Best Buttermilk Biscuits Ever

Hello again!

Like I promised, I'm back to post my recipe for the Best Buttermilk Biscuits Ever.

I had this recipe emailed to me about a year ago; the original recipe didn't contain any yeast, so I worked with it for a while. Now, it's a full-rising biscuit recipe. I really love good biscuits, and I love yeast breads, too. I've incorporated the best of both worlds here, I think.

Best Buttermilk Biscuits Ever

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk (please use the kind that contains "active cultures")
12 TBS unsalted butter (that's 1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature
2 TBS white sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp salt
.5 tsp baking soda
1 packet of regular dry yeast, OR 1.5 tsp bread machine yeast

(NOTE: I use a Kitchenaid stand mixer for this, and for all of my doughs & batters. An electric mixer is highly recommended)

Warm up the buttermilk in the microwave (do NOT add yeast at this point). You can use the measuring cup. The temperature should be between 100-110 degrees; depending on your microwave, 30 to 40 seconds on "high" should do it. If you don't have a thermometer, just stick your finger in the warmed buttermilk--it should be fairly warm, but not hot.

Add the buttermilk to your mixer bowl, and whisk in the sugar. When the sugar's dissolved, whisk in the yeast. Cover the bowl with a damp towel (plastic wrap will work, too, but poke a couple of holes in it). Place the bowl in the oven, but don't turn the oven on*. Allow the mixture to rest for about 60-90 minutes.

(*if it's wintertime, and your kitchen is chilly, warm the oven a little bit first. Set it to the lowest "Keep Warm" setting---about 200-225 degrees---and let the oven pre-heat. When it's up to temperature, turn the oven off, put the bowl in, and leave the oven door open a few inches for the first 20 minutes)

After the mixture has rested (and the yeast has activated), remove the bowl from the oven. The mixture should have foam on top of it, almost like shave cream.

Attach the bowl to the mixer stand (if that's what you're using). Add the flour, baking powder, salt and butter. Using the dough attachment, mix the dough at low speed for about 2 minutes (the ingredients will incorporate very quickly). When the dough looks thoroughly mixed, and it no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl, it's ready.

Remove the dough attachment from the mixer. Roll the dough (by hand) into golfball-sized blobs (about 1/3 cup each). Place one blob into each section of a muffin pan. There's no need to grease the muffin pans--too much butter for that! Press down on each blob, to flatten it. The muffin pans will not appear very full, but the dough will rise quite a bit during baking.

At this point, preheat the oven to 425. Allow the dough to rise, at room temperature, while the oven heats up. When the oven is ready, bake (in batches, if necessary) for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on things; if the biscuits are rising too quickly, the tops may get too brown. If this seems to be happening, remove the muffin pans and rotate them, front-to-back.

Allow the finished biscuits to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, the pans should be cool enough to handle---simply flip them over, and the biscuits will drop right out. Makes about 18-20 biscuits.

Link to Printable Version:

http://209.245.59.194/Gimme/65832736/770004363/69818279/B33581A9-CD08-40D7-9275-24ED694A5EC5/0.83799/2/Best_Biscuits.doc