Buttermilk Biscuits
Valentine’s Day Note: Looking for something to make this week? Try a few of my past Valentine’s Day treats like apple rose tarts or nutella rose bread! I’ll be posting a few of the things I’m making this year in the coming weeks.
It’s not very often that you get nostalgic for dorm food. I do, however, fondly remember the beef stew that they had during winter in the dining hall. Not because it was particularly good, because it wasn’t, but because it was warm and hearty and it meant they would have biscuits with it. That was one of the true joys of the East Quad dining hall; mopping up overly salty beef stew with warm, flaky, soft biscuits.
Sitting inside on another obscenely cold Sunday (U of M even closed school because of the cold!) I had a craving for biscuits and stew. I made a giant pot of beef with barley stew (with lots of added veggies) and timed it so these biscuits came out of the oven just as we were sitting down to eat. As you can see I continue to make great use of my Michigan cookie cutters.
It was pretty tough to just eat one of these with dinner…so I had two. What else can you do when the smell of fresh baked biscuits permeates your entire apartment?
I thought about freezing or refrigerating some of the dough so that we could have fresh ones later in the week when we had leftover stew. I decided against it and instead we reheated them in the toaster oven as we ate them. If you do want to freeze some dough just make sure it has defrosted completed before baking. I sometimes do this with bagels so that I can have a fresh one for breakfast, and this ensures they will cook completely on the inside.
As you wolf down these biscuits there is even more good news to savor! It’s the football offseason and I miss having a weekly opportunity to photoshop bread into Michigan sports pictures. So, I’ve added a section to display my photoshops and will be starting a new weekly post called ‘Photoshop Phridays’ to share these and the history behind them. For now, enjoy all of the ones I’ve posted in the past, and many I haven’t!
- 2¼ cups AP flour
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 9 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
- ¾ cup buttermilk (can mix regular milk with 1 T vinegar or lemon juice)
- Preheat oven to 400 °F and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using a fork (or your fingers) work the pieces of butter into the other ingredients until well combined. The butter will be well distributed in coarse flour covered pieces.
- Add the buttermilk and stir until the dough begins to form. Use your hands to knead briefly and bring everything together.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out until about ½ inch thick. Using a glass or cookie cutter cut out biscuits and transfer to baking sheet. As you need re-roll the dough and cut out additional biscuits.
- Bake until biscuits are a golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes, rotating halfway through.
