Buttermilk Biscuits with All-Purpose Flour
Last fall I was on a red eye flight from Portland, Oregon to New York City, and there was a stop in North Carolina. I was sooo hungry and I just ran to the first place I saw in the food court—Chick-fil-A. Ever since I had that darn breakfast biscuit sandwich, I’ve been craving it (on a side note, they had more zabiha-friendly variations available than local Chick-fil-A’s I’ve checked out in search of that amazing sandwich that hit the spot so perfectly).
I don’t know that any biscuit will beat one that you scarf down at 3am, half-asleep and clutching your backpack at an airport, but these are perfect for sliders paired with spicy fried chicken! Scroll down to watch exactly HOW I made these, and please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already!
Ingredients (~8 biscuits)
270g (2 1/4 cup) all-purpose flour
(plus extra to sprinkle on your work-surface)20g (2 tbsp) cornstarch
10g (1 tbsp) baking powder
6g (1tsp) fine sea salt
113g (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter
1 cup cold buttermilk
For the egg wash:
1 egg
1 tbsp heavy cream or milk
For finishing off the baked biscuits:
1-2 tbsp butter, melted
Recipe
Preheat oven to 425°F.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and sea salt.
Next, cut the butter into the flour using a pastry cutter. If you don’t have a pastry cutter, you can use a cheese grater and grate the COLD butter into the flour. If the butter starts to warm up before this step, pop it in the freezer for a few minutes and have at it again. If you don’t want to do either of those methods, you can break up the butter between your fingers (as I did in my empanada recipe/video), and if you can't do that then you can use a food processor! (Just be sure not to over process/pulse in step 4 when you add the buttermilk to the processor.)
Create somewhat of a well in the center of the flour and pour the cold buttermilk into the center. Use a large spatula to begin folding the dough. Don’t overmix this dough, just work it together well enough so that almost all the flour has absorbed the buttermilk. This WILL be a very wet, sticky dough!
Sprinkle a generous amount of flour on a pastry board or cutting board; some food-safe work space. Gently roll the dough out onto it. NO NEED TO KNEAD.
Use your hands to pat the dough down to a thickness of ¾ to 1 inch. If it’s ridiculously sticky, you can sprinkle some flour all over the dough (do NOT be heavy handed) or rub flour on your hands.
With a 3 inch cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out circles of dough. Do not twist or turn the cutter; it will mess with the rise in the dough. You can dip the cutter in flour in between circles/cuts to prevent dough from clumping/sticking to the cutter. If the tops are craggly, that’s totally fine! Push and smush back together any dough that remains, and cut more circles. Don’t knead the scraps, just smush them as needed.
Place the cut outs onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. About using a dark color baking sheet. Leave about 1 1/2 inches between the biscuits.
Whisk together the egg and cream/milk. Brush the tops of the biscuits with this egg wash mixture.
Bake for 12 minutes on the middle rack of the oven. If you want more color on the biscuits, you can pop them on broil for a minute or two max (use your discretion!).
As soon as you pull them out of the oven, brush the tops with melted butter.
Serve immediately with fried chicken, poached eggs for a benedict, or eat them on their own! They’re even good with macerated strawberries and whipped cream (like a strawberry shortcake).