Buttermilk Biscuits

This is a fairly straightforward buttermilk biscuit recipe, based on Alton Brown's recipe. Simple to make in the morning so they are fresh and warm with breakfast.

Ingredients

• 2 C. Pastry flour
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. baking soda
• ¾ tsp. kosher salt
• 4 Tbsp. butter, chilled
• 1 C. butter milk

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 450°F
2. In a mixing bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Cube the butter and add to the dry ingredients. With your hands smoosh the butter cubes into the flour until it is all smooshed together.
4. Pour in the buttermilk and mix together with a wooden spoon, this will be a very sticky dough.
5. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface, flour the top of the dough and fold it onto itself 4-5 times.
6. Roll it out to be about 1 inch thick, then with a biscuit cutter cut into your desired size. Roll out the scrapes and cut them until no dough is left.
7. Place the cut biscuits onto a cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Notes

• Try and limit the amount you work the dough, the more you work it the more gluten is formed and the tougher your biscuits will become
• The original recipe had half butter and half shortening, which is probably more traditional for the south but I rarely keep shortening around so go all butter
• I'll very commonly fake buttermilk with the old trick of putting a tablespoon or two or lemon juice or vinegar into regular milk. But getting the butter milk is always better, and means you half leftover butter milk!
• The small ⅛th size sheet pans are perfect for 6 biscuits