Flaky buttermilk biscuits
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How to Make Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

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I LOVE making biscuits. They are the perfect accompaniment to soup or stew and in the winter, I generally make them at least once a week. Over the years, I’ve picked up a few tricks that make biscuits with lots of flaky layers every time! I have shared this recipe before but this time, there is a YouTube video to go along with it 🙂

Here are the main tips to achieving very flaky biscuits:

  • Use COLD ingredients. It’s very important that your butter stays solid in the dough before baking so cold ingredients are key.
  • Freeze and then grate your butter before adding it to the dough. This not only ensures that butter is cold, but gives you even pieces of butter throughout the dough.
  • Chill your biscuits before baking. See the first item. If the butter is cold, you will get better results. I actually froze the biscuits in this video, which is why the tops are flat, but chilling in the fridge is fine.
  • Laminate your dough. This is done by doing a series of rolling and folding your dough, which creates those butter layers.
  • Place your biscuits on so that they are touching on your baking sheet. This allows them to scaffold against each other while baking and you will get a better rise.

Below is my YouTube video showing all of the steps in making these biscuits as well as the recipe. Hope you enjoy it!

Rich and Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
Yields: 1 Serving Difficulty: Medium Prep Time: 1 Hr 15 Mins Cook Time: 15 Mins Total Time: 1 Hr 30 Mins
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Rich and Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

These buttermilk biscuits are rich and tender with loads of buttery flakes! The key to achieving perfectly flaky biscuits is to use very cold ingredients, grate your butter and laminate your dough. While that sounds like a lot, it’s actually very easy!

Ingredients

0/8 Ingredients
Adjust Servings

Instructions

0/17 Instructions
  • In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.
  • With your fingers, work the lard or shortening into the flour until you have pieces that are no bigger than the size of a pea. Place you mixture in the freezer while you prepare your butter.
  • Using the large holes of a box grater, grate the butter into a small bowl.
  • Gently stir the butter into the flour mixture with a fork then place in the freezer again for 10 minutes.
  • Spray the counter with vegetable oil spray and then lightly coat with flour. This will help to keep your dough from sticking when you roll it out.
  • After flour mixture has chilled, pour 1 cup + 2 Tbsp of buttermilk over the mixture and stir with a fork to form a ball with no dry bits of flour, adding more milk as needed. Save any leftover milk to brush over the tops of your biscuits before baking.
  • Transfer dough mixture to the floured counter and bring together with hands to form a cohesive ball.
  • Roll to a roughly 12×9 inch (30x23cm) rectangle. Then fold into thirds like a business letter, then again in half to form a square. A bench scraper is useful for this.
  • Repeat the previous rolling and folding one more time.
  • Roll the dough one final time to about 1/2 and inch (1.5cm) thick.
  • Using a 3.5 inch (9cm) cutter, cut out as many rounds as you can. Press the remaining dough into biscuit shapes as needed (I ended up with 3 hand formed ones today). They won’t be as pretty when they are cooked, but will still be very flaky.
  • Place the rounds onto a baking sheet and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes while you preheat your oven.
  • Preheat the oven to 450F/230C.
  • When the oven is preheated, place your cast iron pan in the oven and heat until hot (5-10 minutes).
  • Place the biscuits on the pan with sides touching each other and brush the tops with buttermilk or melted butter.
  • Place in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown on the top.
  • Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes before removing to either eat or cool completely on a rack.

Notes

    LEFTOVER BISCUITS KEEP NICELY IN THE FREEZER!

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