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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Buttermilk Biscuits

I've mentioned these biscuits before so I figured it was time I posted the recipe. Homemade biscuits are pure heaven. I don't know how else to describe them. They are comfort food to the extreme. You can do so much with them - covered them with strawberries and cream, fill them with ham and cheese, smother them with gravy, or just eat them butter and jelly. Biscuits make my heart sing.

I found this recipe from Alton Brown about a year ago and I've been using it ever since to make biscuits. As Alton is from Georgia, I knew these would be pretty good. However, I need to get my Nana's recipe because I bet it's even better than this one. This recipe uses half butter and half shortening for the fat. I remember watching Alton Brown make biscuits on his show Good Eats on Food Network once and he said this is because butter gives them a better flavor but shortening gives them a better texture. So half and half is the best of both worlds.

Give them a try! You won't be disappointed. The work is totally worth it.




Buttermilk Biscuits
via Alton Brown's recipes

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, chilled
2 tablespoons shortening, chilled
1 cup buttermilk

Directions
1.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 
2.  Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl.
3.  Cut in the chilled butter and shortening with a pastry cutter if you own one. If you don't own one (like me) just use clean hands to pinch the butter and shortening into the flour until you have pea sized bits. The faster you do this, the better because you don't want the butter and shortening to melt.
4.  Create a small indention in the middle of the flour and pour in your buttermilk.
5.  Stir with a spatula until just combine and then pour out onto a flour coated counter.
6.  Sprinkle the top and your hands liberally with flour and kneed/fold together gently until it's combined. The less you can kneed it, the more tender the biscuits will be. Press down until the dough is about 1 inch thick.
7.  Using a biscuit cutter (or a glass or anything else round), cut the biscuits out. Press down all the way to the counter and then twist. Don't twist on the way down. Doing this will allow the biscuits to rise higher.
8.  Put the biscuits on a greased cookie sheet with the edges touching each other. This will also allow the biscuits to rise higher.
9.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy plain or with butter and jelly!

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