Buttermilk Biscuits

Dearest Isabella,

I cannot tell you how long it took me to make a decent biscuit.  I suffered through many indignities:  burned bottoms, doughy middles, too salty, no flavor, crusty, leaden paperweights.  I hope to save you the pain, my darling.

I grew up with Bisquick drop biscuits.  They were good.  At least, I thought so at the time. Your Grandpa Miles would make huge biscuits to accompany strips of crispy bacon and eggs with corn.  Yes, corn!

I know what you are thinking, and yes, while many Sundays I do resort to drop biscuits, they are always from "scratch".  Every once and a while, I will go the extra mile, and pat and cut-out a perfect batch of these tender, buttery biscuits.  The secrets I have learned for making perfect biscuits are noted in the recipe.

I serve these with organic butter from pastured cows, and strawberry preserves, or honey.  Eat in moderation and enjoy!  Your brother ate 3 of these today!  So much for moderation.

This recipe will make about 8-10 biscuits.

Love,

M.

Perfect Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour (up to 1 cup of this can be whole wheat pastry flour)
3 teaspoons of fresh, aluminum-free baking powder
1 teaspoon of fresh baking soda
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
3 tablespoons of cold, organic butter, unsalted
2 tablespoons of cold, organic lard  (or more butter)
1 cup of buttermilk
2 tablespoons of organic butter, melted

Preheat oven to 450.  Measure flour into a food processor.  Add baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Pulse just enough to mix. 

Add  butter and lard to flour mixture.  Pulse until butter/lard mixes with flour and forms tiny pebbles of goodness (This is often said in cookbooks to resemble "course meal". )

Add buttermilk, a little at a time, through top feeder on food processor, while occasionally pulsing.

Turn mixture out onto a floured board or countertop.  Pull dough together and knead 3 or 4 times.  Pat dough, with floured hands, into a rectangle.  Fold letter-style.  (This means that you fold the dough over onto itself in 3 sections, starting with 1 short end.) Repeat entire process 2 more times, beginning with pressing into a rectangle. Pat dough into  a 3/4-inch thick rectangle on a lightly floured surface. 

Cut dough into 6-8 squares. I prefer this to cutting them out with a biscuit cutter as you handle the dough a lot less.

Place each biscuit touching the next, on a baking sheet lined with unbleached parchment paper.  Baste biscuit rounds with melted butter.  Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes until golden.  Eat immediately.

Options: 

You can substitute 1 cup of whole, organic yogurt for buttermilk.  These are amazing!

To turn these into drop biscuits: After adding buttermilk, use small ice cream scoop to drop biscuits onto baking sheet.  Bake as above.

You can opt to cut these out with a biscuit cutter.  Just make sure to push straight down through the dough.  Do not twist.