Super Simple Golden Flaky Layer Southern Style Buttermilk Biscuits!

Ok so this will be my first official blog post! I am a complete food junkie! Not only do i love eating food, making and baking food I love thinking about it and most importantly being the caring person I am, I LOVE  helping others learn to cook and sharing recipes! This recipe is loosely adapted from my mothers way of baking, and a couple pinterest finds (Mostly the technique I used). Here goes!(:
First off, I do not endorse any of these items and blah blah blah I'm not getting paid for squat! These are just my brands of choice! So heres what you need to start off. 

So firstly I measured out my dry ingredients...

Ingredients: 

4 Cups all purpose flour 4 teaspoons baking powder1 Teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon+1/8 teaspoon of salt. (ok, this sounds weird right? I stink at math! So I used salted butter because its what I had on hand. I used a general cooking rule and reduced my salt by 1/4 tsp per stick and by 1/8 per half stick.. so this is what I came up with, and they tasted amazing!)12Tablespoons COLD salted sweet cream butter NOT MARGARINE! (typically this is one stick and one half stick)2 Cups cold buttermilk (plus about a 1/4 cup for tops of biscuits)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Cut butter into your cubes try to make them about half of a tablespoon or so, by no means should this be perfect. Put this back into your fridge until ready for use.
3. Sift flour and other dry ingredients together in a large bowl. (This takes awhile and is a little tiring on the hands, but the quality is worth it!)
4. Once sifted, toss in that butter make sure its scattered evenly about.
5. Take your pastry cutter, or two butter knives, or heck even a fork and cut the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse meal...... You are wondering why you still have loose flour, don't fret. This is perfect! You want it too look coarse, not perfect. your spots of butter should be about pea sized but probably not in a circle. 
6. Add buttermilk. So I started this with about a cup and a half buttermilk, added it then added a little more equaling 2 cups, do whats best for you! Im at a high altitude so that may be why. 
7. Mix using your fork until it just begins to gain shape and stick as a dough! you want to refrain from messing with it too much because it will become tough and your biscuits will not look or taste as mine did.
8. LIGHTLY flour your surface now, turn your dough out onto your surface. DONT ROLL, instead pat your dough into a nice rectange about an inch or a little less thick. 
9. Using a glass, or a biscuit cutter (I used Martha Stewarts set of them a 2 and 5/8 inch cutter) cut them as close as possible. The goal is to not have to turn this out more than 3times. 
10. Once you have finished, Put these on a pizza stone or other lightly greased cookie sheet or what have you. Brush with buttermilk (Don't be stingy!) Bake for about 12-15 minutes. I used my pizza stone because I love it so! 

After we ate a lot of them! (:

Some tips and tricks

First things first, I sift ingredients to mix and add air amplifying this already great recipe, making them rise higher! 

Secondly using real butter makes a world of difference, more over keeping that butter cold helps maintain shape and also helps rise by creating nice little pockets or steam being released but nowhere to go but up.

You  might be wondering why they only have up to grow, heres why you are going to pack those babies in tight they are a family of biscuits squeezing in for that reunion photo! they need to touch shoulders... See my photos for help! 

Not rolling out that dough, helps the layers look beautiful and keeps that biscuit from "toughening up". Further I would recommend patting the first round out to about a 10x13 size think of a large portrait!

Do not twist your biscuit cutter from side to side to get the biscuit off, pull up and press slightly with your finger to get the dough down. 

**IF using a stone put it in the oven before preheated, this protects the stone it should never heat up to fast. Pull it out just before you are ready to put the biscuits on.**

And lastly, brushing the buttermilk on gives it that top crispy golden layer and just an amazing color.

Always check on your food do not depend on a timer or my word, eery home and oven is different these are done when they look beautiful!

So simple, yet so elegant and still amazingly satisfying to the taste buds! (: 

I Sincerely hope you enjoy this and you share with your friends!

Katie 

-- Fort Carson, CO (2010 - 2013 )