Description

Tender, melt-in-your-mouth buttermilk biscuits adapted from Local Milk. These biscuits come together with minimal ingredients. Because of that, it’s important to use the best ingredients you can find. I’ve listed the brands I prefer for this recipe. A general rule for biscuits: keep everything cold and work the dough as gently as possible. You can manage this by working quickly.

Ingredients

Scale

2 c. White Lily all-purpose flour*
1 tbsp. aluminum-free baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 c. (half a stick) unsalted butter, cold
2/3 c. Kalona 2% buttermilk, cold
1/3 c. heavy cream, cold

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 425°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into tablespoons and add into the flour mixture. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until pea-sized. In a measuring cup, measure out the buttermilk and heavy cream. If using a lower fat buttermilk, adjust the proportions to use a bit more heavy cream. (The liquids should still measure 1 cup.) Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the liquid mixture. Using a large pastry fork or spoon, gently stir together until a shaggy mass forms. The dough is more wet than it is dry.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Add a bit of flour to your hands and gently press the dough into a rectangle (about 8″ x 5″). Use enough flour to keep things from sticking and no more. The goal is to add as little additional flour as possible. Using a pastry bench, cut the dough in half. Slide the pastry bench beneath and stack the two. Repeat. Gently press the dough out once more until about 1.5″ thick. Using a 3″ (or so) biscuit cutter, press straight down without a twisting motion to cut out the biscuits. Place on a baking sheet. Repeat and place additional biscuits close to one another so that they’ll rub shoulders while baking. Stack the leftover dough making sure the layers are parallel. Gently press out again and cut until most of the dough has been used.
Using the tiny bit of liquid left in the measuring cup (add a little cream if the cup is dry), lightly brush the tops of the biscuits. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the tops are golden and the sides look baked through. Serve warm.
To reheat, preheat oven to 350°. Get a paper towel damp. Place on the top of the biscuits and wrap completely with foil. Bake until warm. The damp paper towel will keep the biscuit from drying out.

Notes

*I’ve made these biscuits using regular all-purpose flour as well. It yields a slightly tougher biscuit compared to the White Lily. A tablespoon less of flour might help solve this issue, though barely noticeable.