Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 5 cups sifted, unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon homemade baking powder or store-bought baking powder (see recipe below)
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
- 10 tablespoons Plugra-brand butter, cold from the refrigerator
- 2 cups buttermilk, cold from the refrigerator
- ***
- Homemade Baking Powder:
- 1/4 cup cream of tartar (organic preferred)
- 2 tablespoons baking soda
Instructions
- For the baking powder:
- Sift together ingredients and store in a glass jar. Sift again before using ~ the ingredients tend to clump when stored. Store in a cool, dry place like a spice cabinet for up to six weeks.
- Heat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Dice the very cold butter into ½ inch pieces and toss into the flour. Get your hands in there and use your fingers to press the butter into the flour. Work quickly; the goal is to have pieces of butter of varying sizes throughout the flour.
- Clean your hands by rubbing them together and shaking off the floury bits.
- Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the cold buttermilk. With the spoon, quickly stir the ingredients together. It’s okay to stop before you incorporate all the stray floury bits; the dough should be very sticky.
- Lightly flour your countertop and immediately turn the sticky dough on to the counter. With a quick and gentle touch, gather the dough and shape it into a ball. Persevere and resist the temptation to add more flour.
- Dough will be craggy and sticky, but if you taste it, you’ll know that you’re creating a masterpiece.
- Use your hands to gently flatten the dough to about an inch thickness.
- Flour your rolling pin, but not over the biscuits. You have put a lot of work into these biscuits so far, do not ruin them with excess flour.
- Take the rolling pin and center it over the dough. Roll once from center to top and lift. Center again, roll from the middle to the bottom and lift. Repeat one or two more times, just enough to even out the tops of the biscuits.
- Dip the dinner fork in flour and pierce the dough every inch or so. Grab your biscuit cutter and dip it in flour, stamping out biscuits and arranging on parchment-lined baking sheet. Cut out biscuits, but do not twist. The twist deflates the biscuits. A little flip is all you need to lift the biscuits from the dough.
- When you’ve stamped out all the biscuits that you can, place the extra dough bits wherever they will fit on the pan.
- Place tray in 500 degree Fahrenheit oven and bake for eight to 10 minutes until biscuits are crusty and deep golden brown. If your oven heats unevenly, rotate the pan at the 7 to 8 minute mark.
- Remove pan from oven and let cool for a few minutes on the counter. Serve biscuits warm with a pat of butter and a drizzle of honey or spoonful of jam.
- Prep Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 0 hours
Nutrition
- Calories: 895.5 kcal
- Sugar: 6.31 g
- Sodium: 2132.3 mg
- Fat: 31.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 19.15 g
- Trans Fat: 1.16 g
- Carbohydrates: 130.66 g
- Fiber: 4.24 g
- Protein: 20.5 g
- Cholesterol: 81.23 mg
