Basic Biscuits

Tim loves bread. Shawna loves soup. I look forward to the colder months so that I can live off of soup. Tim has a black hole for a stomach and cannot quite wrap his brain around the idea of soup being his whole meal. So, out of guilt, I decided to make him some biscuits to go along with our soup. This seems to make him feel better about the meal, and I feel like I can enjoy my soup without worrying whether Tim is still starving. What a relief!
I believe the first round that I made were cheddar cheese biscuits with a hearty broccoli soup. Tim loved this. Last night I made lentil soup. Tim is not crazy about this soup because he thinks it is boring. I knew he was gonna need some biscuits to get through that meal! I made a basic biscuit recipe and just added a tablespoon, maybe a little more, of sour cream to the dough. This made them super moist. They spread a bit more while baking, so they were thinner than normal, but I thought they were really delicious. Tim also liked them, but thought that I should add both sour cream and cheese next time...can you tell the boy has Wisconsin in his blood???

Here is the basic biscuit recipe:
*from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book Pg 27

2 C all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t sugar
3/4 t salt
1 C butter milk -see note below-it will make your life easier
8 T (1 stick) melted butter, slightly cooled

*note* If you do not have buttermilk on hand, you can make soured milk out of 1 C of milk, 1 T lemon juice, and 1 T white vinegar. Let this stand at room temperature for 10 minutes at which point it should be thickened. I usually don't keep buttermilk in the house, so I find this to be really helpful.

If you want cheesy biscuits just add enough grated cheese so that it looks like it is evenly spread throughout the dough. I think I probably used a cup of grated cheddar cheese, but I didn't measure, so you should add a little bit at a time, stir, keep adding until it looks like you have enough. I am very precise, aren't I? :-)

If you want the sour cream biscuits add about a tablespoon of sour cream into your dough, and leave a little extra space in between biscuits on the cookie sheet because they spread more than the normal ones.

Adjust oven rack the center slot and pre-heat oven to 475 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray of line with parchment paper.
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix butter and buttermilk together until the butter starts to form small clumps. Stir the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture together just until incorporated. You don't want to over-mix or your biscuits will be tough.
Use a greased 1/4 C measure to scoop dough onto cookie sheet. Bake until the tops are golden brown and crisp, 12-14 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through baking.
Serve warm.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of these!