Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

The thing about cooking is it is often all about technique.  Simple, good quality ingredients, and technique.  Take for example, the simple biscuit.  These light fluffy biscuits can be whipped up in minutes.  It takes a little practice and a little know how.  It took me about four tries to get these 'just right.'

The most important thing to remember about making biscuits is to not overwork the dough.  Put your rolling pin away.  Gentle, gentle, gentle.

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the board

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt (I use kosher salt)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold

1 cup buttermilk (more if needed)

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Cut the butter into chunks and, using a pastry cutter, cut it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal.  It's just great if you see chunks of butter.  Don't overwork it.  Add the buttermilk and mix gently with a wooden spoon JUST until combined.

If it appears on the dry side, add a bit more buttermilk.  The dough should look more wet than dry.  Be very careful not to over mix it.  If it feels like you should mix just a bit more--STOP!  You shouldn't.

Turn the dough out onto a floured pastry board.  Gently, gently PAT (do NOT roll with a rolling pin) the dough out until it's about an inch thick.  Fold the dough in half and press it down (lightly).  Repeat this 4 more times.  Gently press the dough down until it's 1-inch thick.  You may have to add a little more flour to the board to keep it from sticking during this process.

Use a two-inch round biscuit cutter to cut the dough into rounds.  You can gently knead the scraps together and make a few more biscuits, but they will not be anywhere near as tender as the first ones.

Place the biscuits on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Place them so that they are just touching.  Bake for about 9-12 minutes.  The biscuits will be a beautiful light golden brown on top and bottom.  Do not over bake.

Makes about 12 biscuits.  You can easily double the recipe.