As a young boy, I had the good fortune of living with my grandmother in Louisiana.  Like so many southern ladies of her generation, she often made fresh biscuits for breakfast and served them with honey.  I will always remember those mornings, listening to my grandma move around in the kitchen, as I got ready for school.  I guess that’s one of the reasons why making biscuits has never seemed like a daunting task to me, and it really isn’t.  In fact, with eight children to raise, my grandmother never had the time to bother with anything too terribly difficult in the kitchen. And to this day, I have very fond memories of those early mornings, sitting at her table, eating my weight in oven-fresh biscuits and honey.  Though I don’t make them every day for breakfast, the mornings when I do whip up a batch bring me right back to grandma’s table.

 Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits   makes 6-8 biscuits

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ cup very cold butter, diced small (put it in the freezer for 5 minutes  after dicing it)
• 1 cup very cold buttermilk, shaken; plus extra for brushing

1.  In a large bowl, sift together the flours, sea salt, and baking powder.
2. Next add the cold butter to the flour mixture.  Using either a pastry cutter or your fingers, blend the butter into the flour mixture until you have pea-sized bits.  But if you do choose to blend with your hands, work fast so the butter doesn’t melt or soften from the warmth of your fingertips.  (The trick to making really light biscuits is actually in the butter – the colder it is when you fold it into the flour, the flakier your biscuits will be!)
3. Then, add the buttermilk, and stir the mixture until just combined, being careful not to over mix!
4. Dump the dough onto a floured surface and roll it out into a 6” x 9” rectangular mass, that is approximately 3/4” thick.  Then, cut the dough into 6-8 even square or rectangular shapes.    Place them onto a baking tray and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
5.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Arrange the biscuits so they are at least three inches apart.  Brush the tops of the biscuits with buttermilk and bake for 15 -20 minutes, or until golden brown.