comfort...

Fall is all about comfort. Cooking, crafting, knitting, even when I'm working my photography tends reflect more of a seasonal warmth. So I thought I'd share a basic, comforting recipe...biscuits. Warm, savory, buttery, wholesome biscuits. Ah yes, that beautiful aroma that fills the house while biscuits are puffing up in the oven is incomparable. Second only to the smell of bread dough rising on the windowsill. I love making the kids biscuits and gravy during the cooler months, usually for an easy Sunday breakfast. I've tried so many biscuit recipes, but this one is my favorite. It's a slightly modified version of a recipe I found by Alton Brown awhile back, the kitchen-science guru. It's held up against many other, far more complicated recipes.

preheat your oven to 450 degrees

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (for added texture and nutritional value)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter (chilled and cut into pieces)
2 tablespoons shortening (you may also chill if you wish, the colder the fat, the flakier the biscuits)
1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Mix the first 5 ingredients together in a bowl (the dry ingredients).
Add the chilled butter and shortening to the flour mixture. Use a handheld pastry blender to mix in the butter and shortening until it feels somewhat chunky and crumbly, kind of like pie crust. Stir in the buttermilk until the dough is completely moist and sticky, but don't smash up the small bits of butter and shortening. These are imperative to a nice flakey biscuit. You may press these out onto a lightly floured surface and use a round cutter if you wish, but I prefer to take a golf ball sized amount of dough, and just shape them a bit, and lay them on a cookie sheet that's lightly greased. Using this method I usually get about 10 biscuits. Bake them for about 12-15 minutes, or until they are light golden brown. Allow them to slightly cool, and consume!!