to be and throw it on
the stove or in the oven, whichever it may need.
BUT….
When I give out a “recipe” I give out measurements lol.
Just hope it tastes as good as mine.
Here it is….
GOOD LUCK! LOL

 
 VeroMariquita:

Most of the time when I give out one of my recipes, I add in all my little tweaks too. The things that I was not specific about on this one are sorta individual preferences that can be learned as you go along.

 

 VeroMariquita:

I didn’t give a flour measurement because I just dump it in until it looks right. You will soon learn the look. I control the number of biscuits I make by the measure of milk.

 

 Anonymous:

I’m going to have to try your method – I never used oil but it has to be easier than cutting shortening into the flour. Just when I thought a recipe couldn’t get any easier….. curious – how thick are they when you put them in the pan? Lol, I’m a patter/roller/cutter vs shaped by hand, need a baseline here!

    

 VeroMariquita:

I don’t remember my mom ever buying salad oil. Lard was used for everything. Melted lard was blended into the biscuit dough after the flour was stirred into the milk. You can also do this when using the oil. You just kinda fold it in until it disappears.

 

 VeroMariquita:

Probably an inch or so. Maybe inch and quarter. Doesn’t really matter much.

Be prepared to eat a much different biscuit than one made with the cutting-in pie crust like method. These are not flaky or crunchy. They are soft and fluffy with brown top and bottom crusts as you can see in the picture.

 

 Anonymous:

Ahh – I thought that was just a trick of the lighting or something. For me, it’s not really a biscuit if it’s not crunchy-crumbly, but these look soooo good, and I will definitely make them. I’ll even try the bacon gravy, although that’s one I really have trouble wrapping my head around for some reason. I’ll eat sausage gravy til the bull comes home with a calf but, to me, bacon sounds weird, lol.

  

 VeroMariquita:

This is the only way I ever saw a biscuit until I grew up and left home. I guess the closest thing I have seen to them is Angel Biscuits, which have the addition of yeast.

About the gravy, a common breakfast way back in the day was just biscuits and “Poor Man’s Gravy”,(also known as “White Sop”. The original white sop was probably just made with lard and white flour . I have always made it much tastier by using bacon grease and browning the flour before adding the milk. It isn’t bad and very filling.

 

 VeroMariquita:

Spam gravy isn’t half bad either. Cube the spam and brown it well,then proceed like you were making the sausage gravy. Somtimes I add a pinch of packaged pork gravy mix to jive up the flavor.



 viccles2004:

I don’t think my Grandmother ever served a meal that didn’t include gravy. Didn’t matter if she cooked beef, pork, chicken, there was always gravy made from the drippings. Her favorite was to cook port tenderloin and use the drippings for gravy, she could make that every meal and be happy…well with the mashed taters on the side too,lol.

  

 VeroMariquita:

I think I like (or would have liked) your grandmother. Sounds as if you had ancestors similar to mine. The only meal that I have any problems with is when I serve ham. Ham grease just doesn’t make very good gravy so I resort to a package mix. My favorite is Mc Cormicks Pork Gravy Mix. (Shmoo should be getting paid for all this free advertising, HUH!



 viccles2004:

Have you ever made red eye gravy with the ham grease? I have never made it or tried it, but wondered if it is any good.

 

 VeroMariquita:

Yes and I love it but it is a bit different. (Not one that I would put on mashed potatoes.)

Restaurants use coffee, we always used milk.

Ham is fried in a skillet and then the coffee/ milk is poured in after you remove the ham. It loosens all the browned bits and has “eyes” spots of liquid grease on top of it.

We always used that as a side dish… crumble one of these big fluffy biscuits and pour the gravy over it. (Or just sop your biscuit into it hillbilly style) lol

Made with milk it has a really unique flavor. I don’t think I would like the coffee one.