Labor Day weekend has come and gone, and you know, I honestly have no idea what people usually do on Labor Day weekend (buy mattresses at low, low prices, maybe?). I went hiking to Wallace Falls outside of Seattle, and it was beautiful. And also crowded. So I guess what people usually do on Labor Day weekend is hike Wallace Falls. Hmmm…
After the hike, I was completely drained of all energy, and what I could have used was a biscuit. An outrageously buttery biscuit full of carbs and energy and how was that for a segue?
Now, I’m pretty sure it’s a legal requirement to be way into buttermilk biscuits if you were born and raised in the South. But in my two-plus decades in Texas, I had never met anyone who made biscuits from scratch. It seemed like everyone I knew just bought the canned Pillsbury version instead, claiming that proper biscuits are too difficult to make. They talked about having to freeze the dough at random points, or brush layers with butter, or keep the mixing bowls and whatnot in the fridge so it’d all stay cold — what?
No, no, no! You don’t have to do any of that nonsense. Buttermilk biscuits are supposed to be easy. Yes, it’s true that a certain component of it does have to be quite cold — the butter, so that it will stay in solid little flecks throughout the dough, which will then melt and release steam while baking to produce that irresistible flaky texture of buttermilk biscuits. But everything else? Who cares. If you find an especially fussy recipe for biscuits, you’ve found a recipe that misses the whole point of them.
This particular biscuit recipe is for malted barley biscuits, but I didn’t really feel compelled to buy barley I’d barely use (heh heh heh), so instead I just subbed in honey. That doesn’t make these as sweet as true honey buttermilk biscuits, but it does create the fluffiest, butteriest, traditional buttermilk biscuits that goes excellently with jam, marmalade, or if you’re especially daring, even more butter.
Buttermilk Biscuits
From the excellent Lottie + Doof
Yield: ~10 biscuits
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 18 minuutes
Total Time: 43 minutes
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 cup (8oz) good quality unsalted butter (I use Kerrygold), frozen for 15 minutes, and some additional melted butter for brushing
- 1 cup buttermilk, cold
- 1 tablespoon barley malt syrup (I used honey, but use whichever you please!)
- Flaky sea salt
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Using the large holes on a box grater, grate the frozen butter over the flour mixture. Quickly stir the mixture around to evenly distribute the butter throughout.
In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and barley malt syrup (or honey). Gently pour this into the flour mixture and stir until the dough just comes together and looks kind of shaggy.
Knead this dough quickly on a lightly floured surface so all the ingredients blend. You don’t have to go too crazy with this, we just want to make sure the dry and wet ingredients are incorporated. Let the dough look a little rustic, it’ll be fine!
Roll the dough into a loose ball shape, then flatten it into a disc with a rolling pin to about 1-inch thickness. Punch out your biscuits with 2½-inch biscuit cutters. Do not twist the cutters, just punch it straight down and lift straight back up. Scraps can be gently rerolled once — anything more than that and the biscuits won’t be as tender.
Put the biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush the tops with melted butter, and sprinkle on a bit of flaky sea salt. Bake until they’re golden and your kitchen smells like heaven, about 18-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool on the baking sheet for until you can handle it. Serve warm.
