biscuit day

"pretty good biscuit, for a northerner" - ali revan

this morning, instead of going into work at 9am i stayed home. in the midst of working on garden diagrams for grade-school children i rolled out, laminated, folded then baked buttermilk biscuits. the recipe came from peter reinharts "crust and crumb", i've made biscuits using a lamination/fold method before but this was my first experience with a "quick" recipe. it only took about an hour to complete all the steps, and before long i had soft, flaky biscuits out the ying yang.

for my recipe i used raw buttermilk, and butter from happy cow. 75% local biscuits!

3.5 cups AP flour- (i recommend king arthur)

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1.5 cups cups butter cold

1.5 buttermilk cold

sift together the salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a mixing bowl.

chop the butter into pieces about the size of a quarter. toss them into the flour and mix with your hands, lightly rubbing the flour and butter into each other between your fingers (DO NOT let your fingertips touch or else the friction will melt the butter) work the dough until the butter pieces are down to the size of a dime and are covered by the flour mixture.

stir in the buttermilk until the ingredients are gathered and form a dough ball.

flour your counter and roll the dough into a rectangle about 3/4 inch thick. (be sure to keep the surface under your dough floured). once rolled out fold the dough like a letter into 3rds, give it a 1/3th turn and roll it out again (keep it floured) to a 3/4 inch thick rectangle. peel it up and fold it again into thirds.

now, transfer it into a prepared pan and cover- or stick it in a zip-loc and refrigerate for 20minutes.

remove the down and roll it out again to that 3/4inch thick rectangle, fold in 3rds once more and then roll it out for the last time- into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle.

now cut the dough into 2x2x2 inch triangular pieces or use a cookie cutter to cut into rounds. place the biscuts on the parchment paper, cover, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

preheat your oven to 500*F, and brush the tops of the biscuits with buttermilk or melted butter. place them in the oven and reduce the heat to 365*F

Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned and golden all around. cool and share with your neighbors!