I won first place in the baking division in a county fair with this recipe. I also got two different jobs because of these biscuits! This is a rich and tasty quick bread, best for eating with breakfast foods, like sausage and gravy. They are perfect with just butter and jam or honey. If you are making biscuits for shortcake, omit the baking soda and use regular milk or a nut milk. These can be made with a butter substitute like Earth Balance to make them vegan. The feel of the dough is very important to a good outcome in the oven. I like to do these by hand in my big stainless steel bowl with a good pastry blender. With minimal but firm handling, this dough should be flaky and a tad dry to roll out. Use extra flour on the cutting board if yours is too wet. Biscuits like to be close to each other on the baking sheet, as it helps them to rise a bit taller. I like that about biscuits, but then, I like everything about biscuits, and especially these!
Ingredients
- 4 cups organic all-purpose white flour
- 3 tablespoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup butter, cut into small pieces
- 1–1½ cups buttermilk
Preparation
Process Preheat oven to 375°. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl with a whisk to blend. Add the small-diced butter and blend with a pastry blender until the mix is well-blended with pea-sized pieces of butter. Add about half the buttermilk and mix well, then add a little more buttermilk as you mix, until you have a nice mass of dough, well put together but still a little shaggy. Plop this out onto a very well-floured board or countertop and knead together just enough to form a nicely adhering ball. Pat down with your hand until the dough is a nice round about 1 inch thick. Next, push the dough together just a bit, so that it is a little more generously over an inch high.
Using a cutter or a thin-rimmed glass upside down, cut out a few biscuits and place them on a parchment-covered baking sheet. Reorganize the dough pieces, firmly reblending them, rolling them out, and cutting biscuits until you have enough dough left to just roll 1 into a round by itself. Bake for 16 minutes. If they are not quite brown enough for you, leave in 1 or 2 more minutes.
These can, and should, be served immediately! Makes about 16 to 18 biscuits.
