Learning 2 Bake – from Scratch XX

What can we learn from that picture? Let’s start with the recipe: (aside: I used to like allrecipes.com; but, now, with an auto-play video on every recipe, not so much. And reformatted to take out all the ridiculous step numbers.)

Chef John’s Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled in freezer and cut into thin slices
¾ cup cold buttermilk
2 tablespoons buttermilk for brushing

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a large bowl.
Cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about 5 minutes.
Make a well in the center of butter and flour mixture. Pour in 3/4 cup buttermilk; stir until just combined.
Turn dough onto a floured work surface, pat together into a rectangle.
Fold the rectangle in thirds. Turn dough a half turn, gather any crumbs, and flatten back into a rectangle. Repeat twice more, folding and pressing dough a total of three times.
Roll dough on a floured surface to about 1/2 inch thick.
Cut out 12 biscuits using a 2 1/2-inch round biscuit cutter.
Transfer biscuits to the prepared baking sheet. Press an indent into the top of each biscuit with your thumb.
Brush the tops of biscuits with 2 tablespoons buttermilk.
Bake in the preheated oven until browned, about 15 minutes.

Note the pastry-dough-like turning step. That’s the reason the biscuits look like turn-overs: I don’t have a biscuit cutter, so I just sliced the rectangle of dough – but I didn’t slice the folded edge.

The other lesson: Always use parchment paper. That “brush the tops” step got milk all over the pan. It wasn’t exactly sparkling when this started – that is “seasoning” around the edges, not years of burned on grease – but getting the burned-on milk off it is not going to be fun.

BTW: I had no buttermilk (who does, these days?), but regular milk came out fine.