Buttermilk Biscuits to Save My Reputation

I'm embarrassed to say that this was my first attempt at homemade buttermilk biscuits. I come from a long line of feisty Southern belles, so actually this is more than embarrassment. It's like...sacrilege. Even worse is that the only reason I made them was because of a carton of buttermilk in the fridge that was about to turn. Or at least, about to expire. Buttermilk is kind of already "turned," isn't it? I'm a little confused by this.

Anyway, I did some research, made some modifications, and decided on this recipe:

2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
a good pinch of salt
6 tbsp cold butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup buttermilk

I discovered some great advice in my research that suggested doing this in the food processor. Pulse dry ingredients in the FP, then add butter and pulse again until the mixture looks like the topping for an apple crisp. Note: make sure the butter is cold when you do this. Little bits of butter in the dough equal unsucky biscuits. Next, pour in the buttermilk and pulse just until it becomes dough. (This will happen very quickly, and impressively easily. God bless the FP.) Once this happens, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and press out to about 1/2" thickness. Fold it over on top of itself like twice, but don't mess with it too much. Cut it into 12 pieces with a pastry cutter, or if you aren't that cool, just use a pizza cutter like me. The idea is to handle the dough as little as possible.

Since I'm trying to regain some respect from my Southern ancestors, I baked these in a cast iron skillet. I don't really see why you would do it in anything else, actually. Just like I don't see why you would drink out of a regular glass when you have the option of drinking out of a mason jar or a copper mug. But I digress.

We had to taste one to make sure it was biscuits. It was.

Jesse also loves things in cast iron skillets. Yes, he is always that happy.

We ate them straight up with butter and honey and jam, but I'm looking forward to making them into a slutty breakfast sandwich one morning after a hootenanny, as my friend Brandon would say. Get some Grisman/Garcia on the speakers when you're eating these.