Buttermilk Biscuits
Serve these biscuits warm, with plenty of butter spread on top.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for work
surface - 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) very cold unsalted
butter, cut into chunks - 1 cup buttermilk
Directions
Mix the dry ingredients
Be sure an adult is nearby to help.
Preheat an oven to 400°F.
In a bowl, using a wooden spoon, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Make and shape the dough
Scatter the butter over the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender or 2 table knives. The mixture is ready when it looks like coarse crumbs with small pieces of butter still visible.
Add the buttermilk and stir gently with the wooden spoon until the mixture starts to clump together.
Sprinkle a work surface with some flour. Dump the shaggy dough onto it and gently press it into a rough, thick oval.
Cut out the biscuits and bake
Cut a round out of the dough with a biscuit cutter. Lift the cutter and set the biscuit on a baking sheet. Repeat, cutting as close as possible to the previous shape and spacing the biscuits about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
Gather up the scraps, gently press together and cut out more biscuits.
Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake until the biscuits are puffed and brown, 15 to 18 minutes. Using oven mitts, remove the baking sheet from the oven, set it on a wire cooling rack and let cool for 10 minutes before serving. Makes 6 large biscuits.
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Kids Baking, by Abigail Johnson Dodge (Oxmoor House, 2003).
Be sure an adult is nearby to help.
Preheat an oven to 400°F.
In a bowl, using a wooden spoon, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Make and shape the dough
Scatter the butter over the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender or 2 table knives. The mixture is ready when it looks like coarse crumbs with small pieces of butter still visible.
Add the buttermilk and stir gently with the wooden spoon until the mixture starts to clump together.
Sprinkle a work surface with some flour. Dump the shaggy dough onto it and gently press it into a rough, thick oval.
Cut out the biscuits and bake
Cut a round out of the dough with a biscuit cutter. Lift the cutter and set the biscuit on a baking sheet. Repeat, cutting as close as possible to the previous shape and spacing the biscuits about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
Gather up the scraps, gently press together and cut out more biscuits.
Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake until the biscuits are puffed and brown, 15 to 18 minutes. Using oven mitts, remove the baking sheet from the oven, set it on a wire cooling rack and let cool for 10 minutes before serving. Makes 6 large biscuits.
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Kids Baking, by Abigail Johnson Dodge (Oxmoor House, 2003).