Who doesn’t love good, homemade buttermilk biscuits? Personally, I am a carb-o-holic (yes, those exist). And when you have an amazing baker and chef, it makes cutting back on such things very difficult! Naturally, I have just learned to embrace it. I know, I know. I’m really taking one for the team, right? Plus, when Chef Jessica places a hot biscuit in front of me, how can I refuse? It’s just impolite.
Anyways! Today we want to share our favorite, go-to buttermilk biscuits recipe. Chef Jessica likes to use Girl Versus Dough‘s adaptation of this recipe from food.com. They are perfect for pairing with savory breakfast options like our Biscuit Benedict or with some homemade jam and butter. We use this recipe on a regular basis when serving our guests breakfast at the San Juan Island Inn Collection.
PREP TIME:
COOK TIME:
TOTAL TIME:
YIELDS: 12 Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen or refrigerated, plus more for greasing baking sheet
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup cold buttermilk
Method
- Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Generously grease bottom of a baking sheet with butter.
- Use a box grater to grate cold butter into a small bowl — or, cut butter with a knife into very small cubes. Place bowl in freezer.
- In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda until well combined. Add grated butter and, using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter it’s the size of small peas. Pour in cold buttermilk and stir mixture with a wooden spoon just until a dough forms (do not overmix).
- Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface; very gently pat into a rough ball. Use a sharp knife or bench scraper to cut dough in half. Place one half on top of other half, and very gently press halves together, shaping into a rough ball again. Repeat 3 times. This method helps create MAXIMUM flakiness!! Jessica demonstrates this in a video below.
- Gently shape dough into a rough rectangle about 1-inch thick. Cut dough into 12 equal squares; transfer to prepared baking sheet, spacing biscuits at least 1 inch apart. Cutting dough into rectangles allows you to get the most out of your dough. Reworking the scraps after cutting into circles drastically decreases the flakiness of your biscuits. Place baking sheet in freezer 10 minutes to re-chill dough (optional).
- Transfer baking sheet directly from freezer to oven and bake biscuits 10 to 12 minutes until golden and fluffy. Serve immediately. Wanting to prep your biscuits early, you can leave them in the freezer overnight. Then, in the morning, thaw them in the morning for about 20 minutes before baking.
*For additional guidance, Jessica shows you her methods for rolling, layering, and cutting.
