Southern Biscuits

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Rated: 5 stars out of 5Rate itRead users' reviews (61)

RECIPE
COMMENTS & REVIEWS(61)

Cook Time:
15 min
Level:
Intermediate
Yield:
1 dozen

Times:

Prep: 20 min
Inactive Prep: --
Cook: 15 min
Total:: 35 min

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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 chilled buttermilk

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

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.

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.)

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

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Comments & Reviews

recipe Southern Biscuits
Emiko Portola Valley, CA 11-15-2009
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fantastic
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

These are unbelievably easy, delicious, and flaky. We just make them as drop biscuits by forming them into loose balls/clumps... of the dough. SOOOO GOOOOOOOOODDDRead more
recipe Southern Biscuits
Jaymes Houston, TX 11-08-2009
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THIS IS NOT THE RECIPE FROM THE SHOW!
Rated: 4 stars out of 5

I LOVE to make biscuits and make them pretty regularly for my "cheat" meal on Sunday morning. I think the world of Alton... Brown and decided to give his recipe a try after watching the episode on my DVR. I'm really glad I recorded it because once AGAIN, the recipe on the site is not the same recipe from the show. I've seen this time and time again and I've resigned myself to NEVER make a Food Network recipe from the site unless I've seen it prepared on one of the shows. In the show, first of all, Alton weighed his ingredients. Considering that most people do not have a kitchen scale, the recipe lists measurements as opposed to actual weights. The amount for the salt - INCORRECT; the amount for the shortening - INCORRECT. In the show, he used a PINCH of salt and 2 OUNCES of shortening which is measured at 4 TABLESPOONS, not 2. I definitely agree with Kathleen from NC in that mine did not rise a lot (and my baking powder is definitely not old), but I compensated by making them bigger. We still enjoyed the biscuits, but in the end, my partner said he preferred my Freezer Biscuits that I make with heavy cream to these. I tend to agree but I do love a good Southern Biscuit made with buttermilk! And these are good!Read more
recipe Southern Biscuits
Kathleen Statesville, NC 10-10-2009
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THIS WILL BE MY BISCUIT RECIPE FROM NOW ON! YUM YUM!
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

FIRST LET ME SAY, MY BAKING POWDER WAS NOT OLD, AND THEY WERE REALLY FLAT. BUT YUMMY. SO SINCE MY FAMILY WAS... SOON TO WAKE, I HURRIED UP AND MADE ANOTHER BATCH BUT JUST DOUBLED THE RECIIPE AND MADE TWELVE WITH DOUBLE THE RECIPE AND THEY WERE AWESOME. PERFECT SIZE. I HAVE MADE MANY BISCUITS, (different recipes) AND THIS BY FAR WAS EVERYONE'S FAVORITE! I WILL DOUBLE THE RECIPE TO MAKE TWELVE FROM NOW ON, AND I WILL NEVER TRY ANOTHER BISCUIT RECIPE AGAIN....THIS ONE IS FINALLY IT! GO ALTON BROWN WITH YOUR BISCUITS!!!Read more
recipe Southern Biscuits
Morgan New York, NY 08-17-2009
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Freezes well too!
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

I was trying this recipe for the first time yesterday when my oven's pilot light went out. I had no idea how to relight and... didn't want to waste the dough, so I froze the raw biscuits in a heavy duty freezer bag. Today my building super fixed the oven and I popped in a test biscuit frozen solid. In 20 minutes it was golden brown, flaky and delicious. I ate it as an afternoon snack with ricotta and honey. yum!Read more
recipe Southern Biscuits
Joshua Dover, FL 03-08-2009
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Yummy--Make sure your baking powder is fresh!
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

Made these, but with 3 parts butter and 1 part shortening. They taste better than either of my grandma's biscuits! I read a... lot of these ratings that say they didn't rise enough, and that is likely because your baking powder isn't fresh. I write the date on mine when I open it and replace it every few months or so. The expiration date is the date the bp will naturally stop working without being opened, but it has only a 6-month window after it's been opened before the chemicals inactivate. Also, if they aren't flaky enough, make sure your butter is cold, right out of the fridge. As always, Alton, this is a fantastic standard for a buttermilk biscuit.Read more
recipe Southern Biscuits
Terra Salem, OR 02-26-2009
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Excellent Biscuits!!
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

This was my first try making biscuits. They turned out perfectly! Flakey, light, and delicious!