Can we all agree on something? Buttermilk biscuits, when done well, are a work of art. I LOVE them so much. I think part of it is the nostalgia of my early days in the food industry, when I worked at a well renowned hotel and was responsible for making biscuits for guests in the wee hours of the morning.
I also know that I can’t (or shouldn’t) eat a big buttery biscuit every day of my life! I decided to come up with a slightly healthier version by using whole wheat flour and just a little less butter than a traditional recipe.
Like I mentioned before, buttermilk biscuits are work of art. You should NOT overwork your biscuits. So, here are some things to remember when putting together your biscuits.
- Make sure your cold butter is just that – COLD. If it gets too warm, you will not have super flaky layers.
- When mixing the cold butter into your flour mixture, do not overmix. You really want your pieces of butter to be almost “smooshed” into small pebble sizes. You DO NOT want your dough to be coming together by the time you’re done with the butter. Save that for the buttermilk!
- When the recipe method says to mix the buttermilk mixture JUST until the dough comes together, I mean it! Don’t think to yourself, “I’ll just mix it a couple more times”. No. AS SOON as the biscuit mixture begins to come together, just stop there.
- Follow the below step by step directions, complete with pictures, to ensure you’re doing your biscuit folds correctly.
When you do the first roll of your biscuit dough, be sure not to roll too thin.
Once you’ve very gently spread the butter on the dough, very gently fold ⅓ of the dough over the butter.
Fold the other side over, and VERY gently press down to slightly flatten the biscuit dough. This will make it easier to do your next folds.
VERY gently fold the top ⅓ of the biscuit dough down, and finally the last ⅓ up.
Again, VERY gently press the biscuit dough down and then gently roll. DO NOT roll the dough too thin, and do not use a heavy hand. Let your rolling pin do the work! If you press the dough to hard at point during this process, you will overmix your biscuit dough and will not have flaky layers.
The oven temperature may seem pretty high, but the higher oven temperature will allow the dough to rise and the layers to be extra flaky.
Serve these biscuits for breakfast, OR you could click here to my super simple strawberry shortcake recipe!