Hi! Hello! Howdy! So how is your day so far? Here in Chicago it’s been raining cats and dogs. It’s finally stopped yet the day is still dreary looking with a chill in the air. Yuck! However, I am still grateful to wake another day and be able to share with you a recipe I dearly love and have loved since I was a kid. My Flakey Buttermilk Biscuits are a beloved recipe adapted from memories of my Mom’s biscuits and a Taste of the South recipe which was my April Cookbook recommendation. Stay tuned because I’m about to knock your socks off. I think this will be the only biscuit recipe you’ll ever need so don’t delay.
Flakey Buttermilk Biscuits
First, did you know outside of North America, biscuits are hard, flat and usually baked twice while in the US we know biscuits to be buttery, soft, creamy, and flakey. Did you know in the antebellum South cornbread was eaten because only the rich could afford flour. Only until flour was shipped to the Northern states were biscuits baked and enjoyed by all. Prosperous flour mills appeared in the Midwest and biscuits were born to poor Southerners who could now afford the ingredients.
Flakey Buttermilk Biscuits
So let’s discuss why biscuits were so important to me as a kid and what makes biscuits so special. I have always felt my Mom made the best biscuits on earth. It was always a treat when she would whip up a batch and that was pretty much anytime we asked.Mom would make them for breakfast with bacon and eggs, special for lunch on Saturdays, and Sundays with her fried chicken. Boy was Sunday dinner after church something to look forward to. To this day, Sunday dinner at our house was and is my favorite memory. Mom’s biscuits were light, fluffy and buttery and a must eat right out of the oven.
Flakey Buttermilk Biscuits
A couple things to remember when baking biscuits. Always make sure your ingredients are cold. I even measure my dry ingredients and place them in the refrigerator to chill. Make sure your butter is cubed and chilled. I like to place mine in the freezer for 30 minutes after I have cubed the butter.Cubing make the butter easier to incorporate into the dry ingredients and if you feel butter has gotten warm, place in refrigerator to chill. Folding dough over onto itself several times helps create the flakiness. Freeze biscuits after cutting for 10 minutes. Steam is created while baking as the cold butter melts. Follow the recipe to the letter and it’s no fail deliciousness.
Flakey Buttermilk Biscuits
When I moved to Chicago and my parents retired and traveled extensively, I would go home to Ohio for visits in the Summer. Mom would ask me what I wanted her to cook for me and what do you think I said? You got it, her fried chicken and homemade biscuits. That’s all I needed. Her tender, buttery, creamy, flakey, melt in your mouth biscuits were like no other and the recipe I’ve adapted is as close as I could possibly get to her unrecipe recipe. You know Mom’s and Granny’s never had recipes written down. But I think you will be happily ecstatic and fall in love with this recipe. Happy Eating!
Flakey Buttermilk Biscuits
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, chilled
2 1/2 T. granulated sugar
1 T. kosher salt
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 1/4 cups (2 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 cup cold buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten
Maldon flaked sea salt
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Using a pastry blender, cut cold butter into flour mixture until crumbly resembling small peas. If butter seems to be warm, place in refrigerator for 15 minutes to chill. Stir in buttermilk until a shaggy dough is formed.
Place dough on a lightly floured surface and pat into a rectangle then cut dough into four pieces. Stack pieces on top of each other and pat or roll into a rectangle again. Repeat three more times and shape final stack into a rectangle about 1-inch thick.
Using a round biscuit cutter coated in flour or sharp knife to cut squares. Do not twist cutter or knife when cutting. Re-roll dough scraps if needed.
Place biscuits about 1-inch apart on baking pan and freeze until cold for about 10 -15 minutes. Remove from freezer, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle tops with flaked sea salt.
Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. Serve immediately as desired.
Makes 12 biscuits.
Recipe adapted from https://www.tasteofthesouthmagazine.com
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