Ridiculously Easy Buttermilk Biscuits

By srumbel

Easy as in, less than 10 minutes to throw together. Next thing you know, tall, flaky, incredibly delicious biscuits! will be rolling out of your oven!
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Ingredients

• 1 cup cold buttermilk*
• 8 tablespoons (113 G) butter
• 2 cups** all purpose flour, more for counter
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon table salt

Preparation

Step 1

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or spray a sheet pan with cooking spray.
Measure 1 cup of buttermilk and place cup in the freezer while prepping other ingredients (you want it to be in the freezer about 10 minutes.
Place butter in a microwave safe bowl, cover with a paper towel and heat on high for 30 seconds. If not completely melted, return to microwave for 10 second intervals till melted. Set aside to cool a bit while prepping other ingredients.
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar,and salt in large bowl.
After buttermilk has been chilled in freezer for 10 minutes, combine it with the melted butter. Stir with a fork until butter forms small clumps or globules. (See picture in post.)
Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula just until all flour is incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. Dough should be stiff and not super wet. If dough is wet, add more flour 1 tablespoons at a time, stirring to combine, until dough is fairly stiff.
Generously flour a work surface. Dump biscuit dough from bowl onto prepared work surface and turn to coat all surfaces with flour. Knead on counter 5-6 times (about 30 seconds) . Flip over on work surface to coat with flour then pat into a 6-inch square. It should be 1½-2-inches in height. Cut four biscuits with a 2½-inch biscuit cutter. Place biscuits of prepared sheet pan. Knead scraps a few times till they hold together, then pat into a small rectangle and cut two more biscuits. Transfer last two biscuits to sheet pan, spacing about 1½ inches apart. (See notes for an even easier cutting technique****).
Place in oven and bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 14 to 20 minutes.
Melt remaining tablespoon of butter in microwave and brush tops of hot biscuits with melted butter. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Recipe adapted from Cooks Illustrated via Serious Eats

* If you don't have buttermilk, make your own. Place 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice or vinegar in a measuring cup. Fill to 1 cup level with milk and stir well. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes or until slightly thickened. Mixture may curdle a bit, that's okay! Use in recipes in lieu of buttermilk.

Don't skip chilling the buttermilk (step 2). It will definitely make a difference. If the buttermilk is not really cold, the little butter globule won't form.

** I made these biscuits when I was in London visiting my daughter. I learned the all purpose flour (Plain flour) is a bit different there and it seemed that I needed more, probably closer to 2¼ cups.

***These biscuits freezer well. To freeze, place biscuits on a sheet pan or a plate spaced at least a half inch from each other. Freeze till frozen, then transfer biscuits to a ziplock bag or air-tight storage container.

**** If I'm feeling a bit pinch for time or lazy, I'll just pat the dough into a 6-inch circle and use a bench scraper to cut the dough into wedges. I either put these wedges on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or in a 9-inch cake pan lined with parchment.