Blue-Ribbon Made from Scratch Biscuits by Mary Lee Ashford

Hello there – Sugar Calloway from the Sugar & Spice mystery series here. As you may know, I’m not the cook in the community-cookbook-making and crime-solving duo you all have read about in GAME OF SCONES. That would be my friend and business partner, Dixie Spicer, who regularly takes first place at the State Fair with her baking. I’m just the business part of our community cookbook partnership. And often (the scale would say, too often) the taste-tester when Dixie tries out a new recipe.

Now I have to tell you, I’m usually a biscuits-out-of-a-can from the grocery store kind of gal. But Dixie insists this recipe is so easy that even I can make it. I’m about to give it a try. I’ll let you know how it goes…

Blue-Ribbon Made from Scratch Biscuits

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1/2 cup more for dusting

2 tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter (chilled)

1/4 cup vegetable shortening (chilled)

1 cup buttermilk (chilled)

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Put all your dry stuff into a large mixing bowl and whisk it together.
  3. Using your fingers rub the shortening and butter into the dry stuff.
  4. Make a well in the middle and pour in the buttermilk.
  5. Stir with a spoon until it all sticks together.
  6. Knead in the bowl until you have all the flour sticking together.
  7. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and begin folding it over.
  8. Knead the dough until it’s soft, but don’t overwork it.
  9. Press the dough into a round that’s about 3/4 of an inch thick.
  10. Using your biscuit cutter, cut out the biscuits and place them on a pan so they just slightly touch. Reroll your scraps, if you have to, to finish out the dough.
  11. Use your thumb to make a shallow dimple in the top of each.
  12. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until they are golden and then remove from the oven and brush with butter.

Dixie says it’s important not to overwork the dough and not to overbake the biscuits.

I’m thinking I’ll have some strawberry jam with mine. What’s your favorite topping?

Check out more recipes to die for, in RISKY BISCUITS, where Dixie and I have to sift the guilty from the blameless, or our next breakfast may be our last…

Also, stop by MaryLeeAshford.com to stay up-to-date on new releases and special offers.

Former magazine editor “Sugar” Calloway’s life has taken a delicious twist since she launched a community cookbook publishing business with blue-ribbon baker Dixie Spicer. Now these amateur sleuths must solve a small-town murder—without getting burned . .

Sugar and Spice Cookbooks’ newest project is a fundraiser organized by the St. Ignatius Crack of Dawn Breakfast Club, famous for their all-you-can-eat biscuits and gravy events. But when a group member is found dead, Sugar and Spice’s priorities change from raising dough to figuring out who put murder on the menu.

The return of former badboy Nick Marchant has stirred the town’s gossips too. Add a few grudges and some old-fashioned greed over a land deal into the mix, and it’s a recipe for mayhem. And when someone serves up a second helping of murder, Sugar and Spice need to sift the guilty from the blameless, or their next breakfast may be their last . . .

Includes delicious recipes!