Buttermilk Biscuits

If I were a cute little grandma from somewhere down south, like Georgia or Alabama or something, and I were sharing my passed-down-for-generations biscuit recipe, this post would be so much more exciting. However, I'm a Queens-born chick with Korean parents and we used to always have Pillsbury biscuits in our fridge (you know, the kind where you unwrap the can and then press with a spoon to pop the package) so I feel like you might be suspicious of the quality of the following biscuit recipe and I don't blame you!

But, these biscuits are pretty legit. I won't lie; I'm just going to toot my own horn and say that these biscuits are flaky, buttery, tender, and a decent attempt from a non-Southerner.

Ingredients [yields about 6 biscuits]:
1¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold butter
⅓ cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon honey

Start by mixing together the dry ingredients.

Use a pastry cutter to blend the butter into the dry ingredients until the texture is sandy. Leave a few larger pea-sized pieces of butter.

Mix the buttermilk and honey together in a separate cup.

Pour about 1/3 of the buttermilk and honey mixture to the flour and butter. Gently toss together with a fork just until the wet ingredients are absorbed. Continue until all of the buttermilk has been incorporated. Do not over mix the dough.

Pour the dough out onto your working surface. Gently press the dough together to form a flat rectangle, about 1/2" thick. Even if it looks a bit crumbly, it's okay. You don't want to develop the gluten too much or the biscuits won't be tender.

Use round cutters to form the biscuits.

Place the biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake the biscuits at 400F for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown and beautiful.

Check out those awesomely flaky layers. That is the reason why you want the bigger bits of butter and why you shouldn't be overly aggressive about mixing the dough.

Serve with a bit of salad (with lots of crispy bacon).

And some lemony roast chicken drumsticks.

I love my biscuits with a smear of butter and a drizzle of honey, but that's just me. P.S. Because these biscuits are so flaky, you can pull them apart without a knife.

Here's the recipe page: