Best Buttermilk Biscuits

MarthaStewartWanabe's Note:

I found a recipe in the 12th Edition of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and modified it a bit to suit my liking. I served them along side a hearty beef stew. My husband proclaimed they are by far the best biscuits I've ever made. They turned out flaky and buttery and raised so nicely that we could actually peel the layers apart.

• Total Time: 27 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 12 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 10 biscuits

• 3 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup butter , chilled
• 1 ¼ cups buttermilk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and cream of tartar.
3. Slice butter into cubes and cut into flour mixture until pea-sized crumbs form.
4. Add buttermilk and stir with a fork untl mixture is moistened.
5. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, kneeding and folding dough until it holds together. Be careful not to handle too much, or the biscuits will become tough and butter will melt.
6. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough until 1/4-inch thick. Cut out biscuits with a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter and place 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until raised and golden brown.
7. Serve warm.

Reviews

[mrsyayawa]

I loved this recipe!! In fact, I just made 200 of them for a church function last nite. The dough came together so fast that I could make every pan by hand, without a stand mixer. They are light and fluffy, and the layers just peeled apart! Everyone loved them! We served them atop chicken pot pie filling.

[Lalaloula]

These bikkies are soooo great!!!! They have a lovely buttery taste and such a great texture! They must be the flakies bikkies Ive ever made (and Ive made quite a few). They almonst crumbled in my hands as they were so flaky. The dough was easy to work with and everything came together quite quickly. I used whole spelt flour due to dietary reasons and left out the sugar. But other than that stuck to your recipe and enjoyed it so much! :) I made half the recipe and ended up with 8 medium sized bikkies. THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing this wonderful recipe with us! Made and reviewed for The Aussie/NZ Recipe Swap June 2010.

[LifeIsGood]

Perfect biscuits. They rose perfectly and were very flaky. As the title says, they are buttermilk biscuits and you do taste the buttermilk flavor. My whole family loved these. This recipe created about 24 biscuits for me. Next time, I'll roll them out to about 1/2 inch thick to produce even thicker biscuits.Thanks for the great recipe! ~Made for Oct. Aussie/NZ Swap~