MASTER FORMULA: BLITZ BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
Makes 12 to 24 Biscuits
3 1/2 cups (16 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon (0.25 ounce) salt
2 teaspoons (0.33 ounce) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon (0.08 ounce) baking soda
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) unsalted butter, cold
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) buttermilk, cold
Approximate weight of dough = 40 ounces (2 pounds 8 ounces)
Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together into a mixing bowl.
Use a knife or pastry cutter to shop the butter into pieces about the diameter 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 rub against each other or the friction will melt the butter). Work the dough just until the butter pieces are down to the diameter of dimes and are coated by the flour mixture.
Stir the buttermilk into the flour mixture just until all the ingredients are gathered and form a dough ball.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Lightly dust the work surface with flour, and roll the dough in it. Dust the counter again and roll out the dough with a rolling pin into a rectangle that is 3/4-inch thick. Using a pastry cutter or scraper, peel the dough up from the counter and fold it, like a letter, into thirds. Give it a one-quarter turn. Flour the counter and the top of the dough, and roll it out again 3/4-inch thick. Peel it up again and fold it into thirds.
Transfer the dough to the prepared pan. Cover it with plastic wrap or enclose the pan in a plastic bag, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Remove the dough and roll it out again 3/4 inch thick. Fold it in thirds, give it a one-quarter turn, and roll it out one final time, again 3/4 inch thick.
Use a knife to cut the dough into 2 by 2 by 2-inch triangular pieces, or use a cookie or biscuit cutter and cut the dough into rounds.
Place the biscuits about 1-inch apart on the parchment-lined sheet pan. Cover them and refrigerate them for at least 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter or buttermilk. Place them in the oven and reduce the heat to 375 degrees F.
Bake the biscuits for 12 to 15 minutes, or till they are lightly browned and golden all around (not white or creamy, or the inside will be doughy). Allow them to cool for 5 minutes, and serve while still warm.
COMMENTARIES:
- Unbleached flour is more flavorful than bleached. Many Southern biscuit recipes call for self-rising flour, which contains its own leavening agent and salt. I prefer to add my own, but if you decide to use self-rising, omit the baking powder and salt. Leave in the baking soda, however; it is neutralized by the buttermilk and gives added lift.
- Unsalted butter is better than salted butter for baking because you have more control over the amount of salt in your product. For biscuits, as with pie dough, the butter should be cold and hard. This allows it to retain its identity when mixed with the four, resulting in flakier biscuit.
- The liquid should also be cold to keep the butter hard. Buttermilk gives the biscuits a delicious tangy flavor, and in conjunction with the baking soda, creates added leavening and a lighter biscuit. However, for a richer tasting biscuit you can substitute cream for the buttermilk and omit the baking soda. This is the ultimate in creamy biscuits, but is considerable higher in calories and fat. Caveat emptor!
- The folding process is called laminating and is done exactly as for croissants, Danish, and puff pastry. It creates dozens of thin layers that enhance the flakiness of the biscuits.
- Cutting the biscuits with a knife, in triangular cuts, is more efficient than a cookie cutter because there are no leftover scraps. Cookie cutters leave trimmings that can be reshaped into biscuits, but because of the extra handling, they are never as good as the first cut. If using cutters, try to cut straight down and do not twist, which causes the layers of the biscuits to stick, diminishing the rise and flakiness.
- Chilling the cut biscuits relaxes the gluten, assuring a better and more even rise. The final 20-minute resting period is a good idea for pie crust, puff pastry, scones, or any other flaky dough.
- Biscuits, unlike yeasted breads are best eaten still warm from the oven, while the buttery flakiness is at its peak.
ABOUT BISCUITS:
There are many ways to make great biscuits but this formula is, I think, unique. To understand why, it's necessary to identify just exactly what a biscuit is, why we make them, and what contributes to the qualities that endear them to us.
The qualities are simply stated; tenderness, lightness, flakiness, and creaminess. So are the means for achieving them: fat and proper technique. Making a good biscuit is much like making a flaky, tender pie crust. Unlike bread, which requires full gluten development, a flaky biscuit requires minimum gluten presence, jut enough to hold it together. The presence of fat, whether it be as cream, butter, or shortening, provides tenderness by literally shortening the gluten strands. The trick is to keep the fat and flour separate, maximizing the shortening of the gluten and promoting flakiness. The above formula employs a technique culled from the realm of puff pastry call blitz dough. Blitz puff dough is really a very flaky pie dough. The pieces of fat, in this case butter, are chopped but still fairly large - larger than for a regular pie dough. By folding, or laminating, the dough over itself, the butter is dispersed while hundreds of microthin layers of dough are formed. This dough is called blitz dough because it is much faster to make than traditional puff dough, which is made with a whole layer of butter or fat that is carefully folded over and over, with frequent resting periods. When this concept is applied to biscuits, the butter is cut into slightly bigger pieces than usual and then the dough is laminated a few times to simulate the puff effect. The result is tall, flaky, buttery biscuit.
Getting back to the "why of biscuits, we need to confront an American, if not human, condition: We love flaky, creamy, tender, and buttery sensations in food. Even in the face of alarming arterial evidence, we are willing to risk much to experience those wonderful sensations on out palates. Many meal traditions incorporate the biscuit as a central or supporting player, and a cook's baking reputation often rests on his or her ability to deliver the flaky, creamy, tender, and buttery goods.
The Southern custom of biscuits and gravy is frightening to a Northerner who, in turn, thinks nothing of slathering gobs of cream cheese on a bagel or spreading even more butter on an already buttery croissant. Our rich habits follow us from region to region, product to product. A flaky pie crust, which is, after all, simply a type of biscuit, is as American as, well, you know the rest.
There was a time in the United States when eating fat-laden doughs was an economic necessity, a way of fueling the body with affordable calories, as it still is in many impoverished cultures. It was and still is also a way for poor people to find a measure of equity with their so-called betters. A good biscuit is a great leveler, something that rich and poor both love and both can make. It is comfort food on many levels. In a world that promotes and rewards status and other illusory differences, the biscuit - especially the light, creamy, flaky, buttery biscuit - will simply not be denied.
Source: Crust and Crumb by Peter Reinhart
