Homemade Layered Buttermilk Biscuits
I’ll try to keep the intro short because this is a long recipe. The process is not difficult but it takes awhile because of the amount of chilling you need to do in between steps. But believe me, it is necessary but your patience will be rewarded!
I love the Pillsbury canned layered buttermilk biscuits and have eaten my fair share but when you want something without all the additives in canned biscuits - this recipe is almost IDENTICAL. It took some trial and error but I’ve gotten pretty close to the benchmark and dare I say these are even BETTER?! Well, YES!
*THE KEY TO THIS RECIPE IS TO KEEP THE BATTER AS COLD AS POSSIBLE AT ALL TIMES* I took a croissant making class once and this was the #1 rule. SAME APPLIES HERE!
INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup or 1 stick salted butter
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup heavy cream
INSTRUCTIONS
Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a mixing bowl. Place the bowl in the freezer for 30-40 minutes. *Experienced bakers might be wondering why there is sugar in this recipe - the canned version contains dextrose which gives the biscuits a sweet flavor that I was trying to replicate here*
Cut butter into cubes and put the cubed butter into the freezer for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F, rack in middle position. Make sure your oven is preheated for at least 30 minutes before baking so the entire space is evenly heated (this shouldn’t be a problem given the amount of chilling time needed prior to baking).
After your dry ingredients and butter are well-chilled, use your pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour mixture. Continue this process until the butter is the size of peas. (I hate using a food processor and avoid it at all costs but if your heart desires, by all means use it.)
Now put the dough back into the freezer for about 10 minutes… are you sensing a pattern here?
While the dough is chilling, mix together the buttermilk and heavy cream. Put the bowl in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
When all your ingredients are chilled, make a well in the center of your butter/flour mixture and pour the cold buttermilk and cream in the center. Using a fork, mix the dough together until it’s shaggy or craggly (a technical term for biscuit making!). Be careful not to overmix because you don’t want tough biscuits - a little uncombined flour left is just fine.
ANNNNND.. Place the bowl of dough in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Dust your rolling surface lightly with flour. Place the very cold dough in the center, and make a disc. Flour a rolling pin, and begin to roll the dough into a rectangle about 10”x15”, starting from the center. The technique you’re about to use was also borrowed from croissant making - we are going to ‘laminate’ the dough.
If the dough gets too sticky at all just dust it with some more flour.
Now begins the folding/lamination process where the layers get created. It is important not to press the dough too hard or roll it too thin.
Once you have your 10”X15” rectangle, fold the rectangle into thirds.
Flip the folded dough over and roll out again to another 10”x15” rectangle.
Repeat this one more time (3 times total) and put the dough back into the freezer for another 10 minutes.
Once your dough is chilled, dust the top with some flour and cut with a 3” biscuit cutter. When you cut the biscuits, press straight down (don’t twist) or you will seal the layers together.
When you’ve cut out as many biscuits as you can you have 2 options: 1) rework the leftover dough with 1-2 laminations or 2) just bake the scraps and have little biscuit treats!
(I recommend option #2 because reworking the dough lends itself to tough biscuits but I leave it up to you! Just bake them after the full-sized biscuits for about 7-8 minutes.)
Carefully place the biscuits onto a sheet pan (I like the sides to almost touch). You can probably guess the next step now - put the dough back into the freezer for the last time, ~10 minutes!
Once dough is re-chilled, put the sheet pan immediately into the well-pre-heated oven and bake 12-14 minutes.
Serving suggestions include: butter & honey, sausage gravy, your favorite jam, make into a bacon and egg breakfast sandwich… the possibilities are endless!
