Buttermilk Biscuits

Since I don’t cook food just for blogging, I was starting to run out of time when I got to the biscuits. So, sorry, no photo so of the ingredient lineup. It’s easy though, so we should be fine. I love making biscuits – again it is that creating real food thing. It’s easy to buy premade, and I have to admit that the frozen ones aren’t terrible – but this is much cheaper and you are repaid for your efforts with a lot more flavor. And like I said – easy.
In a mixing bowl, combine:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt [not kosher – I use canning salt for baking usually]
4 teaspoons double acting baking powder
Stir until uniformly combined
Measure in
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
4 tablespoon cold butter, cut into cubes
Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in the shortening and butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Measure in 1 and 1/3 cups lowfat buttermilk
Use a fork and gently combine the wet and dry ingredients. Try to bring some of the dry ingredients up over top the buttermilk but be gentle about it – the less you fool with this, the better the biscuits will be. If it seems terribly dry, you can add another couple tablespoons of buttermilk. [It is possible to get it too wet and then it will not roll out. Not the end of the world, you make drop biscuits instead, and don’t add quite so much milk next time.] You can finish the combining on the counter, emptying the dough onto a floured surface and kneading in much the same way as the bread recipe from the other day, but more gently. Until you can gather it into a cohesive ball. It doesn’t take long – about 8 or 10 kneads will usually do the trick. Pat or roll it out to about 1 inch thickness and cut to the size you like.Put the cut biscuits on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Gently reform the remaining dough into a sheet and recut until it is all used.Place on a greased or parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 17 minutes, turning half way through. Cool on a wire rack or serve immediately.Now don’t those look yummy?