Put the Biscuits in the Basket

OK, we promised you biscuits, so here are the biscuits.

Who doesn't love biscuits? Warm, buttery, flaky vehicles for butter or honey; jam; egg, bacon, and cheese; sausage (or mushroom) gravy… they're a fantastic treat on a weekend morning.

Most people think that only the most skilled of bakers can churn out masterful buttermilk biscuits, and that there is some sort of mystical technique involved. But we can assure you that there is no baked good with a lower work-to-deliciousness ratio. They are very easy to make and what's more, are excellent palettes for all kinds of experimentation.

Anybody who says that there is only one tried and true Southern buttermilk biscuit recipe is wrong and just being overly protective of some misguided notion of regional authenticity. Yes, there is a basic blueprint, just as there is with a pie crust: flour; some sort of fat (usually butter, vegetable shortening, lard, or any combination thereof); a leavening agent, usually baking powder and/or soda; and something to moisten the mixture and bring it all together (buttermilk, if you're making buttermilk biscuits, but lots of other things will work).

The first thing we did when we set about trying to master home biscuit making was to find a reliable base recipe from which we could build all kinds of interesting variations. There are many out there, but we happen to be big fans of Alton Brown, and it's hard to go wrong with most of his basic recipes. You can see Alton's recipe here.

If you want to make basic, fantastic, buttermilk biscuits, just follow this. We've used it several times, and can say from experience that they're good, but not perfect to our tastes. There are a few things to keep in mind when using this recipe:

1. Chill everything.
2. Use a tbsp. or two extra of butter/shortening. You can always make up for it, if necessary, by incorporating a little extra flour while gathering or kneading the dough.
3. If you want a more buttery-tasting biscuit, use more butter and less shortening. If not, use more shortening. You can exclusively use one or the other if you'd like with good results.
4. We think 15 to 20 minutes of cooking time is on the high end. Keep an eye on them around 12 minutes. Your best bet to test doneness is to peek at the bottom--if it's deep golden brown, it's done.
5. Ain't no way in hell this makes 12 biscuits, especially if you want to use the biscuits for a breakfast sandwich or as a base for biscuits and gravy. We usually get six, maybe seven, nice big biscuits out of these proportions. It's not uncommon to end up with one little mutant biscuit at the end...

You don’t usually need to grease your baking sheet, but use one with as shiny a surface as possible, or use parchment paper.

OK, I lied, there is a bit of technique here. Some other small tips: Don't overmix or overknead the dough. Do just enough to bring the dough together and make a dough round from which to cut out the biscuits. It’s OK if you leave some bits of dough in the mixing bowl or on the work surface. The dough may feel crumbly and like it's not coming together – that's OK, too. Just gather it up best you can and patch the loose pieces in. The more small bits of butter/shortening you leave in the dough, the flakier the biscuits will be.

If you don't have a biscuit cutter, choose a glass or mug with the "sharpest" edge you can find. If you have a cocktail shaker, the shaker or the underside of the top removable piece also work really well.

Hopefully you can apply these tips to the Alton Brown recipe and achieve the same great results we did. However, if you want to go above and beyond – "a journey to delicious and beyond," if you will, here are some other variations:

Meaty biscuits:
Fold in diced up bits of ham or cooked bacon at the same time as the buttermilk.

Cheesy biscuits:
Same as above, but use bits of cheddar or gruyere cheese.

Meaty-cheesy biscuits:
Yup, you guessed it.

Sweet biscuits:
Add a couple of teaspoons of sugar to the dry ingredients, or drizzle in a couple teaspoons of honey when you add the wet ingredients.

"Yogurt" biscuits:
Instead of buttermilk, substitute about ¾ cup of thick Greek yogurt (we prefer Fage brand) and ¼ cup of milk/half and half/cream for the buttermilk. Greek yogurt is our secret weapon in a lot of baked goods. These come out really great.

Sour cream biscuits:
Same as above but use sour cream and milk instead of yogurt and milk.

And, finally, the most amazing variation we've come across: sweet potato biscuits. I wish we could take credit for these, but we got the idea from The Bread Bible, an excellent cookbook from Beth Hensperger that would be worth buying for this recipe alone, except for the fact that we are going to reprint most of the recipe here, with a few variations:

Sweet Potato Biscuits (adapted from Beth Hensperger's The Bread Bible):

Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato (about 10 oz.)
1 ¾ c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. light brown sugar
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
6 tbsp. (¾ stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
¼ c. cold whole milk or heavy cream

1. Peel sweet potato, cut into chunks, and steam for approx. 15 minutes or until soft in steamer basket. Then puree the chunks with a mixer, blender, or handheld potato masher. Alternatively, you can bake the unpeeled potato until tender, then cool, peel, and puree, but this takes much longer. (You can do this a day or two ahead of time.)
2. Preheat oven to 425° F. In a bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
3. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until you get coarse crumbs. Add the sweet potato pulp and milk/cream, stirring just to moisten all ingredients.
4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead gently about six times, or just until the dough holds together. Roll or pat out the dough into a round or rectangle, no more than an inch thick.
5. Cut biscuits with biscuit cutter, pushing straight down without twisting. Gather and re-roll the remaining scraps as gently as possible to form a couple more biscuits.
6. Place the biscuits ½ inch apart on the baking sheet, then place on center rack in oven and bake about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let rest a few minutes and serve hot.

Enjoy!