Recipe:
Makes about 15 2 1/2-inch biscuits
5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons homemade baking powder (see note)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold, good-quality lard or unsalted butter
1 3/4 to 2 cups buttermilk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Put the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and blend thoroughly. Add the lard or butter (cut into pieces), and, working quickly, lightly rub the lard and flour together with your fingertips until about half the lard is coarsely blended and the other half remains in pieces about 1/2-inch in diameter.
2. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in 13/4 cups buttermilk. Stir briefly, just until the dough is blended and begins to form a mass. The dough should be soft and a bit sticky and there should not be large amounts of unincorporated flour in the bowl. If the dough is too dry, add a few tablespoons more buttermilk.
3. Turn the dough onto a generously floured surface. With floured hands, knead briskly 8 to 10 times until a cohesive dough is formed. Gently flatten the dough to an even thickness. Using a floured rolling pin, roll it out to a uniform thickness of 1/2 inch. With a floured dinner fork, pierce the dough completely through at 1/2-inch intervals.
4. Lightly flour a 2 1/2- or 3-inch biscuit cutter and stamp out rounds. Avoid twisting the cutter as you stamp, and cut the biscuits as close together as possible for maximum yield. Arrange the biscuits on an ungreased or parchment-lined heavy baking sheet so that they almost touch. Don't reroll the scraps, just bake them as is and enjoy as a treat.
- From In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart, Compiled by Alice Waters (Potter, 2010)
Note: To make your own baking powder, measure and sift together, three times, two parts cream of tartar and one part baking soda. Make it in small batches and store in an airtight container. Use it within four weeks.
Per biscuit: 257 calories, 5 grams protein, 33 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram sugar, 11 grams fat, 29 milligrams cholesterol, 460 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.
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