Who wants delicious, flaky, buttery biscuits with their breakfast or with their soup or for any reason at all? I’ve got you. Because these biscuits are all kinds of amazing with all kinds of meals.
Perfecting the breakfast biscuit has been a pursuit of mine for some time. But after reading up on the subject, I figured out just how new I am to the game – because what we consider the traditional American biscuit showed up here as early as the 1800s.
Biscuits are a staple in the South, where yeast was prohibitively expensive for most people. Instead of using yeast to make their dough rise, cooks would fold it many times in order to fold in air and make the dough expand in the oven. The end result? A light and fluffy concoction that was, at the same time, hard and sturdy enough to carry heavy gravy.
I thought I had the perfect biscuit all figured out, but then I picked up my copy of Magnolia Table and took a look at Joanna’s famous biscuits. There were some significant differences from what I’d tried before. More butter, more baking powder, and the unusual addition of eggs. Naturally, she used buttermilk while I prefer to substitute a mixture of milk and sour cream for buttermilk, but otherwise, just a few tweaks of difference.
And that was enough for me to start tweaking my recipe.
I gleefully embraced adding more butter to my recipe, decided the baking powder gave it a greater degree of flakiness, ditched the sugar I’d added to mine, and I LOVED the addition of the eggs, especially the egg wash spread over the top of the biscuits, giving them a delicious bit of crunch.
Am I done tweaking my recipe? Probably not. Are they as good as Joanna’s? We may have to make our way down to Magnolia Table and find out. But in the meantime, they are a really hearty and tasty way to start off your morning, and we love them. We hope you do, too!
Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour self-rising, bread
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter cold, grated
- 1 large egg
- 1 medium egg beaten for egg wash
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl
- Cut or grate the butter into small pieces, and cut into the mixture using a pastry cutter or a fork. Cut until the mixture pieces are pea-sized.
- Add the egg, buttermilk, and mix with a wooden spoon until just combined. If the mixture is too dry, add a little milk. Cover and refrigerate about 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 400F.
- Flour a working surface and turn the dough out of the bowl. Press the dough using your hands until it's about an inch thick.
- Using a biscuit cutter (or my favorite substitute, a mason jar) cut the biscuits and place on a baking sheet.
- In a ramekin, beat the second egg and brush the tops of the biscuits.
- Bake 12-15 minutes or until the tops are a nice golden brown. Cool on a rack.
- Serve up with jam or honey, or alongside chili or chowder or lots of other ways!
Are you guys biscuit fans? What’s your favorite topper – jam, butter, honey, or something else?