Unlike sour cream biscuits, the buttermilk biscuits I make "only" call for butter. No shortening. The result is an intensely nutty flavor; however the biscuits don’t rise as much without shortening because of the natural water content in butter. It’s a worthwhile tradeoff.
I absolutely love buttermilk biscuits. We don’t have them in France, so my first experience with them was in the US. It was quite a revelation. Biscuits are great with gravy, but I find them so flavorful that I often make a batch and eat them as is.
1. Info for Buttermilk Biscuits
- Cook Time: unavailable
- Total Time: unavailable
- Servings: 25
- Calories: unavailable
2. Ingredients for Buttermilk Biscuits
- 4 cups flour (see tips)
- 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold (see tips)
- 1-2/3 cups buttermilk
3. Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Reserve about 1 tablespoon of flour for rolling the dough on the pastry board.
- In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar, cream of tartar and baking soda. Sift all the dry ingredients.
- Dice 2 tablespoons of chilled butter and reserve in the refrigerator while preparing the dough.
- In the bowl of a stand-mixer (or a large mixing bowl), place the dry ingredients. Grate 6 tablespoons of butter over the bowl using a cheese grater. Mix the ingredients using the dough hook attachment of the stand-mixer (if you don’t have one, the back of a fork works fine as well). Start with the lowest speed of the machine. Mix until coarsely blended and still crumbly. Once all the butter pieces are coated with flour, remove the bowl from the stand-mixer and incorporate the buttermilk and the reserved chilled butter to the biscuit mixture. Do NOT over-mix; otherwise the biscuits will have a dense texture.
- Sprinkle the reserved flour over a pastry board and transfer the biscuit dough. Using a rolling pin, even out the dough to about a 1-inch thickness. Create 23 disks using (2-5/8-inch diameter or 68 millimeters) biscuit cutters and form the last 2 disks with the remnants of dough (knead the dough as little as possible).
- Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Allow to cool a little. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the melted butter over the biscuits. Make sure to coat the entire outer surface.
- Place the biscuits on a baking sheet, previously lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Bake for 22-23 minutes.
- Serve warm with spiced honey butter (see tips for the recipe).
- Bon appétit!
