Beginning Baker - Biscuits
Baking French breads can be complex at times, making poolishes and starters, proofing, watching humidity and temperatures, etc. I love all that stuff, though.
Every once in a while, however, I want something simpler. Some things call for simple. I don’t think I’d care for sausage gravy on a baguette. No, that needs biscuits!
Biscuits are too easy to waste time on pressurized cans with doughy mascots on them. In not much more time than it takes your heartbeat to return to normal after jumping from the ‘pop’ (come on… it makes you jump every time, doesn’t it?), you can make from-scratch biscuits that put those to shame.
Pinch My Salt had a great buttermilk biscuit recipe that I decided to try over the weekend. The recipe is simple:
- 1 1/4 C. cake flour
- 3/4 C. all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 t. baking powder
- 1/2 t. baking soda
- 1/2 t. salt
- 1/4 C. butter, cut into small chunks
- 3/4 C. buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 500 °F (I use convection/bake). Keep the butter really cold until you use it. Mix the dry ingredients, then add the butter, mixing by hand. Once the flour is in loose crumb form, add the buttermilk, mixing only enough to combine ingredients.
Flour a work surface lightly, and, by hand, pat out the dough to a 3/4″ to 1″ thickness. Cut biscuits and place, touching, on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, turning the cookie sheet around at 5 minutes to get the most even baking.
Place the finished biscuits on a cooling rack for a couple of minutes before using, as the insides will be hot enough to cause problems… Ok, go ahead and butter one up, but be careful!
These are great biscuits to try; they’ve become my standard for use at home. One thing to remember - handle as little as possible; this allows for lighter biscuits. The more you handle them, the tighter the dough will become.
Sometimes fast and easy is needed, but I still love the process of taking my time.
