Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a large bowl mix together all dry ingredients. Blend thoroughly with a fork or pastry blender. (You won't want to use your fingers quite yet. This is a VERY sticky dough until you start working it later) Add your butter cubes and blend in completely.

Add 3/4 cup water and blend thoroughly. Dough should pull away from sides of bowl and form itself into a ball. If it's too dry add more water 1 Tbsp at a time until you have a smooth, sticky dough.

I like to form my biscuits by hand WITHOUT rolling them out but you can drop these into an ungreased baking pan and bake them if you prefer. Just drop by rounded Tbsp onto your baking sheet and bake at 375°F for 12-15 minutes or until golden.

If you prefer to roll them out add enough flour to your dough to be able to turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to 1/2" thick. Cut out using a floured biscuit cutter or floured glass. Bake the same.

To shape by hand: this is harder to do, BUT I think its more FUN. My grandma could do this without having to mix everything together first but I haven't figured that trick out yet lol. So here's how I do it

Add flour in about a handful at a time (make sure your hands are clean and jewelry free) and using one hand for kneading and one for flour work in enough flour that the dough is no longer sticky.

Pinch off about a handful of dough once it's nicely floured and shape it into a round. Lay it into your baking pan. And repeat about 7 more times adding just enough flour to keep yourself from becoming a goo monster. If you get gooey use a little flour to scrape your hands and use what's stuck to you.

Once you've got all your biscuits panned bake the same as above. Shaping biscuits by hand has become a lost art because its messy and time consuming but my hubby swears my biscuits are the best when I shape them by hand. He's had drop biscuits, and hand shaped. I haven't a glass big enough to substitute as a rolling pin so I've not yet rolled them out for him.

The NICEST thing about this biscuit recipe is you can FRY IT! To fry:

Heat 1 cup of oil in a large saucepan. You need about 2" of oil to fry in.

Work the dough as if for hand shaping making 8 balls of dough to start.

Once your oil is nice and hot, take one ball of dough and flatten it between your hands and place it in the oil. Fry for 1-2 minutes a side.

Drain briefly above the pan before setting on a plate. These will still puff even fried. Add anything you like, I've used sugar and vanilla extract to give my hubby a treat with dinner even.