Time To Make The Biscuits

Something came over me the other morning. I was craving fresh flaky hot biscuits covered in oozing melty butter and a good drizzle of honey. I decided to make some, not from a mix, from scratch.  Flour, water, milk, a little sugar and baking powder. The recipe I found seemed easy enough and it was, sort of.... until it came time to scrape the batter out of the bowl.

Someone please clean up this mess

Will they be edible?

Baked, golden, not so pretty

It was a sticky gooey mess. I plowed ahead anyway. Dusted in more flour, tried not to man-handle the dough too much. Cut and on the cookie sheet, the biscuits were looking a little ragged. I baked them anyway and they were---surprise, surprise!---flaky, light and surprisingly good. Just the same, I will definitely need more practice.

Ready for eating

Flaky Biscuits

 makes about 8

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

5 tablespoons cold, good quality unsalted butter

1 cup whole milk.

Method

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

*Sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. Transfer to a food processor. 

*Cut butter into pats and add to flour, then pulse 5 or 6 times until the mixture resembles rough crumbs.

*Add milk and pulse until it forms a rough ball.

*Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and pat it down into a rough rectangle, about an inch thick. Fold it over and gently pat it down again. Repeat. 

*Cover the dough loosely with a kitchen towel and allow it to rest for 30 minutes.

*Gently pat out the dough some more, so that the rectangle is roughly 10 inches by 6 inches. Cut dough into biscuits using a floured glass or biscuit cutter. Do not twist cutter when cutting; this crimps the edges of the biscuit and impedes its rise.

*Place biscuits on a parchment (or silpat) covered sheet pan and bake until golden brown, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. 

*Serve warm.

Southern Biscuits Need Southern Honey