Buttermilk Biscuits

Buttermilk Biscuits are a recipe appearing in The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.

Official description
Biscuits are tricky, and everyone has a different idea of what makes a good one. My grandmother used to make drop biscuits, which were lumpy and varied in shape. My mom made biscuits that were small but very light and airy. Marlboro Man [author's husband] prefers biscuits from a can.

I prefer a biscuit that's relatively light, but not skyscraper-tall. I like to be able to taste the outer, crispy surface of the biscuit. Of course, you'll have some degree of control over the thickness of your biscuits by how thick you roll out the dough. Keep that in mind and experiment to find your own special biscuit thickness.

These biscuits are perfect with softened butter and homemade strawberry jam, served with butter and honey alongside Fried Chicken, or with Chicken-Fried Steak and gravy as an alternative to mashed potatoes. The biscuits are also basic enough to be halved and topped with syrupy strawberries and sweetened whipped cream for a quick strawberry shortcake.

Recipe

 * 4 cups all-purpose flour
 * 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
 * 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
 * 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
 * 1/3 cup shortening
 * 1/3 cup cold butter (5 1/2 tablespoons), cut into pieces
 * 1 1/4 cups buttermilk (if you don't have any, see Iny's Prune Cake)

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Stir together.

Add the shortening and cold butter pieces.

With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the shortening and butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Pour in the buttermilk and mix gently with a fork until just combined.

The biscuit dough will be sticky, not overly dry or crumbly.

Lightly flour a clean surface. Turn the dough out of the bowl and roll to a 1/3- to 3/4-inch thickness, depending on how thick you'd like your biscuits to be.

Cut rounds with a biscuit cutter and place them in a baking dish or on a cookie sheet. (If you use an old, beat-up biscuit cutter, your biscuits will taste much better. That's what I like to tell myself.) [sic]

Bake for 11 to 14 minutes, until golden brown; do not underbake or the biscuits will be doughy.