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| Fluffy and flaky ... yes, ma'am! |
Buttermilk biscuits are delicious. The secret ingredient to making them light and fluffy is lard. Unfortunately, lard is a heart attack waiting to happen. I can't bring myself to put lard in home baked goods even as a treat. Only a person being served his last meal should ever eat lard!
So the goal is to develop a healthier (notice I didn't say healthy) buttermilk biscuit recipe. It is not possible to make biscuits completely healthy because without white flour and butter, the result won't taste anything like a classic biscuit. You may be able to come up with something else that is tasty, it just won't taste like a buttermilk biscuit. But don't fret because I have a recipe for an almost healthy buttermilk biscuit. It's flaky; has fiber; and although I cut the amount of fat by half, you can taste the butter in each and every bite:
Buttermilk biscuits
Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons of ground flax seeds {Did it once, now always.}
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda {I put baking soda in for the buttermilk. It is optional.}
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons cold butter
Lightly brush a 10 inch cast iron skillet with butter, and preheat the oven at 400 degree F. Have them ready, meanwhile ...
Directions:
1) Into a mixing bowl, add 3 cups of flour, ground flex seeds, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir together, using a folk.
2) With a knife, cut the cold butter into little tiny cubes (work fast so the butter stays cold) and drop into the flour. Mix with a fork or your fingers.
3) Make an indention in the flour mixture, then pour in the buttermilk.
4) Combine the wet and dry ingredients, stirring with a fork or your hand until a dough forms.
This next step is tricky. To get fluffy biscuits, try not to overwork the dough. Although you need to mix the ingredients well enough to get a proper biscuit dough, try not to touch it too much. Not overly touching the dough keeps the butter cold and results in a fluffy texture.
5) Knead lightly in the mixing bowl by folding and turning the dough over. When the flour is incorporated and your dough is elastic (but not too wet or dry), you are ready to form the biscuits.
6) Pinch off the dough and quickly form the biscuits. (I don't roll the dough out, or cut with a cookie cutter. It melts the butter.) I gently form balls, then press a little flat.
7) Lay the biscuits in the skillet, touching each other. Crowded biscuits have nowhere to go but up. They will rise higher.
8) Bake for 15 minutes, or until light brown and done.
Pop out of the oven and serve. As you can see before taking a photo, I ate 4 biscuits as a test to make sure they turned out. Someone has to do it!
Extra tip: When out of buttermilk, substitute 1 cup of regular milk with 1 teaspoon of white vinegar. Let it sit for 20 minutes (until it curdles) before pouring it into the flour.
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My recipe above cuts down on butter and calories. You get the butter taste by buttering your skillet with it, so it’s on the outside of the biscuits. Whenever I want to reduce the butter in a recipe, I use this trick.
Here’s Milk Street’s Foldover Dough Buttermilk Biscuits, also good but with 1 full stick of butter and more calories. With this recipe, you won’t ruin the dough by touching it more with your hands. With 5 ingredients, they’re simple to make.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk
Directions:
1) Mix all the ingredients 1st using a spatula, then your hands.
2) Turn the dough out on a floured cutting board, folding it over and pressing it down multiple times until incorporated.
3) Use a round biscuit cutter and place the biscuits onto a buttered cast iron skillet or baking pan.
4) Bake at 425 degrees F for about 10 minutes.
