As we were eating a Sunday breakfast of homemade biscuits and homemade sausage...
We realized that I've never actually given you a "biscuit primer..."
I have tried scores of biscuit recipes over the past (cough cough) years, and I always return to the Ur text: The Joy of Cooking.
So, with all credit to Mmes. Rombauer and Becker, I combine...
1 3/4 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 t salt
2t baking powder
1t sugar
1/2 t baking soda
Then I cut in 1/4 C lard.
Yes, you heard me.
(Trust me, please... Lard is not the evil The Food Police want you to believe it is. If you have access to an Italian pork store, fresh lard is a snowy revelation...
Also, there is a truism... and it really IS true: Butter goes ON biscuits, not IN biscuits.)
I say "cut in" but, in reality, I crumble the fat into the flour mixture with my fingertips, until it looks like wet sand.
Then I pour in 3/4 C buttermilk.
(Now, unless you keep buttermilk on hand all of the time, try my go-to version, which is 3/4 C whole milk with a splash of white vinegar. Let it sit and it will "clabber!")
Barely mix this. Don't work the dough.
Now. You have two or three choices here: pinch off dough the size you want, or roll it and cut out the biscuits.
OR... and this is what I've been doing lately... Do the Mock Puff-Pastry Version!
Roll the dough out a bit...
Fold the top down... and the bottom up and over...
Roll it a bit again...
Do the folds again...
And roll it out a bit more this time, until it's about 1/3-1/2 inch thick.
Cut the biscuits...
And place the biscuits on a Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake in a pre-heated 450 oven for 10-12 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through.
You will love this recipe. You will love these biscuits.
PS. You can make them small...
Or large...
You'll just have to pay attention to changing the baking time. For regular medium-sized biscuits (approximately 12 biscuits), 10-12 minutes works.