Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

Before you start

A good buttermilk biscuit rises straight up, splits apart in buttery sheets and tastes faintly tangy. The height comes from two things working together: chemical leavening (baking powder plus a little baking soda to react with the acidic buttermilk) and steam from flattened pieces of cold butter trapped between thin layers of dough.

The key decisions are temperature and handling. Keep the butter firm until the pan goes into a very hot oven, fold the dough a few times instead of kneading it, and cut straight down without twisting. A twisted cutter pinches the edges shut, and a sealed edge cannot climb.

Ingredients

• 300 g (2½ cups, spooned and leveled) all-purpose flour — plus more for the counter
• 1 tbsp (12 g) baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar — optional; helps browning
• 115 g (½ cup) unsalted butter — very cold, cut into 1 cm cubes
• 240 ml (1 cup) cold buttermilk — plus 1 tbsp for brushing
• 1 tbsp melted butter — for brushing after baking (optional)

Method

1. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a large bowl until the leaveners disappear into the flour.
2. Scatter the cold butter cubes over the flour. Cut them in with a pastry blender until most pieces are the size of peas and a few are as large as small olives. Do not rub the butter into fine crumbs; the larger flakes make the layers.
3. Pour in the cold buttermilk and stir with a fork just until a shaggy dough forms with some dry patches. Tip it onto a lightly floured counter.
4. Pat the dough into a rough 2 cm (¾ in) thick rectangle. Fold it in thirds like a letter, rotate it a quarter turn and pat it out again. Repeat for three folds in total. By the last fold the dough should look smoother and hold together.
5. Pat the dough to 2.5 cm (1 in) thick. Dip the cutter in flour and press straight down without twisting. Cut 6 biscuits, gently press the scraps together and cut 2 more; these will be slightly less even.
6. Set the biscuits on a parchment-lined sheet so they just touch, which helps them rise upward. Refrigerate for 15 minutes while the oven heats to 230°C (450°F) with a rack in the upper-middle position.
7. Brush the tops with buttermilk. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until tall and deep golden on top and on the bottoms. A biscuit lifted from the center should look dry, not doughy, where it touched its neighbors.
8. Brush with melted butter if you like and serve warm. They are at their best within an hour of baking.

Tips for success

• Freeze the cubed butter for 10 minutes before you start on a warm day. Visible butter streaks in the raw dough are a good sign.
• Use a sharp metal cutter or a knife. Square biscuits cut with a bench scraper leave no scraps and rise just as well.
• Measure buttermilk by weight if your cup is uncertain: 240 ml is about 245 g. The dough should be sticky, not dry; dry dough bakes into crumbly, low biscuits.

Substitutions

Buttermilk

Stir 1 tbsp lemon juice into 240 ml whole milk and let it stand 5 minutes. It works, though the biscuits are a little less tangy and slightly less tender.

All-purpose flour

A soft Southern flour such as White Lily gives a more tender, cake-like crumb. Use about 10% more by volume, since it is lighter, and expect a softer dough.

Unsalted butter

Salted butter is fine; cut the added salt to ½ tsp. Half butter and half cold shortening gives a softer, more tender biscuit with slightly less flavor.

Variations

Honey butter biscuits

Brush the hot biscuits with 2 tbsp melted butter mixed with 1 tbsp honey and a pinch of flaky salt.

Black pepper biscuits

Add 1½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper to the dry ingredients; serve with sausage gravy.

Troubleshooting

Biscuits spread and baked short

The butter softened before baking, the dough was patted too thin, or the cutter was twisted. Chill the cut biscuits, keep them 2.5 cm thick and press the cutter straight down.

Tough, bready texture

The dough was overworked or too dry. Stop stirring as soon as it comes together, add a splash more buttermilk if dry flour remains, and limit yourself to three folds.

Pale tops with burnt bottoms

The pan sat too low or is a thin dark sheet. Move the rack up a level and use a heavy light-colored pan, or stack two sheets.

Metallic or soapy taste

Too much baking soda or uneven mixing. Measure leaveners with level spoons and whisk the dry ingredients thoroughly before adding butter.

Storage

Keep cooled biscuits in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days; rewarm at 175°C (350°F) for 5 minutes. To bake from frozen, freeze cut, unbaked biscuits on a sheet, bag them, and bake straight from the freezer, adding 3 to 5 minutes.

Safety notes

Raw biscuit dough is not safe to taste because uncooked flour can carry harmful bacteria; bake it first. Contains wheat and milk.