Big Beautiful Buttery Buttermilk Biscuits
So a few life updates.
1. Reuben and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary last Friday! Holy cow, 4 years! We had plans to go out for a fancy Spanish dinner, but then we were both feeling slightly sicky and exhausted. So we decided to stay home, make bacon topped butternut squash mac and cheese, and watch The Office all night. It was awesome.
2. I'm watching The Office for the first time! I know, I know, I know. I'm incredibly late to this. We started watching The Office one week ago and we are in the middle of season 4. Yeah, we're pretty hardcore. I love it so much! Honestly, I'm happy that I'm watching this now instead of when it was actually airing. I was 13 years old when the first season aired and I guarantee you that I would not appreciated how hilarious this show is. I was more focused on Gilmore Girls at that time. Plus I have a few years of office experience now, so I can truly understand the nuances and absurdities of an office environment. Unfortunately, I think our downstairs neighbors are also watching The Office or just taunting us, because I swear they are playing the theme song really loudly right after we start an episode. What is going on??? They will not win.
3. I'm going to my first food photography class in Seattle next month! CANNOT WAIT. More details soon!
4. I think I might finally enjoy almond milk now. Actually, never mind. I'm still on the fence. Someone get me some oat milk though! That stuff is gooooood.
5. I'm planning my first bachelor party! Yes, a bachelor party. We are going to Palm Springs/Yucca Valley/Joshua Tree next month and there will be lots of desert exposure and a pool. Jeff, I'm excited!!!
6. I can officially make the biggest, most beautiful, and most buttery buttermilk biscuits! Hooray!
We'll I've figured out how to make great biscuits about a year ago in the form of Everything Bagel Biscuits. But I figured Eat Cho Food needed a classic biscuit recipe! I got really into making biscuits a little over two years ago when we were in Portland and ate at Pine State Biscuits. OMG they are so good. I immediately had to figure out how to achieve their level of deliciousness. I've researched many recipes and tested out a bunch of different techniques. You always read about how you want everything to be really cold and to avoid overworking the dough. True. But I've found that the dough can actually handle a good amount of working and still turn out pretty stellar. I feel like I have a controversial approach to biscuits. I like to roll out the dough and fold in my layers. It's sort of like laminating dough for croissants or puff pastry. It honestly works so well! The biscuits turn out super tall and flakey. You can pull them apart just like those Pillsbury Grand Biscuits of our childhood. When I was a kid I literally ate those things layer by layer. It tasted better that way, duh. But these are seriously so good! They are perfectly buttery and salty on their own, but turn into pure magic when drizzled with some honey or smeared with some jam. Please make a breakfast sandwich with them!
A few weeks ago, I was at a friend's southern dinner party. I love going over to other people's places for dinner because it is such a treat to just be a guest and not a host! I seem to always find myself helping out in the kitchen some how though. I was helping out by deep frying balls and stirring pots of stuff. BUT. There was a girl helping out with the biscuits. I watched in horror as she overworked the dough to an inch of it's life and I could tell the dough was getting way too warm. AHHHH! I really wanted to just jump in and save them, but Reuben reminded me that I was a guest and that it would be rude to assert my biscuit making dominance in a room full of strangers. So I sucked it up, zipped my mouth, and just focused on frying balls the best I could. In the end they tasted okay but were real flat. The balls were real cripsy though. That's my biscuit story.
Big Beautiful Buttery Buttermilk Biscuits
makes 6 big beautiful biscuits + 1 scraggly biscuit
steps:
1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix to combine.
3. Cut your butter into 1/2" cubes. Add the cubed butter into the flour mixture. Incorporate the butter into the flour mixture by pinching the butter with the tips of your fingers and breaking them apart. You still want to be able to see the chunks of butter. The flour mixture should be crumbly and sandy. Pour in the buttermilk and mix everything with a wooden spoon or by hand until just combined.
4. Lightly flour your work surface and dump your biscuit mixture onto it. Knead the dough for 2 - 3 mins until you have a consistent dough ball. Roll out your dough into a rectangle and fold the dough onto itself in thirds. Roll out into a rectangle again and fold the dough onto itself in thirds one more time. You just built in your layers!
5. Roll out your dough into a 6" x 9" rectangle about a 3/4" thick. Trim the edges with a sharp knife and cut 6 large biscuits, about 3" x3". Keep the scrapes to form your extra scraggly biscuit.
6. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush melted butter on each biscuit and sprinkle flakey sea salt on each. Bake the biscuits for 15-18 minutes until golden brown.
7. Allow to slight cool and enjoy with your favorite honey or jam!
materials:
3 C all purpose flour + more for dusting
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
8 tbsp frozen butter
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp melted butter
flakey sea salt
