dad's biscuts

2 cups cold all-purpose flour plus more for your work surface and hands

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 Tablespoon plus two teaspoons sugar

1 ½ Teaspoons salt

3 Tablespoons cold vegetable shortening (such as Crisco) cut into several pieces

3 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into several pieces

1 cup cold buttermilk

1. Heat your oven to 400 degrees. In a medium-size bowl, mix the dry ingredients thoroughly with a fork and transfer to a food processor fitted with the chopping blade. Toss the butter and vegetable shortening into the food processor and pulse the mixture in two-second increments until it resembles coarse crumbs with a few pea-size pieces of butter mixed in-about five pulses. (If you don’t have a food processor, cut the fats into the dry ingredients in a bowl by mashing with a fork, a whisk, or ideally, a pastry blender; it will take about five minutes.
2. Transfer the mixture back to the bowl, pour the buttermilk over it and mix with the fork for about a minute, until the dough just comes together. Turn out the dough onto a floured board, knead it with floured fingers once or twice, and pat it into a rectangle about six by ten inches and about an inch thick.
3. Fold the rightmost third of the rectangle over the center third and fold the left third on top. Turn the dough a quarter turn, pat in into a six-by-ten rectangle, and fold the dough upon itself in thirds again. Repeat twice more, and then pat the dough into a six-by-ten rectangle about an inch thick.
4. Using a floured two-inch biscuit cutter (or an upside-down glass), cut the biscuits from the dough and place them about an inch and a half apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the tops begin to brown. Serve warm with eggs and bacon or any good and greasy southern food you can cook up. (Sausage gravy is particularly wonderful!!!)