Equally delicious slathered with jam and honey for breakfast, filled with meat and cheese for lunch, or brushed with garlic butter for dinner, these biscuits will be your go-to for every meal.
- 3½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 cup cold whole buttermilk
- Preheat oven to 425°.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Using a pastry blender, cut in cold butter until mixture is crumbly and butter is the size of peas. Using a fork, stir in cold buttermilk until a shaggy dough forms.
- Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat dough into a 10×8-inch rectangle, and cut into fourths. Stack pieces of dough on top of each other, and pat or roll into a rectangle again. Repeat process three more times. Pat or roll dough to ¾-inch thickness. Using a 2½-inch round cutter dipped in flour, cut dough without twisting cutter. Gently reroll and cut scraps once. Place biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Freeze until cold, about 10 minutes.
- Place biscuits 1 inch apart on a cast-iron baking pan or smooth side of a cast-iron griddle.
- Bake until top is golden brown 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm with desired toppings.
FOR BISCUITS STEP-BY-STEP
1. Make sure the butter is very cold and isn’t cut too small. The butter should be cut into the flour mixture until the pieces are the size of peas. During baking, the butter steams and melts, creating pockets in the dough and producing tender layers. If the butter is warm, it will melt before steaming, producing a dense biscuit.
2. A Southern biscuit baker’s liquid of choice is buttermilk. Its acidity reacts with the leavener to produce a tall rise in the oven and create a tender biscuit.