Alton Brown's Biscuits

Filed under Breads

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown. His grandmother Mae Skelton's advice: the recipe on a bag of White Lily self-rising flour is hard to beat, and a lot easier than the one her grandson dreamed up.

Ingredients

2 cup Flour
4 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Baking soda
3/4 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Shortening
1 cup Buttermilk, chilled

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Rub in the butter and shortening with your fingertips until it looks like crumbs - the faster the better, so the fats don't melt.
Make a well, pour in the buttermilk and stir just until the dough comes together. It will be very sticky.
Turn onto a floured surface, dust with flour and gently fold over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round and cut with a 2-inch cutter, pushing straight down.
Place on a baking sheet just touching. Reform the scraps, working them as little as possible, and cut more (second-pass biscuits won't be quite as light).
Bake until tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.