Recipe Added:  1/1/2013

~ Make sure the baking powder, baking soda, and/or self-rising flour are fresh and the oven is preheated.
~ Prepare your ingredients and tools in advance so that once you get started, you can work quickly: cut your butter in small pieces and put it back in the fridge, measure the buttermilk, flour the counter, get out the biscuit cutter and baking sheet.
~ Use very cold butter, keep it in the fridge until you’re ready for it. Work the butter quickly into the flour so that it doesn’t get warm.
~ When you add the buttermilk, stir lightly with a fork. You want the dough where the flour is clumped together, not a smooth dough.
~ Knead lightly and minimally. The more you knead, the denser the biscuits will be.
~ Even if you use self-rising flour in the dough, dust the counter and dough with flour. Self-rising flour can give the outside of the biscuits a bitter taste, due to the leavening it contains.
~ Don’t pat the dough out too thin. If you want high biscuits, don’t roll the dough any thinner than 3/4 – 1 inch.
~ When cutting biscuits, use a sharp cutter and press straight down and up. Don’t twist.
~ Place cut biscuits together on the baking sheet so that they are touching.
~ Don’t re-roll the scraps. Form the scraps into biscuit shapes by hand to avoid extra handling.

1. http://pinchmysalt.com/how-to-make-the-best-buttermilk-biscuits-from-scratch/