As requested in the PH, here is my recipe for buttermilk biscuits:
- 2 cups AP flour, plus more for dusting (I use plain ol' King Arthur AP flour)
- 1â„4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon baking powder (use one without aluminum)
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold
- 1 cup butter milk (approx)
Method:
- pre-heat oven to 450°F; in my oven, i use the center rack.
- mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a mixing bowl; a whisk works well here
- for the butter, I use a cheese grater (placed into the freezer for 10 minutes to chill) to get the butter into very small pieces. I grate the butter onto a plate, and then put the plate into the freezer for ~10 min, to chill the butter back down.
- after 10 minutes, add the grated butter to the flour mixture, and mix together (I use a wooden spoon). The butter should crumble and mix into the flour fairly easily.
- once incorporated, add the buttermilk to the flour/butter mixture, and I use the same wooden spoon to mix things until the dough just starts to come together. the dough will be very shaggy at this point, but it will come together in the next step.
- turn the dough onto a floured surface, and begin gently kneading until a tighter dough starts to form. Once the dough starts coming together, gently pat the dough out to ~1/2 inch thick, and begin folding the dough onto itself. Pat out and repeat for a total of 5 folds. (Note: do this by hand; using a rolling pin can lead to tough biscuits).
- pat the dough out to a thickness of ~1" (tho), and cut into biscuits; I usually use a pizza cutter since I'm not concerned about shape, but you can certainly use a biscuit cutter if you prefer.
- I place the biscuits onto a foil-lined (ungreased) pan, leaving a good inch (tho) space between the biscuits, and bake for 10-12 minutes (for my oven, 10 minutes is perfect). DO NOT OVERBAKE.
Once out of the oven, serve as you wish, and devour.
