Southern Buttermilk Biscuits
Tender Buttermilk Biscuits with a perfectly light texture great for breakfast, snacking and
Servings: 8 servings
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons butter salted or unsalted, if using salted butter slightly reduce salt called for in the recipe to a pinch
- 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
- 3/4 cup buttermilk I use reduced-fat buttermilk which is 2% milkfat
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 cups self-rising flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Additional flour for work surface
- Additional butter for topping after baked 1-2 tablespoons melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°.
- Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Grate the 6 tablespoons of butter with a cheese grater, this will allow the butter to distribute evenly when blending and you won't have large chunks of butter and areas with very little butter.
- Measure 3/4 cup buttermilk.
- Measure 1/2 cup heavy cream.
- Measure 2 tablespoons shortening
- Put all the items on a tray and place them back in the fridge, so they are really cold when you add them.
- In a medium bowl add flour salt and sugar.
- Then sift the dry ingredients, twice. Yes, you want them light and fluffy and this will deliver a smoother biscuit without any grainy specs.
- Use a pastry cutter and now add the butter and shortening to the flour mixture and cut it in until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- Next, you'll add the buttermilk and the cream, I make a well in the flour mixture and pour those in the center.
- Then slowly add the flour mixture to the center until the flour is all absorbed. I do not stir it fast, I gently fold in the flour, moving my fork around the bowl to combine the flour with the milk mixture. This takes a couple of minutes and will help the biscuits stay fluffy.
- Flour your work surface and your hands, then turn the bowl over and place the mixture on top of the flour and pat into a circle (or rectangle), then fold it over a couple of times until it's smooth and blended. I fold mine 3 times over itself.
- This dough is light, you don't want to overwork it or the biscuits will be dense and heavy.
- You don't have to "knead" this dough, just fold it over itself and pat it into place a few times.
- Add a little flour if needed so the top isn't sticky.
- You'll want your dough to be 1" thick, just pat it into place.
- Use a 3 1/2 " round cookie/biscuit cutter and cut out 8 biscuits (cut as many as you can then pick up the scarps of dough and gently press them together until all the dough is cut into biscuits.
- Do not twist the biscuit/cookie butter when cutting the dough. Just push straight down for each biscuit. If you twist it, the biscuits will not rise the same. The highest rise is when they are cut straight down into the dough and lifted straight out.
- Place the biscuits on the parchment-lined baking sheets and press the center with your finger gently, so the biscuits bake up straight and don't fall over and go crocked. They'll all look the same, nice and round when baked.
- Bake the biscuits for 10-12 minutes, the bottoms will be firm and golden in color, a toothpick will come out clean when inserted into the center and the tops will be firm and lightly golden in color.
- While the biscuits are baking, melt your butter in a dish and grab a pastry brush and brush the butter over the tops of the biscuits, as soon as you take the tray out of the oven, the butter will soak into the biscuits as they cool.
- Allow biscuits to cool for a couple of minutes so you can handle them.
- Serve warm.