Part of the reason I'm putting out this recipe is because the one I cut out of Cook's Illustrated magazine a couple of years ago is falling to pieces. It has so many tack holes from being consistantly pinned to my kitchen bulletin board and so many stains from buttermilk splashes. I want to preserve the recipe here. These are the foolproof biscuits; delicious and easy to make. Perfect for Thanksgiving and for making sandwiches the next day.
Buttermilk Biscuits of The Gods
Dough
2 cups unbleached AP flour
1 TBsp baking powder (non-aluminum to prevent that acrid flavor that comes w/ lots of bp)
1 TBsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 TBsp (1/2 a standard stick) of cold unsalted butter, cut into little cubes
1 1/2 cups cold buttermilk (can be made by using milk and adding a TBsp of vinegar to it, but the real stuff is better)
For Forming Biscuits
1 cup unbleached AP flour
2 TBsp unsalted butter, melted
Heat oven to 500 degrees F. Spray 9 inch round cake pan w/ oil (can rub generously w/ melted butter instead). Spray or butter inside and outside of 1/4 cup dry measuring cup and set in pan.
In food processor, pulse the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, baking soda) to combine - about six 1-second pulses. Scatter cold butter cubes evenly over dry ingredients and pulse until mix resembles course cornmeal, about ten 1-second pulses. Transfer mixture to medium-large bowl. Add the buttermilk and mix w/ a rubber spatula until just incorporated. It'll be a messy, lumpy, wet batter. That's ok.
Spread the 1 cup of flour onto a baking sheet. Using your greased 1/4 cup measure, scoop up a glob of batter and drop it into the flour on the baking sheet. Use a spoon to free the dough if it sticks (sez the original recipe, I use my finger and do it quickly. The point is keeping the dough as cold as possible to allow the still solid butter to melt into little airy pockets in the oven, right?). Repeat w/ the rest of the batter. You'll make 12 biscuit-mounds. Flour your hands and gently and quickly pick up a dough lump and coat it w/ a little four, shake off the excess and put it in the cake pan. Repeat, going around the inside edge of the pan in a circle w/ 9 biscuit lumps. Three biscuit lumps go in the center. Brush or drizzle with melted butter and put in the oven. Bake for 5 minutes, reduce oven temp to 450 degrees and bake for 15 more minutes. They'll be a lovely golden brown. Remove from oven, cool in pan for 2 minutes. Invert biscuits, carefully, onto a clean kitchen towel and break them apart and place them upright. Cool for 5 minutes. Eat. Sooooooooo goooooood!
No picture. Sorry. The picture is of a club near Nursing School U. The sign has, clearly, been changed to reflect the "current" decade at least once. Thus is the town of Nursing School U.
And I've changed the settings. You can now post a comment without registering for the site. Give it a try.
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