[—donnareed]

Makes a dozen

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
(for following ingredients, the colder, the better – but not frozen)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup chilled buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

I cut up the cold butter and shortening into small pieces before starting with mixing ingredients – this allows for faster mixing/less working of dough, which is better for lighter biscuits

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. Work fast, the heat from your hands softens the butter and shortening which works against light biscuits.

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.

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 cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. (for clearner cutting, you can either dip cutter in flour or grease cutter with butter or shortening between cuts) Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. Note: first biscuits cut will be lighter because they weren’t worked as much.

Optional: brush biscuit tops with melted butter

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes

got this recipe from Alton Brown’s show; I bake them in a cast iron skillet that I preheat in the oven while I’m mixing the dough, works better for me

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