Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
Using fingertips, two forks or a pastry cutter, rub/cut butter into dough until you have the texture of wet sand. It’s OK to have some larger pieces of butter that have not totally been mixed in…these will add to the flakiness of the biscuits. You’ll know the dough is ready when you can grab a clump of it in your fist and it will mostly hold together.
Pour in the buttermilk (or use clabbered milk, which is milk that has a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar added per cup of milk) and mix in gently, using a rubber spatula. The dough will be VERY sticky.
Pour dough onto a well-floured counter (I usually add about ¼ cup of flour to my counter) and gently knead until it comes together into a shaggy, slightly sticky dough. Give the dough one letter fold. (This is accomplished by folding the top third of the dough down to the middle and then folding the bottom third over the top of that.) Rotate the dough a quarter turn to the right, add any additional flour if needed to the counter and repeat the folding process. This is what forms the layers of the biscuits. Repeat this process five or six times before patting out and cutting.
Use a 2 to 2 ½” biscuit cutter or the rim of a drinking glass, cut biscuits by pressing straight down through the dough. Transfer to baking sheet, spacing about 2” apart. Re-roll any scraps of dough to cut remaining biscuits.
Bake at 425 degrees for 17-20 minutes. Serve hot with lots of butter!!!
