Recipe - Masa Biscuits

3 Three fourths cup Unbleached AP flour
1 One half cup Masa harina de maiz
2 tablespoon Plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Salt
4 ounce Unsalted butter, wellchill
cut into small pieces
One half cup Solid vegetable shortening,
wellchilled, cut into
small pieces
2 cup Cultured buttermilk,chilled

Position racks in the upper and middle thirds of the oven and preheat the
oven to 450F.

In a large bowl, stir together 3 One half cups of the flour, the masa, baking
powder, and salt. With a pastry cutter, blend in the butter and shortening
until the mixture resembles a coarse and slightly lumpy meal. Stir in the
buttermilk until a soft, crumbly dough is formed. Sprinkle the work surface
with half of the remaining flour. Turn the dough out, gather it into a
ball, and briefly knead it, just until it holds together. Flatten the
dough, sprinkle it with the rest of the flour, and roll it out about 1inch
thick. With a round 3inch cutter, form the biscuits, transferrring them
to 2 ungreased baking sheets and spacing them about 2 inches apart. Gather
the scraps into a ball, roll it out to 1inch thick, and cut out the
remaining biscuits.

Set the baking sheets on the racks and bake about 15 minutes, exchanging
the position of the sheets on the racks from top to bottom and from front
to back at the halfway point, or until the biscuits are golden and crisp.
Serve hot or warm.

Note: masa is NOT the same thing as cornmeal. Stores catering to Hispanic
population will have masa. Since masa contains no gluten, these biscuits
are especially tender.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini