Beyond Buttery Buttermilk Biscuits
After many years of hard work and testing, I finally created a buttermilk biscuit recipe that I could be proud of.
These buttery and tender biscuits have been a labor of love over the past five years. I took inspiration from Bon Appetit magazine, not to mention countless other blogs and recipes. I would take an idea or I would emulate a technique that I liked and would see how it would work. I would change something I didn’t agree with or I would read an article about flour that would get me really excited. Of course I would have to implement it. I soaked up all the knowledge I could about making traditional buttermilk biscuits. I would test and rewrite the recipe over and over again. Until, one day I was finally happy with the results. My hard work had finally paid off.
The original recipe was reworked into oblivion. Eventually it no longer resembled its former self. It was a cannibalized version that was pretty much unrecognizable and I couldn’t figure out which piece came from what. I didn’t realize ,until recently, that I had created my own biscuit monster and it’s scary good.
Buttermilk Biscuits
133g unsalted cold butter (grated)
312g 00' Flour
2 TBSP Baking Powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 cup cold buttermilk
2 tsp honey
Tops: Buttermilk, salted butter, and/or honey
Put butter in the freezer.
Mix dry ingredients. Grate freezing cold butter on a box grater. Gently incorporate with hands until flour looks like cornmeal and there are still pebbles of butter. Add buttermilk and honey, stir to combine.
Once moistened, dump bowl onto floured work surface and gently pat together to form a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Cut the rectangle in half and lay on top of the other half.
Gently pat to form another 1 inch thick rectangle one more time. Once layered, gently roll into a rectangle taking care not to smash up the layers. Once an inch thick, cut into desired shape and size (round or square).
Place on a parchment covered sheet pan and freeze for 30 minutes. Once frozen you can either store in a freezer gallon storage bag or bake.
If baking, preheat the oven to 425 °F and place biscuits on a parchment covered sheet pan, coat tops with buttermilk.
Bake until golden brown about 10-15 minutes, I usually keep a close eye on them after 10 minutes.
Once baked, brush finished biscuits with salted butter and/or honey, serve immediately.
*Notes: I use 00’ flour because of the fine texture it helps to create a tender and light biscuit. If you can’t find 00’ flour you can substitute with Pastry flour or All-Purpose. The pastry flour will however give you better results.
Freezing the butter is an important step in creating those lovely layers, please don’t skip it. The butter will start to melt before you can properly incorporate it into the flour and work the dough.
