Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe (With Photos!)

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	Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits August 20, 2005	Printable Version

	I used to use Bisquick® to make biscuits, but after this will never do it again! After being inspired by Alton Brown on a recent episode of Good Eats (I love that show) I decided to try my own hand at making homemade buttermilk biscuits. I tried a hybrid recipe based somewhat on his, and his Ma Mae's (grandma), recipes. It's easy, and the results were great. mMmm..

Ingredients: 2 cups "Self-Rising" Flour 2 tbsp Butter (no margarine!) 2 - 3 tbsp Shortening 1 cup Buttermilk		Cost to Make ($1.01 per dozen): 41¢ Self-rising flour ($2.05 5lb bag) 14¢ Butter (¼ of stick, 4 for $2.26) 9¢ Shortening (16oz tub for $1.44) 37¢ Buttermilk (¼ of a $1.49 quart)

Basic Instructions: Pre-heat oven to 400° - 450°. Sift 2 cups self-rising flour into a bowl (I use unbleached). Add in 2 tbsp softened butter and 2 tbsp shortening. Mix fat into flour with hands (or a spoon if you want). Make a hole in center of flour mixture. Pour 1 cup buttermilk into hole in flour. Mix with a spoon or fork, but don't overdue it. Flour a surface and dump sticky dough out onto it. Flour top of dough and fold over several times, flouring as needed. Butter or grease a sheet pan (optional). Cut out biscuits with a 2 inch biscuit cutter. Place biscuits onto pan slightly touching, and place in oven. Cook for 15-20 minutes until golden brown! Now onto the pictures for the rest! Woo.

Here are the basic ingredients. We have our self rising flour (normal "all purpose" flour will work if you add in 4 tsp of baking powder, ¼ tsp of baking soda and ¾ tsp of salt (stir it into the flour and sift it so it mixes well)), buttermilk, shortening (Crisco®) and butter..

Before you get into it pre-heat the oven to 400° - 450° (Alton's Ma Mae suggests 475°).

Note: My gas oven's heat is pretty off from what the dial temp reads, so I bought an oven thermometer to make sure it's temp is what I need. When I set my oven's dial to 400° the actual temp is more like 450° (way off!). Buying an oven thermometer is a great $5 to $10 investment..

I first sifted the 2 cups of self-rising flour into the mixing bowl. Although this step is optional, I think it's a good idea.

I then added in 2 - 3 tbsp of shortening (I think it was closer to 3, it's not an exact science!) and 2 tbsp of butter.. The shortening is for texture and the butter is more for flavor.

I then mixed the fats (shortening and butter) into the sifted flour with my hands. But you could also cut it in with a fork or spoon too if you don't like to get your hands too dirty =)

Once the flour is a little crumbly and the fats are mixed in, make a little hole or reservoir in the middle of the flour mixture and measure 1 cup of chilled buttermilk..

Pour the cold buttermilk into the hole we made.

I then mixed the buttermilk into the flour mixture with a fork.. You could use a fork or spoon for this, but the hands wouldn't be a good idea here =)

Note: (Update) Please DO NOT over-mix the dough! Mixing too much makes gluten (the protein stuff that makes pizza dough chewy), and can ruin your biscuits. Mix just enough to bring the stuff together, then step away from the bowl and stop mixing!

Another Note: You could also mix in some grated parmesian cheese, garlic powder (or garlic salt) and parsley flakes at this point if you wanted to, and it'd be very good.. Sorta like those yummy rolls they serve at the Red Lobster restaurants.

Here we've mixed everything together. It's a little sticky, and not what you probably thought 'dough' would look like.. But that's ok! This is good.

I floured my cutting board, but a counter top is probably better (a wood cutting board makes for better photos though I think, woo), and dumped the sticky dough out onto it (with help from a spatula). I then floured the top of the dough. You could sift the flour onto it, but I just sprinkled it on.

I worked the dough, folding it over a few times (but don't over do it!), flouring as needed so it wouldn't be overly sticky. When done I flattened it out by hand (but you could use a rolling pin if so inclined, although not recommended) to a thickness of around 1 inch (Stanley® tape measure optional). Don't over-work the dough though!

I then buttered my sheet pan. I've heard this is optional though (Ma Mae does, Alton doesn't.. I trust Ma Mae though, heh). I did it just in case, don't want to be prying the biscuits up with a chisel =)

Note: I used to use ordinary steel or teflon "cookie sheets" for a long time, but have since learned that an aluminum sheet pan (you can get from a restaurant supply store or other places for $10.00 bucks) distributes the heat better and doesn't blacken the bottom of things like this..

I then cut out my biscuits using a common 2 inch biscuit cutter. Push down and make a slight twist to get it out. (Don't twist down the whole way down)

Place the biscuits on your sheet pan slightly touching each other. I also pushed down a little dimple in the center of each biscuit with a thumb or couple of fingers. I've heard this lets them rise with a flatter top, rather than becoming a round domed lump.. (which happened anyway, heh)

After cooking in the 400° - 450° oven for 15 - 20 minutes they were nice and golden! And yes, they were not too dark on the bottom (maybe there's something to the aluminum sheet pan thing after all), and the pad here smells badass!

After cooking I placed them on a cooling rack and covered them with a dish towel for 10 minutes to cool. I tried one, and oh my @#$%!! God they turned out good! I can't even describe it here, but in comparison to the previous Bisquick® and semi-instant things (where ya unroll and pop the container open) these rock! The 10 additional minutes of prep-time (and monetary savings) was definitely worth it, and I'll never go back. I've seen the error of my previous ways!

If you try none of my other recipes you must try this one! It's easy, and completely badass. And what's more American than a good 'ol buttermilk biscuit? You know you wanna eat one of those dammit. =)

McBiscuits!