Recipe: Buttermilk Biscuits

The inspirational and outrageously delicious biscuits at Pies 'n' Thighs would be impossible to match, but that hasn't stopped Silka from trying. After four attempts in as many weeks we think we've finally found a recipe that will, at the very least, keep us satisfied on days we can't make it to the Brooklyn gem. 

After so many batches of only-good-the-night-you-make-them-biscuits we've now soaked them in gravy, slathered them with crème fraîche and homemade jam and gone the traditional buttered route. But on this occasion - on which we finally got them right- we decided to go for the gold; Flying Pigs slab bacon and egg, Cato Corners cheese, and sauteed Windfall spinach piled high on a breakfast-for-dinner sandwich. And let us tell you, it was epic.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Adapted from Pinch My Salt

+ 1 1/4 cups cake flour

+ 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

+ 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

+ 1/2 tsp baking soda

+ 1/2 tsp salt

+ 1/4 cup butter, cut into small chunks, plus extra to melt and brush on top

+ 3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Cut butter into small chunks, place in a bowl and put in freezer. Measure out buttermilk and return to refrigerator. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and refrigerate. Let everything chill for 15 minutes.

2. In the meantime, sprinkle flour on a work surface and have extra flour nearby for your hands and biscuit cutter. Have biscuit cutter and an ungreased baking sheet handy.

3. Combine half of flour and all of butter in a food processor. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix back into bowl with remaining flour. (If you don't have a processor: Add butter to bowl with dry ingredients and cut into flour using a pastry blender, two knives or your fingertips, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.) Pour in buttermilk and stir lightly until dough comes together in a ball.

4. Turn dough out onto floured surface and pat into a disc, about 3/4 in thick. Dip cutter into flour and cut biscuits without twisting the cutter. Form the dough scraps into an extra biscuit-like shape instead of re-rolling the dough. Place cut biscuits together on the baking sheet so that the sides are touching. Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with salt.

5. Place baking sheet in the middle oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until they are golden brown. Remove biscuits to a wire rack to cool for a few minutes.

6. Enjoy while still warm!

Makes 5 - 6 biscuits