Hey, y'all. It's biscuit time.
Any good southerner worth their salt has sampled many biscuits in their day, topped with gravy, preserves, jam, honey, ham, sausage, eggs, bacon or maybe even just butter. The biscuit is a mighty vehicle for items both savory and sweet! And remarkably easy to "fix". You probably have all these ingredients in your pantry RIGHT THIS SECOND! Except maybe buttermilk. The whole reason I decided to make these biscuits is the half carton of buttermilk that was languishing in my fridge (the other half met its demise in a vat of mashed potatoes- an honorable death).
This recipe is from the book Slow Food Nation's Come to the Table: The Slow Food Way of Living edited by Katrina Heron. It's a fantastic book about small farms in California. Accounts of daily existence, raison d'etre and some of their finest fresh food recipes are part of why this book is so wonderful...not to mention a foreword by my personal hero, Alice Waters (more on her later!).
Before I share this recipe, let me just say that I am not a very good baker. I am bad at math, and I season all my dishes by taste (which is why I have trouble translating the ones I make up into recipes...a dash is not very precise...), and I have learned through trial and error that baking does not operate the same way. That being said, these biscuits arrived hot and delicious with little to no crying or cursing on my part. Because I did not have baking soda, I subbed extra baking powder (which is an acceptable remedy, according to some cookbooks) and they were not extremely fluffy, but very yummy.
Now that I've confessed, here is the recipe:
Paul's Best Biscuit Recipe from Come to the Table
Sweet Home Ranch
2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup unsalted butter, frozen
1 1/4 cup buttermilk (with 2% butterfat)
Ok, first preheat the oven to a blistering 450 degrees. Blend flour, b. powder, b. soda and salt. Cut the frozen butter into little pieces and blend into the four mixture with a pastry cutter (which I do not have) or two sharp knives (which I do have). Add b. milk and mix.
Now, on a surface that you have liberally sprinkled with flour, flatten dough to about 1" thick and fold in half. Do this about three times quickly, but no more than that. Flatten dough to 3/4" thick. Use a jar or other vessel with a small mouthed opening to cut into rounds. Clean any dough from the mouth of whatever you are using and coat with flour before cutting more rounds. Otherwise it will stick and cause unsightly, malformed biscuit rounds. Horrors.
Use up all the dough in this way. Bake until golden, Paul recommends 10 min. Serve hot, with jam and a smile.
This makes about 12 biscuits, so share!
Any good southerner worth their salt has sampled many biscuits in their day, topped with gravy, preserves, jam, honey, ham, sausage, eggs, bacon or maybe even just butter. The biscuit is a mighty vehicle for items both savory and sweet! And remarkably easy to "fix". You probably have all these ingredients in your pantry RIGHT THIS SECOND! Except maybe buttermilk. The whole reason I decided to make these biscuits is the half carton of buttermilk that was languishing in my fridge (the other half met its demise in a vat of mashed potatoes- an honorable death).
This recipe is from the book Slow Food Nation's Come to the Table: The Slow Food Way of Living edited by Katrina Heron. It's a fantastic book about small farms in California. Accounts of daily existence, raison d'etre and some of their finest fresh food recipes are part of why this book is so wonderful...not to mention a foreword by my personal hero, Alice Waters (more on her later!).
Before I share this recipe, let me just say that I am not a very good baker. I am bad at math, and I season all my dishes by taste (which is why I have trouble translating the ones I make up into recipes...a dash is not very precise...), and I have learned through trial and error that baking does not operate the same way. That being said, these biscuits arrived hot and delicious with little to no crying or cursing on my part. Because I did not have baking soda, I subbed extra baking powder (which is an acceptable remedy, according to some cookbooks) and they were not extremely fluffy, but very yummy.
Now that I've confessed, here is the recipe:
Paul's Best Biscuit Recipe from Come to the Table
Sweet Home Ranch
2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup unsalted butter, frozen
1 1/4 cup buttermilk (with 2% butterfat)
Ok, first preheat the oven to a blistering 450 degrees. Blend flour, b. powder, b. soda and salt. Cut the frozen butter into little pieces and blend into the four mixture with a pastry cutter (which I do not have) or two sharp knives (which I do have). Add b. milk and mix.
Now, on a surface that you have liberally sprinkled with flour, flatten dough to about 1" thick and fold in half. Do this about three times quickly, but no more than that. Flatten dough to 3/4" thick. Use a jar or other vessel with a small mouthed opening to cut into rounds. Clean any dough from the mouth of whatever you are using and coat with flour before cutting more rounds. Otherwise it will stick and cause unsightly, malformed biscuit rounds. Horrors.
Use up all the dough in this way. Bake until golden, Paul recommends 10 min. Serve hot, with jam and a smile.
This makes about 12 biscuits, so share!
