Mom's Baking Powder Biscuits

MOM'S BAKING POWDER BISCUITS

I grew up eating these deliciously light, flaky and buttery biscuits with everything from soup to strawberries.  They work perfectly as strawberry shortcake with a little whipped cream and fresh berries.  They also make amazing ham and swiss sandwiches.  My favorite way to enjoy them, though, is fresh out of the oven with Apricot jam.  

The variations you can create with these are endless - add a little cheese, some rosemary, some jam swirled in to the dough or any other thing you can think of. 

INGREDIENTS:

2 c flour
2 t baking powder
1t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1-2 T sugar
1/2 c. butter, chilled or frozen
2/3 c milk

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix dry ingredients in medium bowl.
2. Using a cheese grater, grate the frozen or very cold butter in to the flour mixture.  Mix in butter until the pieces are the size of peas or smaller.  I like to just use my clean hands to mix, but you can also use a fork.  Or, if you're very fancy and have one, a pastry blender works wonderfully.

3. Add the milk and stir just until combined.  The more you stir the tougher the biscuits will be. You might need to add more milk to make a sticky dough.
4. Once it is mixed, drop by spoonful on to a baking sheet.  I'm a parchment paper junkie since I don't like to wash pans, but you can bake these little guys on anything.  You can also roll the dough out and cut desired shapes. Note: if you are going to roll the dough, make it more firm by adding only called for amount of milk and chill the dough before rolling it out.

5. Bake at 350F until lightly golden and firm.  Like so: 

6. Enjoy the fruits of your labor!  

They only keep about a day or two in a plastic bag, but good luck trying to keep any for the next day.