TheLadyEve: **About American Biscuits**: So first off, let’s get this straight: American biscuits are different from UK biscuits! And contrary to what you might hear, they’re not exactly the same as scones, either. Americans got the term “biscuit” from the British, but American biscuits evolved to be a very different food. Like the similar word “biscotti,” the word “biscuit” means “twice cooked” to describe how they were made (baked once at a higher temperature and then returned to the oven to finish baking at a lower temperature in order to dry them). This is how biscotti are made—baked as a log, then sliced and baked again.
But not so for American biscuits! The earliest versions of biscuits here were similar to crackers and “hard tack”: they weren’t leavened and they were hard. Basically, they were a source of nutrition you could carry with you all day. But thanks to the creation and increased availability of chemical leavening agents in the 18th and 19th centuries, the American biscuit as we know it now was able to develop! There are lots of different types of biscuits (cathead, beaten, sweet potato, etc.), but generally speaking these days there are two major categories of American biscuits: rolled biscuits and drop biscuits. The gif shows rolled biscuits, which share some characteristics of pâte brisée (pie crust) and croissant in terms of technique. Basically, you want to trap layers of fat and flour. The fat melts and the water turns to steam, leading to air pockets that help create delightfully flaky layers. This is one of the reasons they freeze and grate the flour in the gif–it keeps the fat globules separate and gives you a tender, light biscuit.
**Recipe:**
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), frozen
2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup chilled buttermilk
Parchment paper
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Preheat oven to 475°. Grate frozen butter using large holes of a box grater. Toss together grated butter and flour in a medium bowl. Chill 10 minutes.
Make a well in center of mixture. Add buttermilk, and stir 15 times. Dough will be sticky. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Lightly sprinkle flour over top of dough. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle (about 9 x 5 inches). Fold dough in half so short ends meet. Repeat rolling and folding process 4 more times.
Roll dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with a 2 1/2-inch floured round cutter, reshaping scraps and flouring as needed. **Remember to flour your cutter well and always push straight down with the cutter without twisting!** This will help ensure that your biscuits rise properly and keep a nice shape.
Place dough rounds on a parchment paper-lined jelly-roll pan. Bake at 475° for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Brush with melted butter.
For **Sweet Shortcakes:** Add 2 Tbsp. sugar to the flour, and replace buttermilk with heavy cream. The sugar lends the biscuits a subtle sweetness, and the extra fat in heavy cream gives them a crumbly texture like shortbread. They’re the perfect base for shortcake desserts.
For **Crunchy-Bottomed Biscuits:** Warm a cast-iron skillet in the oven, and spread a bit of butter in the skillet before adding the biscuits. The bottoms will end up crunchy and golden brown and provide a sturdy base that holds up to a smothering of sausage gravy.
**Final notes**: This is a very good recipe is for rolled biscuits, but if anyone is interested in a good drop biscuit recipe, the best one I’ve ever made is [this one for “touch of grace” biscuits]( https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/touch-of-grace-biscuits) by food scientist Shirley Corriher. Rather than just being dropped onto a baking sheet, they’re dropped in flour and then crowded together in a cake tin, so the steam helps give them extra rise. Words cannot describe how good they are.
Runswithshortshorts: Quick pedantic question here: will it actually have flaky layers? I saw the four folds as the end there but it didn’t appear to employ true butter lamination, as the butter shavings were mixed in throughout.
Either way, looks delicious! Thanks for sharing!
atmosphere325: “Stir 15 times” may sound ridiculous, but it prevents over-working the dough.
kramjr: Wow, actually a quality recipe on here. I’m impressed, well done!
TheDragonUnborn: Scones? Just read the description, but these look ok like scones to me, what’s the difference?
moesizzlac: I know biscuits aren’t exactly supposed to be healthy, but butter in the dough, then butter on top, then butter inside… That’s a bit much, no?