How to Make Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits
There's nothing quite like a warm buttermilk biscuit slathered with melting butter or jam—it's truly the comfort food of the South. But did you know that when it comes to making biscuits, you can decide to make them either fluffy or flaky by using different flours and dough-handling techniques? While flaky biscuits call for a denser flour along with rolling and cutting of the dough, fluffy biscuits use a lighter flour and are shaped by hand. So grab your cake flour, get your biscuit-shaping hands ready, and follow these steps to bake up a batch of tender, fluffy biscuits in true Southern style.
1 Cut Butter
Cut 1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter lengthwise into thirds. Turn 1/4-turn and cut lengthwise into thirds again. Cut crosswise into small cubes.
2 Cut Butter Into Flour
Place 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup cake flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a bowl; stir to combine. Add butter and use a pastry cutter or 2 knives to cut butter into the flour until it becomes crumbly, similar to coarse cornmeal.
3 Add Buttermilk
Add 3/4 cup buttermilk and stir until flour-and-butter mixture is just moistened. As over mixing creates tough biscuits, use lightly floured hands to finish bringing the dough together.
4 Shape Biscuits
With lightly floured hands, divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Gently pat each piece a few times with your hands to form a rough flattened ball.
5 Bake
Place shaped biscuits on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 to 14 minutes until they are a light golden brown on top.
6 Brush with Butter
Remove biscuits from the oven and brush each top with melted butter. Serve immediately with additional butter or jam.