I don’t know about you, but one of my best inspirations for trying a recipe, is having leftover ingredients to use up.  The other day my fridge seemed to have half a quart of buttermilk and my pantry had some left over cake flour, both from my buttermilk cupcake adventure.  I was in need of a bread option for a dinner and the stars aligned when I found a biscuit recipe to used both the cake flour and buttermilk.

It turned out to be from Guy Fieri at The Food Network.  I thought it was interesting considering I looked at several biscuit recipe options from several sources, a Guy is not the chef I think of when I think of buttermilk biscuits.  Preconceptions aside, I liked the recipe, and above all it reminded me that my life in the kitchen would be much easier if I had a food processor (not that I have anywhere to put it in my tiny kitchen).  That being said, this recipe is best done with a food processor, but you can get away without it.  I did.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Yields 9, from Guy Fieri

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold, plus 1 Tbs for brushing
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 3/4 cups AP flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 Tbs baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 2 Tbs shortening cold
• 1 cup buttermilk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 500.
2. If you’re using a food processor add both types of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the machine and buzz for a few seconds to mix.  If you aren’t using a food processor, just combine the dry ingredients.
3. Add in cold butter and shortening and pulse a few times so the mixture is like small pebbles.  Add buttermilk and pulse a couple more times.  If you don’t have a food processor, try using a pastry cutter to help cut the butter and shortening into the dry ingredients.
4. Turn the dough out onto a flour surface, knead once or twice (do not over work) and form into a thick disk to cut with a knife or cookie cutters.
5. Turn the oven down to 450 when you put the biscuits in the oven.  Bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown.