Buttermilk Biscuits
Fluffy, layered, Buttermilk Biscuits are one of my favorite things in this world and having them for breakfast with a side of butter and jam is in fact the best.
Servings: 4
Equipment
Ingredients
- 240 grams all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 150 grams salted butter cold!
- 150 grams whole milk buttermilk cold!
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt
Instructions
Biscuit Dough
- In a large mixing bowl, add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Use a fork to stir until combined.
- Thinly slice the butter and toss it into the dry ingredients. Rub the butter slices into the flour mixture until thin and flaky. Do this quickly but thoroughly - this might sound silly but if your kitchen is hot or directly in the sun go somewhere where it's a bit cooler and shady.
- Add in the buttermilk and use a fork to fold and cut the dough rather than stirring it. You can also use the fork to kind of smush any unmixed dry ingredients as needed.
- Mix until about 90% of it is fully clumping and no flour is completely unmixed.
Laminating the Dough
- Dump the dough onto your work surface and quickly squish it together into a rectangle that's about an 1" thick.
- Use a bench scraper to cut the rectangle in half hamburger style (aka if it's 4 inches wide and 6 inches long, cut it into two that are 4 inches by 3 inches). Scrape under one rectangle with the bench scraper and stack it directly on top of the other rectangle. Smush them down together with your hands until just about 1" thick.
- Repeat cutting, stacking, and smushing 5 more times. Don't add any extra flour, it will start to get a little sticky but if you work fast you should be able to keep working with it.
- On the last cut and stack, don't smush it down as far, you want to keep some height and try to use your bench scraper to get into more of a square than rectangle.
- Don't worry if it isn't perfect, there will be another chance to shape it just make sure to keep it about 1.5" -2" thick.
- Immediately wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes.
- If your oven takes a long time to heat up, turn it on to 425 F and place a rack in the center of the oven.
Shape and Bake
- After the 15 minutes have passed, line a small baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
- Lightly dust your work surface with a bit of flour.
- Take the biscuit dough out of the freezer and unwrap it. Lay the dough onto the flour to coat one side, then flip it over so the uncoated side is now on the floured surface. Use a rolling pin and the bench scraper to get the dough as square as possible while maintaining about 1.5" thickness.
- Cut the dough into 4 equal squares and place them on the lined baking sheet with about an inch or two of space between them. Cover with plastic wrap and place them back in the freezer for 15 minutes.
- If you haven't yet, nows the time to turn your oven to 425 F.
- After the 15 minutes have passed, take the tray of biscuits out of the freezer and remove the plastic.
- Brush the top of the biscuits with heavy cream and sprinkle with flaky salt. Immediately bake in the hot oven for 20 minutes.
- After the 20 minutes have passed, turn the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 5-10 minutes until deeply golden brown.
- Remove the pan from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes before enjoying!
Notes
Tips for making Buttermilk Biscuits
- Keep everything as cold as possible but don't stress, as long as the butter hasn't melted and they have chilled before baking you'll be fine. If you ever need to step away while making the biscuits, put the bowl in the freezer until you are ready to keep working.
- If you don't have buttermilk or can't find it - I recommend mixing together half full fat greek yogurt and half whole milk. I find the lemon juice and milk trick doesn't work great because the mixture is too thin and has a different absorption into the dry ingredients.
- Fold and squish the dough quickly but don't let it stress you out, it should feel like a game. All you're doing is cutting the rectangle of dough in half, stacking it on top of itself, and smushing it down - 6 times.
- A bench scraper is your best friend when making biscuits! I love this all stainless steel one.
- If your oven takes a long time to heat up, start pre heating during the first chill if possible.
- Keep the biscuits tall before baking, they should be at least 1"-1.5" tall.
- Let these bake to a nice golden brown. If you underbake them it really isn't the end of the world but they will deflate slightly.
- This recipe only makes 4 large biscuits but you should be able to double it without issues. I would wrap the dough in two portions if doubling in order to keep the chilling time the same.
Nutrition
Serving: 1biscuit