There’s no better addition to a Southern meal than Perfect Buttermilk Biscuits. I always looked forward to homemade buttermilk biscuits, growing up. Mama made the best…and I learned from watching her.….. I’m amazed at people who think they can’t cook biscuits. There are only 3 ingredients!….Of course, you can!
To make life simple I always use self-rising flour. That’s why they made it! (You may add 1/4 tsp baking soda if you like since you’re using buttermilk, but I don’t usually, because there is some in the self rising flour.)
Take 2 cups of self rising flour. Cut in 1/3 cup of shortening. I use Crisco. Dip your measuring cup in water before measuring shortening and it will come out easily and cleanly!
Then using either a pastry cutter, couple of knives or a little chopper like I use, cut flour and shortening until it resembles cornmeal.
Next make a well in the middle and add buttermilk. 1 cup buttermilk. Remember my post on the use by date for buttermilk….this is a perfect recipe to use older buttermilk, past its date! In fact, the older the buttermilk is, the more flavor it gives to the biscuit!
Combine until you have a sticky dough. Pour onto a well floured surface. Sprinkle a generous amount of flour over top of dough and pat with hand until dough is not sticky. Flip over and add more flour as needed, very lightly. Making sure there is enough flour underneath dough at all times.
I will tell you a secret. Biscuits are considered a ‘quick bread,’ meaning they use baking powder as the leavening agent. They rise quickly, as compared to a yeast bread, that rises slowly. A quick bread’s baking powder (or baking soda) is activated by heat. Your hands are warm and therefore as soon as you touch the dough, the activation begins. So the object in cooking a ‘quick bread’ is to get it on the baking sheet as quickly as possible, with as little handling as possible.
I don’t knead biscuits, ever. I try not to touch them with my hands, except ever so lightly. If I decide to shape them with my hands, rather than cut them out, I use a spoon to scoop the dough up into my floured hand, shape them, and put them on the sheet as quickly as I can. The less time you have your hands on the biscuit dough the better and higher they can rise. So now, that’s your “Quick Bread” lesson for the day!
Pat it into about a 8×12 about 1/2 inch thick. Cut and place on well greased baking sheet.
Bake in 425* preheated oven until golden brown, 12-15 minutes.
And you should have something that looks like this…..
And this is my favorite breakfast bread…..toasted Buttermilk Biscuit!!!!! Nothing better to me with my morning coffee. Well, except for my cinnamon rolls, but that’s another post, another day! 😉
See how easy? Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Self-Rising Flour
- 1/3 cup Crisco
- 1 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat oven 425*
- Cut shortening into flour. Add Buttermilk and mix until blended. Dough will be sticky. Turn onto well floured surface and work dough along the outside edges until workable. It will still be sticky inside. Cut and place (barely touching each other) on a greased baking sheet. Bake about 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Makes 12 medium biscuits….
