Buttermilk Biscuits

Looking for flaky, buttery, sky-high biscuits? You’ve come to the right place! Let’s just jump right in, shall we? We’ve got a lot to cover to get the perfect buttermilk biscuit.

A few tips before we start:

• Preheat your oven before you start mixing your biscuits. We need the oven to be nice and hot when the biscuits go in – this helps them bake up tall.
• Make enough space in your freezer to fit the mixing bowl you are going to use. Yes, your mixing bowl is going to take a 15-minute nap in your freezer at some point during this process.
• Prepare your pan/skillet before you start making your biscuits. I like to use a cast-iron skillet for biscuits, but you can use a baking sheet instead. If you are using a skillet wipe the inside down with butter. If you are using a baking sheet line it with parchment paper or use a Silpat to keep the biscuits from sticking to your pan.
• Clear off the spot where you plan on rolling out your biscuits, and be sure to set your rolling pit, biscuit cutter (or cup or mason jar – whatever you are using to cut out your biscuits), and a small pile of flour close by so you won’t have to run around your kitchen with doughy hands trying to find everything.
• Keep your skillet or baking sheet close by, as well as a little cup of buttermilk and a pastry brush or paper towel. Right before the biscuits go in the oven we are going to brush them with buttermilk and sprinkle them with a little flaky sea salt.
• Be sure to use COLD butter that you have cut into chunks.

Okay! We are ready! Start by preheating your oven to 425-degrees. Put the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in the food processor, along with the cold butter chunks. Pulse the food processor just until the butter has broken down into pea-sized pieces. [We don’t want the butter to be super small and worked into the flour – we want some chunks of butter left. The cold butter chunks are what will make our biscuits nice and flaky.] Dump this mixture into a large mixing bowl, and place that bowl in your freezer for 15 minutes. We need all the ingredients to be nice and chilled.

Once your ingredients have had their 15 minutes of chill time, take the bowl out and make a little well in the center of the mixture. Pour in your cold buttermilk, and 2 tablespoons of honey. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, gently mix the ingredients. You are just sort of tossing it together. You don’t want to mix too much otherwise you’ll end up with tough biscuits. Once the dough starts looking a little shaggy and you don’t see any more runny buttermilk stop mixing.

Turn your dough out onto your work surface and, using your hands, gently press/form the dough into a flat rectangle.

Once you have it formed into a rectangle we are doing to do what is called a letter-fold. A letter-fold is simply taking 1/3 of the dough and folding it into the center, like the photo below.

Followed by folding in the other 1/3 of the dough into the center on top of the dough you had just folded over. You are just making a smaller rectangle.

Using your hands or rolling pin gently flatten it down a little so it isn’t so tall. Then, do the letter-fold process one more time – the same way we just did. This process is what makes all those flaky, beautiful layers in the biscuits. Once you have folded the dough over on itself, and you have it back to the tall rectangle shown above, it is time to finish the biscuits! Gently roll the dough out into a square or rectangle that is about 1-inch thick. Use your biscuit cutter or a glass to cut your biscuits out. [I used a biscuit cutter that was 3-inches across.] When cutting out your biscuits: don’t twist the cutter around. Just push it straight down through the dough and then pull it straight back up. Twisting the cutter around may cause the dough to seal on the sides, and prevent your biscuits from rising.

Try to get as many biscuits out of the first roll as you can. You can gently press the scrapes together to get a few more biscuits, but the texture of them will be a bit tougher than the others. This is just because the dough has been worked a little more and is mad about it.

Place your biscuits on your baking sheet or in your prepared skillet. [Put them close to one another. This is another trick that helps them rise nice and tall.]

Gently brush the tops of the biscuits with buttermilk, and give them a sprinkling of flaky sea salt. [Don’t skip this step – the flaky sea salt brings out the flavor!] Bake them in your preheated 425-degree oven for about 15 – 17 minutes. Serve warm with some honey butter and jam, or make biscuits and gravy!

Print