Southern Biscuits

Name: Southern Biscuits
Yield: 12 biscuits
Ingredients: 2 cups flour; 2½ tsp baking powder; ¼ tsp baking soda; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp sugar; 2 Tbsp cold butter; 2 Tbsp cold shortening; 1 cup chilled buttermilk

8 ingredients•11 steps•12 biscuits

Alton Brown, "Good Eats"

1
Preheat oven to 400°F.
2
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.
3
Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. Work quickly—you don't want the fats to melt.
4
Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until it comes together. The dough will be very sticky.
5
Turn dough onto a floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times.
6
Press into a 1-inch thick round.
7
Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, pushing straight down through the dough.
8
Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch.
9
Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible, and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that's life.)
10
Push a dimple in the middle of each raw biscuit so they cook evenly.
11
Bake at 400°F until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15-20 minutes.

💡 Cook's Notes

The original online recipe called for 4 tsp baking powder, but comments indicated this was too much—2½ tsp is the adjusted amount. You can substitute self-rising flour for the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.