Fluffy Southern Biscuits Recipe
The South is known for numerous culinary contributions, many of them comfort foods such as hush puppies, fried chicken, and pimento cheese. No true southern meal would be complete, however, without a side of biscuits. Recipe developer Jessica Morone is sharing with us what she calls fer favorite biscuit recipe, one that she assures us "makes the softest, fluffiest biscuits."
As Morone tells us, these biscuits of hers contain a no-longer secret ingredient: they are made with cornstarch. While she admits that "it is not typical for cornstarch to be in biscuits like this," she explains, "I find that it really makes a difference in how tender and soft they are." Meanwhile, Morone doesn't use self-rising flour, which often is a common ingredient in biscuits. "A lot of people don't already have that in their pantry so I think its easier to use all-purpose flour," she explains. Odds are that you do have all-purpose flour sitting in your pantry, so these fluffy biscuits will come together with ease.
Gather the ingredients for these southern-style biscuits
In addition to all-purpose flour and cornstarch, the dry ingredients for these biscuits include baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. You will also be using quite a bit of dairy: butter, heavy cream, and buttermilk.
Make the biscuit dough
For starters, set the oven to 450 F. Now mix up the dry ingredients, then grate the frozen butter into the mixture. "Using frozen, grated butter," Morone tells us, "helps to make the biscuits light and flaky." Mix the butter flakes into the flour, then stir in the buttermilk until you have a dough that Morone describes as "shaggy."
Shape the biscuit dough
Sprinkle some flour over a work surface, then dump that shaggy dough down and spread it out a bit. Fold it over four or five times, then shape it into a rectangle about 8x10 inches. The dough should be about ¾-inch thick at this point.
Take a biscuit (or cookie) cutter or even a drinking glass that's about 2 ½ inches in diameter and use it to cut out circles of dough. Once you've cut out all of the circles you can, squish the remaining dough into a smaller rectangle and keep on cutting. When you get down to the last bits of dough, you may have to hand-form the final biscuit into a circle as best you can to avoid any square edges going to waste.
Bake the biscuits
Line a baking sheet, then arrange the biscuits so they are touching one another. Brush the tops with the cream at this point. Morone does say that, "If you don't have heavy cream you can use milk or half and half ... all three will help make the tops of the biscuits a nice golden brown." If you like salty stuff, go ahead and sprinkle some flaky sea salt onto the un-baked biscuits, as well.
Bake the biscuits for 12 to 15 minutes until they are golden in color, then let them cool off a bit before you dig in. Morone says "I love to eat [these biscuits] with butter and honey on them, but they are great topped with anything you like."
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen
- 1 cup buttermilk, cold
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- flaky sea salt, for garnish
- Preheat the oven to 450 F.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.
- Grate the frozen butter, then stir it into the flour mixture.
- Mix the buttermilk into the flour mixture until it forms a dough.
- Sprinkle a work surface with a light coating of flour. Press the dough down onto the floured surface, then fold it 4 to 5 times.
- Form the dough into an 8x10-inch rectangle, about ¾-inch thick.
- Using a biscuit or cookie cutter, cut the dough into 2 ½-inch rounds. Re-form the remaining dough into another rectangle and continue cutting until you've used all of it up.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange the biscuits so that they are just touching.
- Brush the tops of the biscuits with the cream, and sprinkle the biscuits with flaky sea salt if desired.
- Bake the biscuits for 12 to 15 minutes, until they appear golden.
- Let the biscuits cool slightly before you eat them.