Southern Biscuits

My favorite part about cooking is trying new recipes and learning to how to make different types of food. I'm focusing now on breads + pastries: scones, biscuits, rolls, etc. I made homemade cinnamon rolls for the first time over Christmas, and I made biscuits for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I figured Alton Brown's recipe wouldn't let me down, and it sure didn't. I served these right out of the oven with homemade strawberry jam. That is the way to go, for sure! I found that these lasted several days and just needed a brief warming before serving again. These would be perfect addition to brunch, if that's on your weekend calendar.

Southern Biscuits
2 1/4 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into slices
1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Heat oven to 450 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using a pastry blender, mix the cold butter pieces into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better; you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky. (If dough is runny and doesn't come together, you can add a bit more flour.)

Turn dough onto floured surface. Dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch biscuit cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first.)

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15-20 minutes. Serve warm. Store leftover biscuits in airtight container and warm briefly in microwave or oven before serving.

source: recipe adapted from food network