6 cups all purpose flour
½ cup instant nonfat dry milk powder
¼ cup baking powder
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup cold lard, cut into chunks (I use crisco sticks I stick = 1 cup)
1 cup (2sticks) cold butter, cut into chunks
1 ¾ cups butter milk - aboutPreheat oven to
400 F. In a very large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the shortenings and
buttermilk. ( I use sweet milk ) With a pastry blender cut in shortenings until mixture
resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk. With a fork,
quickly and lightly combine the ingredients. Not all of the flour will be incorporated at
this point.
Turn the dough out onto a well floured pastry cloth or board
and with floured hands knead it 8 to 10 times until smooth. Roll out to about ¾ inch
thick. Use a 2 ½ inch biscuit cutter or cut the dough, and prick each biscuit 3 times
with a fork.
At this point, either bake or freeze the biscuits. If using
immediately, place about 2 inches apart on oiled cookie sheets and bake for 13 to 15
minutes or until golden brown. To freeze, place unbaked biscuits on sheets in freezer.
When hard, transfer to plastic bags. To serve, remove as many biscuits as needed and bake
frozen on oiled cookie sheets in 400 F. oven for 15 to 18 minutes. Sometime I will take
some of this dough and roll out real thin and then add some canned fruit like apples or
Cherries and fold over to form a pie and bake in the oven.
Contributed by Mike Ingram |
