Melt in Your Mouth Buttermilk Biscuits
There are some mornings when a hearty stick to your ribs breakfast are in order. And as much as I love pancakes or a ooey gooey cinnamon roll, a melt in your mouth buttermilk biscuit can really hit the spot. And since I always try to balance the carbs with some protein...making a bacon and egg biscuit sandwich is even better. This is my husband's kind of breakfast. Savory, carby, warm and utterly delicious.
Biscuits are not something I make every weekend, though with this recipe I probably could. It's a simple recipe, but I have to be in the mood to get my board messy. Rolling out dough is not for the faint of heart, especially when its early in the morning and you have high anxiety and a strange need to have all your kitchen surfaces clean. But when that craving hits, and this morning it hit hard...fresh buttermilk biscuits become a mission.
One way I make this easier for me to make is by using my food processor to cut in the butter and cream cheese. I use to make this by cutting in the butter my hand with a pastry cutter, but it's messy, more time consuming and why do it when you can press a button a couple of times and have it done for you!? The wonders of modern technology! I actually had received this food processor as a wedding present...10 years ago... and it wasn't until this year that I finally pulled it out of isolation in my basement. And I have no idea whey I didn't do it sooner! Pie crust and pastry are a cinch now! I must have been a masochist these past 10 years!
So once you have pulsed the butter and cream cheese in with the dry ingredients, and it looks like small peas, it's time to dump it into a large bowl and mix in the buttermilk. Gosh I love buttermilk, It really does makes everything I make better. Buttermilk goes into all my muffins and if I can find a cake recipe with it, thats it, I'm making it. So in goes the buttermilk and you mix until it just comes together. The dough will be wet, and messy.
Flour your board and scrape that sticky mess out out. Generously flour the top and roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thick. Just remember that you can add as much flour as you want to the top and bottom to the dough, Just don't knead it in. You want the inside to remain wet. This is what makes the biscuit melt in your mouth tender.
Cut the biscuits and place them in a round cake pan. I like using a cake pan because it gives the biscuits more surface area to touch each other. I like the soft middle biscuits and this way I get more of those extra soft sides. You can also baked these on a sheet pan for a crispier outside.
Brush the tops of these lovely cut biscuits with some melted butter and bake.
Oh yes... These are amazing.
Melt in Your Mouth Buttermilk Biscuit
Adapted from Washington Post's "Callie's Biscuits"
Yields approx. 10 biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups Self-Rising Flour, plus more for dusting, I've found that White Lily works the best
- 2 tbsp butter cut in small cubes
- 1/4 cup cream cheese
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 tblsp melted butter
Method
- Preheat the oven to 500 degrees
- Place 2 cups flour in a food processor
- Add the butter cubes and the cream cheese and pulse till you get pebble sized pieces
- Pour the flour/butter mixture into a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour the buttermilk in.
- Using a rubber spatula mix the buttermilk into the flour creating a wet dough. But don't overmix. The secret to tender biscuits is touching the dough as little as possible.
- Sprinkle a good amount of flour out on your work surface.
- Dump the dough onto the floured work surface and top with more Flour. (You can add more flour on the top of the dough, as long as the center stays wet)
- Using a rolling pin, Roll the dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Do not knead!
- Flour a 2-inch round biscuit cutter. Press the cutter straight down into the dough and straight back up. Repeat, cutting as many biscuits as you can.
- Pull the scraps together and Roll it out to cut more biscuits.
- Place biscuits in a round cake pan lined with parchment. The sides of the biscuits should be touching.
- Brush the tops with melted butter. Place in oven and immediately reduce oven temp to 450 degrees. Bake 16 to 18 minutes.