I know this is not a recipe from the south... but it might as well be. Being a home cook from Nashville, I have always been searching for the perfect biscuit recipe. One that can hold up to gravy, country ham, (whatever you want to put on it), yet still light... not dense, and flavorful without the distinct metal taste of soda. This biscuit has it all. My family and friends all love it!
Breakfast Biscuits
Credit: Ben Fink
MAKES ABOUT 20
The recipe for these biscuits is based on one from Sunday Best Baking: Over a Century of Secrets from the White Lily Kitchen by Jeanne Voltz (Longstreet Press, 1998).
6 cups flour, preferably White lily flour
3 tbsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. salt
6 tbsp. cold butter, cut into small pieces
6 tbsp. cold vegetable shortening
2 1⁄2 cups buttermilk
1. Preheat oven to 500°. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter, 2 table knives, or your fingers, work butter and shortening into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Add 2 1⁄4 cups of buttermilk and gently stir with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until a stiff, slightly tacky dough forms, adding a little more buttermilk if dough is too dry.
2. Transfer dough to a floured surface and quickly knead 2-3 times. Roll dough to a 1" thickness. Using a 2 1⁄2" round cookie cutter, cut out biscuits and set aside. Gather dough scraps together and repeat process, making 20 biscuits in all. Put biscuits on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet about 1⁄2" apart as they are formed. Bake biscuits until they have risen and turned golden brown on top, 10-12 minutes.
3. Serve biscuits hot, slathered with butter and⁄or with thin slices of Baked Country Ham, if you like.
