Thank goodness these biscuits are truly amazing since I both grated the knuckles of my left hand off while making them and burned two fingers badly trying to remove them from the cookie sheet after baking. Proceed with caution but they are worth it.
The most important thing about biscuit dough is to handle it as gently and as little as possible. Because of this, rather than cutting the biscuits out with a cookie cutter and have ones with clean edges, I chose to cut them in irregular rectangles. I also didn't preheat the oven until I was done with preparing them, just to give them a mini rest before baking in order to let them recover from my handling of the dough. This seemed to work as they were fluffy and flaky at the same time.
This recipe will make 18 proper sized cookie cutter biscuits or 6 large rectangles to be used in sandwiches or to stuff your face with.
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 Tbsps butter, taken directly from the freezer and grated
11/4 cup buttermilk
Measure the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix together.
Grate the butter into the dry ingredients and, using your fingertips, mix lightly into the dry ingredients.
Add the buttermilk to the bowl and, still using your hand which by now is semi-frozen from manipulating the butter, mix together gently, just until the ingredients form a wet dough.
Turn the dough out onto a floured piece of parchment paper and pat gently into a rectangle about one inch thick.
Using the longest side of the rectangle, fold the dough gingerly over itself in thirds (as though you were starting to fold a towel) and pat back out to a one inch thick rectangle. Do this again, this time folding over from the short side of the dough and patting back out. Repeat this 5 to 7 times - this is what will make the layers that make your biscuits flaky. If the dough gets really sticky at one point and you start to have difficulty folding it, you can add the minutest sprinkling of flour to help you out. Lifting up the parchment paper and using it to guide the dough to fold over itself helps as well.
At this point in time either cut the biscuits out with a cookie cutter or cut the dough into rectangles or squares.
Transfer the biscuits to a baking tray lined with a clean sheet of parchment paper.
Turn the oven on to preheat to 450. Let the biscuits rest (on the counter if your kitchen is cold, in the fridge if your kitchen is hot) until the oven comes to temperature.
Bake for 10-12 minutes for cookie cutter or square biscuits and 15 to 17 for large rectangular ones. Watch your biscuits like a hawk during the last couple of minutes of baking because they can go from golden brown to burnt on the bottom in 2 seconds flat.
Remove from the oven, pierce the side of each one a few times with a toothpick or skewer to release steam. This last step is not strictly necessary but I have found that it keeps my biscuits from being gummy in the center.
As soon as it is humanly possible to touch them without burning yourself (see mention of burned fingers above), split the biscuits apart and spread generously with butter. Devour at least one in the kitchen by yourself without sharing with others.
Delicious with this dish.
Inspiration recipe, here.