AB's Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

We make a lot of biscuits in this house. I am from the South after all. They are the perfect complement to a bowl of soup, a plate of ham and eggs, an after-Thanksgiving turkey sandwich, or just on their own with some honey butter or homemade jam. AB had a Good Eats episode where he got to make Southern Buttermilk Biscuits with his grandma. And boy did they look delicious. I was making the Barefoot Contessa's Butternut Squash and Apple Soup tonight, and decided to give AB's biscuits a try.

These were super simple and QUICK to make, they puffed up beautifully, and they immediately got the thumbs up from Micah and Nathan who spent the evening sniffing them every time they walked past them in the kitchen.

AB's Southern Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup buttermilk, chilled

1.Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

3. Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. 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.)

4. Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.