Buttermilk Biscuits

I'll admit that I am a fan of the Pillsbury-type pop n' roll biscuits.  If you're southern, don't hate me for saying that.  I don't have a family recipe for buttermilk biscuits and up until a year or so ago I'd never tried making them from scratch.  My first attempt was a total fail.  Big lead biscuits that no one wanted to eat.  But I had some buttermilk in the fridge leftover from something else, so I decided to give it another shot.

I have one of the big America's Test Kitchen family cookbooks. This is my go to book for almost everything.  It's never let me down and this recipe was no exception.  But for biscuits, the key to success is not so much the recipe but the technique.  The butter and the buttermilk have to be cold and you can't can't can't overmix or overknead the dough. That's been my mistake before is overkneading.  I see crumbly bits of flour in the bowl and to me, it doesn't look ready to bake yet.  But it is!  Leave it crumbly!


Buttermilk Biscuits
Adapted from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour (or 7/8 cup of all purpose flour plus 2 tbsp cornstarch)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter, cold, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
3/4 cup cold buttermilk


1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Add both flours, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a mixer with a paddle attachment.

3. Add cubes of butter on top of the flour mixture and mix until combined.  The butter should be in pea-sized pieces.

4. Add buttermilk and mix only until the dough forms a sticky ball.  There will still be some bits of flour in the bottom of the bowl, but that's ok!

5. Turn the dough out onto a floured counter.  Form the dough into a rough ball, then press either with your hands or a rolling pin, lightly, to make a 1 inch thick circle.

6. Use a biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter and press out as many biscuits as you can and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Gather remaining dough and press together, do not knead it, just smoosh it all together with your hands.  Repeat until you've used up as much of the dough as you can, you don't want to waste any!

7. Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.  And brush the tops with melted butter...you know you want to.