Step 1:
Make sure the butter is really cold and right from the refrigerator when you add it to the flour mixture. Then cut it into the flour mixture by rocking a pastry blender back and forth, or pull 2 knives together, sort of like scissors, to cut the butter into pea-size pieces. This is what makes biscuits nice and flaky.
Step 2:
Use a fork to stir the buttermilk into the dry ingredients, and stir just until the ingredients are combined and the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. I used White Lily All-Purpose Flour, a Southern brand of soft wheat flour, for this recipe to make the biscuits really tender, but if you use a brand of harder wheat flour (like most other brands), then you might have to stir in a little extra buttermilk.
Step 3:
Knead the dough a few times, turning and folding as you go, to get it smooth. Then, use my trick to get baked biscuits to fall right open without using a knife. Just roll the dough extra thin—1/4 inch thick—and then fold half of the dough on top of the other half. With just a slight tug, your baked biscuits will open into perfect halves.
Step 4:
Use a drinking glass, a soup can, or a biscuit cutter to cut out the dough. It’s a Southern tradition to pat out the leftover dough scraps into one large biscuit called a “cathead.” Some people say it’s called that because it’s the size of a cat’s head. Back at 350 for 12-18 min.
