New Years Revelations Part I: Biscuits

This is the first in what I hope is an ongoing series. Over the holiday I was perusing my recipes on this blog and found a few that have undergone some changes since I wrote them up. This often happens to me as I adjust seasonings or learn new things to make a dish better. I spent a good amount of time cooking with Em's (my fiancée) father over this holiday, and we often pass back and forth information on what we like and do in the kitchen.

This instance, we were making biscuits for breakfast (original post found here). I have altered my recipe to pretty much where I like it, at least I thought, and was mostly concerned about fat ratio (like with pie dough). But in my oversight, I forgot something extremely important, which was leading my biscuits to be fluffy, but not flaky. Hydration! My dough was way too wet. The dough was almost goopy, which led me to not knead them (which prevents gluten formation but also prevents the flakiness I was looking for) and just bake them as is. Silly me. While observing John (the dad) rolling out his biscuits, I was amazed at how dry the dough was. I was even more amazed when they came out so good. While enjoying one of these smothered in gravy, I figured out a recipe that is somewhat of a hybrid between his and mine (mine still get more puff than his, muahaha). Take out a little milk, stick with butter, knead a little more, and boom! Biscuits that would make a mother proud.

Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups flour
4 t baking powder
½ t salt
½ t baking soda
1 t sugar
5 T butter, cut into chunks
¾ cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450°F. Sift dry ingredients into bowl. Work butter into flour with fork or fingers until evenly distributed. Slowly add buttermilk until incorporated, mixture should be slightly crumbly but sticks to itself when pressed together. Turn out onto lightly floured surface; knead together for about 30 seconds. Roll out the dough until it is slightly thicker than ½ inch, cut with biscuit cutter or small glass. Place on a lightly greased sheet pan and bake 10-12 minutes or until tops are golden.