by Lisa Fillers

Created on: October 18, 2007

Buttermilk Biscuits for a Beginner Cook

You will need in addition to the ingredients:

A Large Bowl to mix the dough in
A Fork
A Dough Board or other hard surface to work on
A Rolling Pin
A Biscuit Cutter

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cups Self Rising Flour
1/4 Cup Crisco Lard
2/3 Cup Buttermilk

Place the 2 Cups self rising flour in a large bowl. Add 1/4 cup Crisco Lard. Cut the lard into the flour with a fork and continue this until the flour and lard have been evenly mixed.

Next take the fork and move a portion of the flour from the center of the bowl toward the outer walls of the bowl leaving a hollow well in the middle with only a small amount of flour on the bottom of the bowl.

Pour in the 2/3 cup buttermilk. Begin mixing the buttermilk into the flour with the fork. If the mix seems too dry add just a bit more buttermilk at a time until the right consistency. (It is normal for the dough to look like a gooey mess at this point)

Sprinkle some flour from the self rising flour bag onto your dough board or hard surface you will be working on. Using the fork, scrape out all dough mixture onto the center of the dough board. Sprinkle a little flour over the top of the dough mixture.

Next begin to knead the bread. Kneading is done by working your fingers through the flour on the dough board and bringing them up underneath the pile of dough, lifting the dough off the board on one side as you do this. With the heel of your hand mash down into the dough from the top. Repeat this process about 15-20 times rotating which side of the dough you bring up from the bottom. Do not over knead the bread as it will make it tough. Never go beyond 25 repetitions.

After kneading, sprinkle just a little bit of the flour from the flour bag onto the top of the dough and roll the dough out, using the rolling pin, to a height of a little more than half an inch.

Cut the dough out in biscuit shapes using the biscuit cutter by first rotating the cutter in flour on the dough board and then cutting the dough. Place each biscuit on an un-greased cookie sheet. There will be a little dough left over and you can just roll it up and gently roll it back out with the rolling pin to get as many biscuits out of the dough as possible.

Bake at 400 degrees approximately 12 minutes until the biscuits have risen in height and the tops are a golden brown. Each oven varies so until you get use to making biscuits in your oven check them frequently after ten minutes.

This recipe usually makes 9-10 biscuits.

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