I’m not a country girl and I’m not from the south either. My mom never made biscuits from scratch, so my only biscuit experience was popping the dough out of a cardboard tube. I figured it was time I jumped on the biscuit craze and learned to make my own.

After two years of experimenting, I maybe have come up with a recipe for a flaky, buttery biscuit.

I tried using biscuit cutters, rolling pins, shredding frozen butter with a cheese cutter (disaster) and different kinds of flour.  In the end, I found that keeping the ingredients very cold and handling the dough very little was the way to go. I borrowed a technique from Bon Appetit magazine that involves stacking the dough, leveling it and cutting it into squares.

These biscuits freeze well and are easy to warm up when wrapped in aluminum foil and put into a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes or so. Besides eating them with butter, jam or honey, they make a great base for strawberry short cake.

I’d love to hear your biscuit making experiences; email me at yatesyummies@gmail.com

Ingredients for 12 Biscuits:

3 1/2 cups self-rising flour (Or sub for 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon plus 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon salt)

1 cups salted butter (2 sticks), plus more to melt and brush on unbaked biscuits

1 cup buttermilk (sub 1 cup milk and 1 tablespoon vinegar or 1 tablespoon lemon juice)

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

 

Directions:

Measure out the flour into a bowl and place it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

Cut the sticks of butter lengthwise and then cut each piece lengthwise again. Put butter pieces into a bowl and put in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

Measure out the buttermilk and put back into the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Get the food processor ready to go, and place the self-rising flour, baking soda and salt in the food processor bowl.

Add the chilled butter pieces.

Pulse about 25 times, until the butter in the mixture looks like small peas.

Transfer flour and butter mixture into a large bowl. Add the buttermilk and gently stir it in, using a fork.

When it looks like a shaggy dog, it’s ready. Most of the flour will be incorporated into the blob or dough, but not a 100% of it.

Flour the surface that you will be working on.

Dump the dough out of the bowl and on to the surface. With cool hands, quickly mound it up and turn it over on itself a few times.

Shape it into a 1 inch high rectangle/square.

Cut the dough square into fourths.

Pile the four planks on top of one another.

Push them own to form another 1 inch high square.

Cut the dough block into 12 squares.

Place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Brush the top of each unbaked biscuit with melted butter.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Both the tops and the bottoms will be golden brown.

Enjoy hot with plenty of butter, jam and honey.

And just for fun…