Nothing more heavenly than the smell of baking butter biscuits, except maybe the slathering of butter on hot biscuits right out of the oven, mouth watering. Over the years I have found this very basic recipe to be our favourite, easy and quick
There are many recipes equally as good, i think i have found that using frozen butter has been the most successful for me in any biscuit recipe. Other ingredients can be added to this basic recipe, for instance cheese (it should be cold too) can be grated into the dough with the butter and some sprinkled on top is nice. Also if you're not in a hurry, a nice finish is to brush melted butter on the tops before baking.
link to the recipe http://www.recipezazz.com/recipe/butter-biscuits-basic
The real secret is to be quick and not handle the dough any more than necessary so that the butter will not melt from the heat of your hands. Another secret is to always have a pound of butter in the freezer to grate into the dough. Secret #3 , probably the most important, it is absolutely necessary for perfect rising of the dough to preheat your oven
so that you get that instant rise; and watch them, small ones only take 10 minutes, larger ones take the whole 15 minutes, but of course a lot depends on your oven, they are all different.The recipe is really quite simple :
2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup frozen butter, grated
1 cup milk (I use 2%)
How to make these simple but delicious biscuits :
Preheat your oven to 450f degrees.
Gather and measure your ingredients
Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
Grate frozen butter into flour mixture
cut the frozen butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter until if forms a crumb like texture
Make a well in the centre of mixture and pour in half of the milk
Stir until the dough starts to come away from the sides of the bowl; add more milK and mix until a ball forms.
Turn the ball out onto a lightly floured board
Quickly knead 6 or 8 times only
Quickly roll out to about a half inch thick, (rolled too thinly they will not rise as tall or be as flaky)
Cut with a floured biscuit cutter into 6 large or 12 small biscuits, (I use a floured glass)
Place on lightly buttered oven tray
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the biscuit size, or until golden brown
Remove immediately to a bread basket and cover to keep warm
SLATHER ON THE BUTTER AND ENJOY
