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Hot Crusty Buttermilk Biscuits

Source of Recipe


From "The Gift of Southern Cooking"



List of Ingredients



• 5 cups sifted White Lily flour (measured after sifting)
  
• 1 Tbsp plus ½ tsp homemade baking powder (recipe follows)
  
• 1 Tbsp kosher salt
  
• ½ cup (½ pound) packed lard, chilled
  
• 1¼ cups buttermilk
  
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  






Instructions



1. Preheat oven to 500° F.
   Put flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk well to blend thoroughly. Add lard and, working quickly, coat it with flour and rub between fingertips until approximately half the lard is finely blended and other half remains in large (about ½-inch) pieces. Pour in buttermilk and stir quickly just until the dough is blended and begins to mass.
   
   
2. Turn dough immediately out onto a floured surface, and with floured hands, knead briskly 8 to 10 times, until it becomes cohesive. Gently flatten dough with hands into a disc of even thinness; then, using a floured rolling pin, roll it out to a uniform ½-inch. With a dinner fork dipped in flour, pierce dough completely through at ½-inch intervals. Lightly flour a 2½- or 3-inch biscuit cutter and stamp out rounds without twisting cutter in dough. Cut biscuits from dough as close as you can for maximum yield. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet, placing them as close together as you can without touching. Don't reroll scraps. Just arrange them around edge of sheet and bake them -- cook's treat.
   
   
3. Put baking sheet immediately on center rack of preheated oven.
   Bake 10 to 12 minutes, checking after 6 minutes or so and turning pan if needed for even baking. When biscuits are golden brown, remove from oven and brush tops with melted butter.
   
   Makes about 12 to 15 biscuits.
   
   ............
   
   HOMEMADE BAKING POWDER
   
   • ¼ cup cream of tartar
   • 2 Tbsp baking soda
   
   Sift cream of tartar and baking soda together 3 times and transfer to a clean, tight-sealing jar. Store at room temperature, away from sunlight, up to 6 weeks.
   
   Makes about ½ cup.