There is a trick to making great biscuits. The care you give the dough makes all the difference in the world. Handle it roughly, you’ll be disappointed. Gentleness will be rewarded the flakiness and great taste.

The ingredients are few and simple:

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda (only if you use buttermilk)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons shortening
3/4 cup buttermilk (or plain milk, but leave out the baking soda)

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Using a pastry fork or a regular fork, mix the shortening into the dry ingredients until crumbly.

Add the milk all at once. Mix together. Make sure all the dry ingredients are mixed into the dough. The dough will be sticky.

Put the dough on a floured surface. Sprinkle some extra flour over the top of the dough.

GENTLY kneed the dough, adding just a little extra flour. Fold the dough two or three times, and that’s all. (The more you handle it, the tougher the biscuits will be.)

You can either pat the dough out using your hands, or use a floured rolling pin. The dough should be about 1/2 inch thick.

Use a biscuit cutter, placing the biscuits on a non-greased cookie sheet. (If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, you can drop spoonfuls of dough on the pan, but do this before kneeding or adding extra flour).

Bake the biscuits in a 425 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.

The recipe can be doubled, tripled, whatever you need!

If you add some sugar, the biscuits are more like shortcake. Delicious!

Of course, biscuits are best with coffee!