Delicious Buttermilk Biscuits
AS FEATURED IN THE PROPA EATS MAGAZINE IN THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER.
Buttermilk biscuits are extra moist because of that addition of buttermilk itself. And these have just the right amount of sweetness to compliment the slight tang of the buttermilk. You can accompany them with butter, jam or even just by themselves!
I am a huge fan of KFC buttermilk biscuits. That’s where the inspiration for these came from. These, however, do not taste exactly like the famous KFC ones, but they do taste great, and has a close texture to them. I tested 2 recipes before finalizing on this one, since something always seemed to be missing from the flavour. One of my favourite things about this is that it can be whipped up in about half hour, and baked in 10-12 minutes. So just think about this for a sec: that in just over 30 minutes, you can bite into this soft, tender, buttery, moist biscuit, with that quintessential golden and crunchy exterior. I think it’s worth it!
For the record, this is also a goo vegetarian dish if you omit the eggwash.
Ingredients
4 cups flour
4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2.5 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold butter or margarine
1.5 cups cold buttermilk- no substitute here
Method
Preheat your oven to 450 degF
Add all dry ingredients and the COLD butter to your food processor. Pulse until it resembles breadcrumbs. You can also do this by hand by grating the COLD butter onto flour mixture, and rub them together between your fingers or use a pastry cutter until the have the same breadcrumbs texture.
Learning time
Why use Cold Butter?
The cold butter results in pieces of butter throughout the dough. When this bakes, the butter melts and releases steam which results in airy pockets within the biscuits. This is what gives the biscuits that airy, flaky texture.
Add the buttermilk and gently combine until a soft dough is formed. Make sure your buttermilk is cold and do not over work your dough. This will result in tough, chewy textures which you do not want in a biscuit at all. At this point the dough will be a little crumbly and that’s OK. This is what you want want.
So now comes the folding part which gives the biscuits those flaky layers. Roll out the dough into a 1/2 inch rectangle. Fold one side onto the center of the rectangle. Then fold the other side over this. Add a little flour to the top, flip, and roll out again to 1/2 inch thick. Repeat this at least 2 more times. This is where you will get those wonderful layers that you love in biscuits!
For your final roll into a rectangle, make sure it’s about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into 2.5 - 3 inch circles, hearts or whatever shape you like. Make sure you cut the dough sharply since this also aids in those visual layers. Place on a baking sheet, close together. Brush with some buttermilk or eggwash and bake for 10-15 minutes, until they are nice and golden brown.
Slather on some butter or jam and enjoy!!
