This recipe is on the first page of my “strawberry” journal that I kept my best recipes in. The front and back of the journal was covered with beautiful, red strawberries. I think it was while living in Utah that I started it, so that would have been over twenty years ago. That poor journal has lost its cover and the pages are coming apart and the handwriting is quite faded. Somewhere there may still be two copies of all the recipes in it. The reason is that when I started a job at a bank in 2000, the two ladies training me made a copy of all my recipes. I do not remember if I brought in some goodies or just talked about what I like to bake. When they heard about my recipe collection, they asked me to bring it in, and one of them took it to the copy machine and copied every single page. I was very surprised by that, and flattered.
The recipe for these biscuits comes from a book called As American As Apple Pie. The writing is so faded I cannot read the name of the author. It was a cookbook I would have borrowed from the library. I do not know who “Helen” is but these biscuits are fantastic. They are huge and fluffy and delicious!
BUTTERMILK SKYSCRAPERS
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 teaspoons sugar
- 2/3 cup (1 1/3 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled; plus 4 tablespoons butter, melted (if using salted butter, cut back added salt by 1/4 t.)
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk (or more if needed)
Preheat oven to 450° F. Sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a knife. Blend with a pastry blender until the texture of coarse crumbs.
Stir in the buttermilk with a wooden spoon to form a soft dough. (I had to add about 3-4 tablespoons more buttermilk.) Knead briefly on a lightly floured board. Roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut into 3-inch rounds and arrange in a buttered 9 x 13 -inch pan. Brush the tops with the melted butter. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes or so. Check after 15 minutes.
Makes 8 – 10 large biscuits.
NOTE: I usually make square biscuits instead of taking the time for round cutters and re-rolling the scraps. Simply pat dough into a square or rectangle and use a large knife or bench scraper to cut into desired number of squares.