Baking Powder Biscuits

Biscuits were the first recipe I ever made by myself and they are easily the recipe I have made the most times in my life. They only have 5 ingredients, are easy and fun to make, and I have the recipe memorized, so I've made them many times while traveling or staying with friends.

In New Zealand I used to call these "American Biscuits" since their cookies are biscuits.

Ingredients:
5 1/3 T butter (1/3 c)
2 c flour (I like to do 1/2 whole wheat 1/2 white)
3 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 c milk

If you would like to add some variation to your biscuits, you can also add in fresh fruit like blueberries, peaches, plums, or sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar.

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Prepare your dry ingredients before you remove the butter from the fridge. The colder it is while you work, the better they come out. Sift the flour, salt, & baking powder into a bowl. Then add the butter & cut it in quickly. I used to use my hands to mix it in until it was a crumb-like texture, but this warms up the butter. I now have a handy little tool for cutting-in butter that also works well for pies. Hands work just fine though, plus its more fun :)
 
After your butter is mixed in, grab a fork in your right hand and the 3/4 c milk in your left hand. Pour the milk in the bowl while you stir with the fork. Stop stirring when everything is combined into a clump and there are barely-to-no crumbs left. You want the dough to be wet to the touch & stick to your finger.

At this point you have two options.
1: Drop biscuits, where you simply remove clumps of dough and drop them onto an ungreased sheet pan. Make sure you flour your hands so the dough doesn't stick and make a mess.

2 (I usually do it this way): Dump out onto a floured surface and press down to about 1/4'' thick. Here you can add anything you like--blueberries, other fruit, cinnamon sugar--then fold in half and press down again. Do this about 4 or 5 times, adding toppings each time. Make sure you save some to sprinkle on top. When you're done, only press it down to about 1/2'' and cut into pieces. Makes 10-12 pieces. Place on ungreased baking sheet & poke with a fork.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

When I made them this morning I made half with cinnamon sugar & half with fresh plum. I had to use Sea Salt instead of regular table salt and they came out incredibly salty. I found it very distracting, though others who ate them didn't mind at all.