Southern-Style Biscuits
Southern-Style Biscuits
Long before there were refrigerated cylinders of mediocre biscuit dough at every supermarket waiting to be popped from their container and tossed into the oven, there were fresh, home-baked biscuits. In the South, each woman has her own special recipe, her own process, and her own lore surrounding the biscuit. Do you use vegetable shortening or butter; do you roll out the dough or pat it gently with your hands? What about baking powder — how many tablespoons; do you knead it or hardly touch the dough? With so much mythologizing, it’s no wonder that Americans have settled on the mediocrity of a convenience food just to avoid treading on an adamant baker’s toes!While I appreciate a tale as much as the next woman, I also believe in de-mystifying processes, showing every person (Southern or otherwise) that getting a plate full of steaming biscuits on the table is an achievable goal. — Adrienne Kane, United States of BreadClick here for more of our best biscuit recipes.
Servings
9
Ingredients
- 2 cup (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoon (1 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into1/2-inch cubes
- 3 tablespoon (1 1/4 ounces) vegetable shortening, chilled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 cup buttermilk
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together to blend. The mixture should be light and free of lumps.
- Add the butter and the shortening, and toss gently to coat. With your fingertips, work the fats into the flour mixture, rubbing the larger pieces between your fingers until they are pea-size.
- Add the buttermilk all at once. With a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, mix the ingredients until they’re just blended and coming together to form a dough. Do not overmix.
- Empty the dough onto a clean, well-floured work surface. Gently pat the dough out into a rectangle approximately 12 by 8 inches. Lightly flour the surface. Fold the dough into thirds, as if you are folding a letter. Scrape the folded dough from the work surface; if necessary, flour the surface again. Once more, pat the dough into a rectangle, flour lightly, and fold into thirds. Finally, pat the dough out to a thickness of approximately 1 inch.
- With a well-floured 2- or 2½-inch round biscuit cutter, cut biscuits out, and place them on a baking sheet. You may reshape biscuits from the scraps, but they will not rise as high as the first cutting.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the biscuits are a light, golden brown. If you would like, biscuits can be brushed with an additional coating of melted butter. Serve immediately. Biscuits are best eaten the same day that they are baked, but any leftovers can be eaten warm the next day. Simply reheat them in a low 300-degree oven for 5 minutes.