by: Kate McMillan
Cook Time
15 minutes
Prep Time
15 minutes
Yield
18 biscuits
Total Time
15 minutes
Prep Time
15 minutes
Yield
18 biscuits
summary
There is nothing better than the smell of fresh-baked homemade buttermilk biscuits—truly a special treat. These come together quickly and are a snap to make. The trick, as with all biscuits, is to make sure your oven is super hot and your ingredients stay extremely cold. The contrast of going from cold to hot quickly is what makes the biscuits rise.
ingredients
- 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, plus melted butter for brushing the biscuits
- ¾ cups cold buttermilk
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons chopped chives
- ¼ cup parsley, finely chopped
directions
- Cut the 6 tablespoons of butter into small pieces and put it in the freezer. Measure out the buttermilk and put it in the refrigerator.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Once the oven is preheated, wait 15 more minutes before you continue with the recipe. You want the oven super hot and the butter and buttermilk super cold!
- Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt In the base of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse 5-6 times. Add the chives and parsley and pulse until combined. Add the cold butter and pulse until the butter resembles coarse crumbs. Add the cold buttermilk all at once and process just until the dough comes together.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it into a rectangle. Fold the rectangle in thirds, give it a quarter turn and gently roll back into a rectangle. Repeat this process three more times. On the last turn, roll out the dough until it is about ½-inch thick.
- Use a 2½-inch round cookie cutter to cut biscuits and place them on a baking sheet. (You can gather and reroll the pastry scraps.) Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter and transfer to the oven. Bake until golden brown, 13-15 minutes. Serve at once.
notes
It cannot be stressed enough that the butter and buttermilk need to be very cold when making biscuits.
The process of folding the dough several times helps to achieve a high biscuit.
Serve the biscuits with spicy mustard and ham or with a simple pat of butter.
You can use other herbs in this easy buttermilk biscuit recipe, including rosemary, oregano and thyme.
