Tea biscuits are one of those things that’s just better fresh out of the oven, all warm and fluffy. They’re fantastic sandwiched around some eggs, sausage and cheese like they do at Tim Horton’s. They also make a great side for soups or a topping for turkey pot pie. My mother even claimed to have made tea biscuits with butter and jam for dinner when she lived alone as a young woman. Not a bad plan…
Buttermilk Tea Biscuits
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening (the colder the better)
1 cup buttermilk*
Stir together the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Use a pastry blender to cut the shortening in until the mixture is crumbly. Gradually pour in the buttermilk, stirring with a fork until the ingredients form a loose dough. Don’t overmix. Scrape onto a well floured surface and pat the dough into 1″ thick circle.
Use a biscuit cutter, or a glass or the lid from the peanut butter to cut the biscuits. Make sure to flour the cutter and don’t twist the implement you’re using – just press straight down and lift. If you twist, this can affect how high the biscuits rise.
Bake on a floured sheet at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes.
*A note on buttermilk… Yes, buttermilk is expensive and is kind of a pain because it really only comes in a 1 litre carton. You use 1 cup then you have to figure out what to do with the rest unless you have a crazy family member who likes to drink buttermilk. This is why I buy DRY buttermilk powder at the Bulk Barn. I throw 3 or so tablespoons into a 1 cup liquid measuring cup and reconstitute it with 1 cup of regular 1% milk. Works great!
baconavecbacon 
You don’t even need to re-constitute dry buttermilk powder. Just mix it in with the flour and then add sufficient water to replace the buttermilk measurement. Much easier.
As usual, you have all of the answers 🙂