Buttermilk Biscuits

Thanks so much to Tina at Mommy's Kitchen for this one. She totally inspired me to try to make biscuits, which is something I thought I'd never do. Can I just tell you that biscuits made from scratch are a million times better than the from-the-refrigerated-tube kind and they're really not that hard to make. These were SO good with butter and strawberry jam.

Buttermilk Biscuits

1 stick of cold butter
2 1/4 cups self-rising flour (+ 2 tablespoons for high altitude)
1 1/4 cups buttermilk (or 1 tablespoon of vinegar + enough milk to make 1 1/4 cups)
additional self-rising flour
2 tablespoon butter, melted

Cut butter with a sharp knife into cubes. Put flour into a large bowl and sprinkle butter pieces over the flour, tossing butter into flour. Cut butter into flour with a pastry blender until crumbly and mixture resembles small peas (I did the last part by hand). Cover and chill for 10 minutes.

Remove flour mixture from fridge and add buttermilk (I did the milk and vinegar trick) stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Add some more flour if it's too wet. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 3 or 4 times, gradually adding more flour if needed.

With floured hands press and pat dough into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle (about 9"x 5"). Sprinkle top of dough with a little flour and then fold dough like you would fold a piece of paper into fourths; press dough back into a rectangle and repeat this folding process 2 more times.

Press and pat dough into a 1/2" thick rectangle on the floured surface. Cut dough into circles with the open end of a glass. Place circles onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 425 for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and brush hot biscuits with melted 2 tablespoons of butter.