Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy – Aspen Bowman & Max Spalla

Biscuit Ingredients:

2 ½ cups self rising flour

2 tsp sugar

½ tsp salt

4 T. vegetable shortening

4 T. butter (chilled)

1 cup chilled buttermilk

1 T. melted butter

Biscuit Directions:

1.     Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prepare a floured surface for shaping the dough and have an ungreased baking sheet ready.

2.     Whish together flour, sugar and salt in a medium sized bowl. Using a fork or a pastry blender cut in the shortening and the butter. Work quickly, you don’t want the fats to melt – the key to fluffy biscuits is minimal handling. The mixture should be crumbly.

3.     Make a well in the flour mixture, and pour in the buttermilk. Stir with a spoon and blend just until the liquid is absorbed and the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl – add 1-2 tbsp more buttermilk if the dough is dry. Do not over mix; the dough will be tacky, neither wet nor dry.

4.     With lightly floured hands, turn out the dough onto a lightly-floured surface and gently fold it over on itself 2 or 3 times. Shape into a ¾” thick round. If you use a rolling pin, be sure to flour it first to keep the dough from sticking to the pin.

5.     Using a 2 inch biscuit cutter, cut out the biscuits pressing straight down. Dip the cutter in flour between cuttings to keep the dough from sticking to the cutter. Place biscuits on the baking sheet so that they just tough. Reshape scrap dough and continue butting. Remember to handle the dough as little as possible.

6.     Bake for 15-18 minutes or until lightly golden brown on top. Turn the baking sheet around halfway through baking.