The Best, Buttery, Flaky, Easy-Peasy, Southern Biscuit
What can I say about biscuits that does justice to how wonderfully delicious they can be? What can I say about biscuits that does justice to how incredibly dry and disgusting they can be? A good biscuit is like nothing else in the world. It’s not dry, it is delicate and flaky, but it won’t fall apart too easily; it’s buttery, it’s salty, and it is just slightly sweet! A good biscuit is so many things and it can be eaten in so many amazing ways.
You can eat a biscuit loaded up with eggs and cheese and meat (or veggie meat in my case!). You can eat a biscuit toasted with butter. Biscuits are great with honey, they are delicious with all kinds of jams and jellies. Biscuits are delicious just by themselves. You can even add a bunch of silly stuff to the recipe to cook into the biscuit!
Okay, okay, I know I sound ridiculous. Seriously, though. I have missed biscuits. For some reason, California restaurants make biscuits that are more like scones. These biscuits are pretty dry and dense, and just not what I’m looking for when I am up super early in the morning interacting with people, “Can I have a biscuit please??” Now, don’t get me wrong, I love scones. It’s just, when I use the word biscuit, I am referring to something completely different.
So, several months ago I set out on a quest to find an amazing biscuit recipe. I read a bunch of sciency articles and thought about what kind of biscuit I was looking to make. This is the result! This recipe is incredibly easy to make, and if you aren’t in the mood to go out and buy cake flour for it, you can even use AP flour if you like. The cake flour just makes the biscuit more flaky, fluffy, and light- all qualities that I love in biscuits, and it keeps them from being too dry! Another flour alternative (for the purist) is White Lily. Personally, I am not always able to use White Lily because I have to special order it (California grocers don’t carry biscuit flour). However, White Lily is the flour of standard use for biscuits in the south. If you’re interested in a true, Southern biscuit experience, White Lily is the way to go. It is specially formulated for biscuit making, as it is lighter (think Italian 00″).
Southern Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups cake flour alt: White Lily flour
- 3 teaspoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 9 tablespoons salted butter
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400F and prepare a baking sheet with greased parchment paper.
Assemble dough.
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Cut the butter into small chunks and melt low and slow in the microwave. Set aside to cool.
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Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
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Using your hands, combine the butter with the flour mixture until it reaches a mealy texture.
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Pour the buttermilk over the mixture and combine to create a smooth dough.
Roll out and cut biscuits.
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Roll the dough out onto a floured surface until it is 1/2″ thick. Cut into circles with a biscuit cutter or cup rim. Reuse leftover dough and continue making rounds.
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Using a paring knife, slice a shallow nick around the entire circumference of each biscuit.
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Arrange biscuits on the baking sheet.
Bake.
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Bake biscuits for 15 minutes.
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Remove biscuits and top with butter or egg wash.
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Bake for an additional 2-5 minutes or until golden brown.
