Cornmeal Biscuits

By Venzie

We used a food processor to cut the chilled butter quickly into the dry ingredients for our Cornmeal Biscuits. To transform the hard and gritty cornmeal, we softened it by soaking it in buttermilk. Kneading the dough briefly ensured evenly textured biscuits that rose high instead of spreading.

It's an adage as old as biscuit making: Light hands make tender biscuits. So why do we instruct you to knead our cornmeal biscuit dough "until smooth, 8 to 10 times"? When biscuit recipes warn you no to overhandle the dough, they are cautioning against the development of gluten. It's desirable for chewy doughs (say, for bagels), but gluten is typically the enemy of tender, flaky biscuits. Our Cornmeal Biscuits replace some of the flour with 1 cup cornmeal, which has no gluten, so gluten deveoopment poses less of a risk. Also, our reipce calls for 1 1/4 cup buttermilk, an acidic ingredient that helps break down gluten. Kneading our cornmeal biscuit dough briefly ensures evenly textured biscuits that rise high instead of spreading.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled

Details

Adapted from eatingwell.com

Preparation

Step 1

Makes 12 biscuits

If you don’t have buttermilk, whisk 1 tablespoon lemon juice into 1¼ cups of milk and let it stand until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Avoid coarsely ground cornmeal, which makes gritty biscuits.

1. SOAK CORNMEAL Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk cornmeal, buttermilk, and honey in large bowl; let sit 10 minutes.

2. PROCESS DOUGH Pulse flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and butter in food processor until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add to bowl with buttermilk mixture and stir until dough forms.

3. KNEAD Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, 8 to 10 times. Pat dough into 9-inch circle, about ¾ inch thick. Using 2½-inch biscuit cutter dipped in flour, cut out rounds (dipping cutter in flour after each cut) and transfer to prepared baking sheet. Gather remaining dough and pat into ¾-inch-thick circle. Cut rounds from dough and transfer to baking sheet.

4. BAKE Bake until biscuits begin to rise, about 5 minutes, and then reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees and bake until golden brown, 8 to 12 minutes more. Let cool 5 minutes on sheet, then transfer to wire rack. Serve warm or let cool to room temperature. (Biscuits can be stored in airtight container at room temperature for 2 days.)