Zoe Francois always has great recipes, and these biscuits are no exception!
- 1 1/2 cups (215 g) all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup (80 g) cake flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup cold butter cut into small pieces
- scant 1 cup buttermilk
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or by using your hands. If you use your hands, just be sure not to over work the butter or you may make it soft. If this happens, refrigerate the flour/butter mixture until the butter solidifies again. You should have very small pea sized pieces of butter still in tact.
- Add the buttermilk and stir together. The dough will look a bit shaggy, but should no longer have dry powdery flour and it shouldn’t be too wet either. If you need a few more drops of liquid, add it sparingly, you don’t want the dough to be too soft.
- Pour the shaggy dough onto the work surface and fold the dough over on itself a few times using a pastry scraper. This will form a more cohesive dough, but won’t melt the butter.
- Lightly flour the surface and roll the dough out to 1/4-inch rectangle. Try to keep it as clean a rectangle as possible, but don’t worry if the edges are a bit scruffy.
- Now fold the dough into thirds using your pastry scraper. And again, so it is like a letter.
- Now use a biscuit cutter and cut straight down on the dough.
- Gently press together any scraps and use them to make more biscuits. Be careful not to over work these scraps or they will end up tough.
- Place the biscuits on the sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Make sure they have enough space to expand slightly in the oven. They will grow up more than out, so they can be placed fairly close.
- Bake at 425°F for about 15 minutes or until they are golden brown on top.
Adapted from Zoe Francois
