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I want to make biscuits! 
I've never had enormous success with biscuits and that is my secret shame. I am a woman of the South. The ability to make great biscuits should be pulsing through the blood in my veins. But alas, that gift evidently skipped a generation or two, because goodness knows I've struggled until recently with making biscuits that weren't suitable only for rock skipping out on the pond. However, I finally managed to achieve a really good measure of success with the recipe below! 
I am, however, still on the hunt for the perfect biscuit recipe. So if you have one, shoot it to me.
Here's the recipe that I use to make biscuits. It's actually quite good.
Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. to 3/4 tsp. salt (I think a full teaspoon of salt is a tad too much).
1/4 cup + 2 Tbs. cold shortening/lard
1/4 cup + 2 Tbs. cold butter
1 cup cold buttermilk (You may need a little bit more or use a tad less).
Additional melted butter for brushing on biscuits
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in the cold shortening and butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Like this:
For a larger image of what the crumbs should look like, click here.
Slowly add the buttermilk to the mixture, stirring gently. You may use a little more or a little less buttermilk. I ended up using the whole cup, but use your own judgement as necessary.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it together gently. Be careful not to overwork the dough or you'll end up with tough, dense biscuits. Like a brick. 
Using a floured rolling pin, lightly and gently roll out the dough. (I actually didn't roll the dough more than twice and just pressed it out with my hands for the most part.) Roll the dough out to a 1/2 inch in thickness, or a bit more for high, fluffy biscuits.
With a floured biscuit cutter, cut the biscuits, using a straight downward motion without twisting. Place biscuits on a prepared cookie sheet. Gather up the dough scraps that are left and gently press them together in order to cut more biscuits. Place them on the cookie sheet as well. Have the biscuits touching or nearly touching for soft-sided ones. Like this:
I then brushed melted butter on top of them before placing them in the oven. This gave them a lovely buttery flavor.
Bake the biscuits 15-20 minutes until golden. They should come out looking something like this:
After I removed them from the oven, I brushed them again with melted butter.
The inside of the biscuit should be soft, light, and fluffy.
That's it! It's really, really easy once you get the hang of it.
I was really impressed with how easy this was, as well as how lovely they came out. They ended up being the perfect delivery system for red raspberry jam. Truly, it is the jam of all jams.
Next time, I'm going to try this recipe (perhaps minus the sugar), and see how it comes out. It looks really good.
I'm also going to try making these at a higher oven temperature, say 400 degrees, and seeing what happens there too. I may add more baking powder too. We shall see.
The end.
Labels: biscuits, raspberry jam
