Best Buttermilk Biscuits
Paul requests buttermilk biscuits for his birthday every single year. In fact once he even specifically asked that I forgo making any other dish for his birthday meal as he was concerned that ‘other foods’ might detract from his enjoyment of these buttermilk biscuits.
We do love our buttermilk biscuits and these are a scrumptious version; the epitome of flaky dough, tangy flavor, delicate crumb and buttery mouth feel. Behind the exquisite taste and texture of these buttermilk biscuits lies a genius recipe. This buttermilk biscuit recipe is designed to be successfully turned out by baking pros and baking novices alike. The ease of making the biscuit dough corresponds to its quick prep process with minimal ingredients, allowing for the biscuit dough to be started and finished before the oven even finishes preheating. This deceptively quick and easy recipe relies on some very effective food science. These biscuits get their impressive lift from the combined powers of baking powder and soda, and their consistent flakiness from the small granules of butter evenly distributed through the dough. Melted butter whisked into cold buttermilk creates the perfectly sized grains of butter, which when shocked with high heat create pockets of steam and flaky layers. Crank up your ovens and don’t delay, these delicious biscuits are within your reach.
This recipe comes from Cooks Illustrated. While we usually end up changing recipes pretty significantly, in this case perfection needs little improvement!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup cold buttermilk
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 475 and prepare a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.
- Melt butter and in medium sized bowl, let cool for 2-3 minutes.
- In a large bowl whisk together dry ingredients: flour, soda, sugar, salt until combined.
- Pour cold buttermilk into warm butter, stir briefly with a fork until mixture forms clumps, it will look curdled.
- Pour buttermilk mixture into dry ingredients and with a spatula, quickly and gently mix to incorporate all the ingredients. Do not over mix as this will make for tough biscuits, err on the side of just barely incorporated ingredients.
- Grease a ¼ cup measuring cup and roughly scoop chunks of batter up and drop into the prepared baking sheet. The biscuits may differ somewhat in shape and size and look quiet rustic and craggy, this is good.
- Bake 11-14 minutes, rotate baking sheet half-way through baking to promote even browning. The biscuits will be done when the tops are just beginning to turn a light golden brown.
- Transfer to a cooling rack and while we do suggest letting them cool slightly before you start munching, you should know that we do not generally follow this rule ourselves!
Buttermilk Popovers with Quick Strawberry Jam
For my father's family, Christmas Eve, Heiliger Abend, is the heart of Christmas. It is a magical dark and cold night, where old hymns are sung by memory in German, acapella, by candlelight. My sister and I would look forward to the special appearance of traditional Christmas sweet and savory foods made by my Oma for Christmas Eve snacking. For Heiliger Abend this year, our young family of three is once again together. We will start new traditions as a family, and borrow from the past. Tonight we will be making my Oma's roast meat filled pastries, fleisch pieroshki with pickles. As a nod to our ravenous little eater's current favorite breakfast, will crank up the oven Christmas morning to make a batch of these airy buttermilk popovers with homemade strawberry jam, before an afternoon Christmas feast with our family. We will be thinking of our family and friends far away this Christmas as we celebrate, Merry Christmas! This recipe is inspired by Jenny Rosenstrach and adapted from King Arthur Flour.
Overnight Sourdough Yeast Waffles
Before I discovered overnight sourdough yeast waffles, I was a frustrated maker of second-rate waffles, with little hope for my waffle making prospects. I had whipped whites, creamed yokes, experimented with pearl sugar, brown sugar, sourdough, bananas, bacon and buttermilk. I had made waffles laced with rosemary, chocolate, cornmeal and cookie dough, all with fairly humdrum results. Finally, after mediocre experiments with funky flavor profiles and new techniques, waffle greatness came to our household by way of Fannie Farmer. It was a winter evening when I first came across this odd sounding waffle process in the highly-regarded retro classic, “The Fannie Farmer Cookbook.” I was intrigued by the unusual, and rather unseemly instructions for the cook to leave, a batter of milk and butter, out overnight. Suspending my disbelief, I whisked up the batter, and the next day will forever be remembered as the day we achieved waffle supremacy!
Buckwheat Buttermilk Pancakes
Buckwheat Buttermilk Pancakes are a healthy, delicious, and easy weekend breakfast with warm malty flavors not usually found in your run of the mill pancakes. The whole buckwheat flour gives these pancakes a rich brown flecked color and hearty nuttiness which pairs beautifully with tangy buttermilk and caramelly maple syrup and molasses. The result is a perfect pancake texture, dark earthy flavor, and enough nutritional goodness to make you feel good about slathering your Buckwheat Buttermilk Pancakes with butter and maple syrup. This recipe is adapted from King Arthur Four's wonderful Whole Grain Baking.
Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Milkshakes
Hello Spring, let’s milkshake! We’re feeling pretty chipper this week with balmy breezes and glimpses of sun, and we thought we'd celebrate the changing of the seasons with Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Milkshakes. To make these ridiculously good milkshakes, we roasted strawberries to concentrate their rich sweetness, and boosted the flavor with tangy buttermilk. Feeling like spring cooking? Try our Roasted Asparagus with Lemon, our decadent Hazelnut Tart with Fresh Strawberries, a light Herb Potato Salad or make-ahead Strawberry Rhubarb Baked Oatmeal.
Our Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Milkshakes recipe is also featured this week by our friends at The Food Tasters!
Roasted Strawberry Cream Scones
I am a second generation scone obsessive. My mother, the queen of scones, has always had an uncanny sense for sleuthing out the best local scones. From fruited to cheesed, griddled to dropped, from sweet to savory, buttermilk to biscuit-like, we have left no scone unturned in our quest for perfection! This Roasted Strawberry Cream Scone recipe makes a buttery, moist and creamy tasting scone that is so rich and sumptuous you might even forgo the clotted cream, butter and curd in order to gobble up each morsel while they are still warm.
