Southern Buttermilk Biscuits..........

Biscuits. Plain old ordinary Southern Buttermilk Biscuits, which in reality there is nothing ordinary about them, all deserving capital letters. So what makes biscuits so elusive, so daunting that the simplest bakery item scares bakers away? They have to be simple, since ‘back in the day’ when I was in middle school biscuits was the very first thing we made in ‘home ec’, short for home economics. They call it something else today.

What has remained elusive to me is finding that perfect flaky, buttery, sweet smelling recipe that allows the biscuits to puff up nearly tripling in size. I’ve tried tons of recipes over the years, but I think I may have finally found a keeper. So here it goes….

2 ½ cup self-rising flour (see note below)

1 stick (1/2 cup) frozen butter

1 cup ice cold buttermilk

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Everything should be super cold, including the rolling pin as biscuits are much like pie crust, the more you handle it the tougher it will become. Begin by placing your self-rising flour in a large glass bowl, making a small well in the center. Next grate the frozen butter directly in the well using a hand held cheese grater. Add the buttermilk and stir approximately 15 times to incorporate being careful not to over mix. Turn dough onto a floured surface, and roll out with an ice cold rolling pin to roughly 1” thick. Fold dough onto itself and repeat a total of 5 times. The last time roll dough approximately ½” thick, then cut with a biscuit cutter, glass or other shape. Bake in a round or square pan 15 minutes at 475 degrees until golden brown on top.  A cast iron skillet also works great, plus the closer you place them together in the pan the higher they rise. Brush melted butter over the top and serve warm with honey and jams.

Note – substitute for self-rising flour – sift together 3 cup all-purpose flour, 4 ½ tsp baking powder and 1 ½ tsp salt, then measure out the 2 ½ cups you need for the recipe, and use the rest to dust your surface before rolling and cutting.

So give it a try, and see for yourself..........made from scratch, with whole ingredients, words you can pronounce, and no preservatives additives.