Hi everyone! I’m Brandi from BranAppetit and am so happy to be guest posting for Allison. I had the chance to meet her at the Foodbuzz Festival last year and am so glad I did! She is amazingly funny, sweet, and friendly, and I really hope we get to hang out in person again!

Am I the only one that loves the fact that Allison is a crazy dog lady?

I love seeing her pictures of their pups and hearing all the funny stories, especially now that I’m dealing with the same thing!

My husband and I got Maggie on Christmas Eve this past year and it’s been a crazy and amazing 10 months.

She is stubborn and frustrating while being the cutest dog in the world. She is smarter than us and knows exactly what she’s doing when she ignores us.

She can’t go near water without diving in, she loves eating cat poop (seriously),and she wants to be dirty as much as possible. Not to mention that our house is always covered in white hair.

But she is the best cuddler, has the most beautiful gingery eyes, and I (we) couldn’t imagine our lives without her.

While I haven’t tried making my own dog treats at home yet, I did want to share a recipe that I haven’t even posted on my own blog yet – Biscuits.

This entire year, I’ve been getting more and more into baking – specifically sourdough and biscuits. My father-in-law is the biscuit master and he’s been teaching me to make them by feel (aka, no recipes) because that’s how he does it. I’ve made quite a few batches this year and think I have my basic biscuit recipe fine tuned enough to post it.

And please. Don’t try to make these without butter. Biscuits just aren’t biscuits without butter. Sometimes I use half whole wheat flour and that works great – I’ve also added whole oats and things like flax to "health" them up a bit!

But always, always use the butter. You’ll be happy you did.

Brandi’s Basic Biscuits

• 1.5 cups flour
• .5 cup other flour of choice (oat, whole wheat, etc)
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 stick butter, diced
• 1/2 -3/4 cup buttermilk (regular, soy, or almond milk should also work)

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. In large bowl, whisk flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt together.
3. Cut butter into flour until it resembles cornmeal. You can do this with a pastry blender, a couple of forks, or your hands. You just want to get the butter incorporated into the flour. A few bigger chunks is okay – those pockets of butter are what make your biscuits flaky!
4. Pour in 1/2 cup buttermilk and stir dough until it just comes together. If your dough is still dry and not combining, add a little more milk until you get a shaggy dough that will hold together.
5. Dump dough onto floured surface and knead a few times until dough is smooth.
6. Roll out or pat down to 1/2-3/4" thickness (about the depth of a cookie/biscuit cutter).
7. Cut out biscuits and place on baking stone or sheet.

• TIP: Do NOT twist biscuit/cookie cutter when cutting out your biscuits! Press straight down –> back up. That will keep the edges from sealing and will allow the biscuits to rise better.

     8. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden.

Serve hot with jam, butter, gravy, or whatever else you want on them.

The best part about homemade biscuits?

Once you have the basic method and recipe down, you can make all kinds of variations! Honey in place of the sugar, ground nuts or flax, different flours, etc. The sky is the limit!