World’s Best Biscuits

A little bit of poking around the Google Tools for Webmasters site while doing the usual stuff for a new site (Analytics, Ads, etc) appears to indicate that this recipe was previously the biggest draw of people to the site. So I figure I should republish it here. As an update, I’ve discovered that you can pretty much substitute buttermilk for milk straight across.

Update: one of my astute readers (holy cow!) noticed that I don’t list an oven temperature. I’ve made a slight update. The original recipe suggested 450 degrees, but that always ended up with much browner biscuits than I like. I’d recommend 425 (We use 415 because our oven runs hot).

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp fine salt
1/2 cup (a full stick) unsalted butter, frozen solid
2/3 cup 2% or whole milk

Sift all dry ingredients together (into a chilled bowl, if possible). Place a cheese grater over the top of the bowl, and grate the butter through the large holes. I find that a paper towel helps to keep fingers from freezing and butter from melting, and can later be used to grease the pan if you so desire. You should end up with a pile of dry incredients covered with a lot of little nodules and curls of butter.
Gently mix together the butter and dry ingredients with your hands: you should end up with a very loose crumbly mixture. Add the milk, and stir with wooden spoon, just until the mixture comes together into a loose dough. You should be able to pack it into a ball that mostly holds together.
Turn it out onto a floured surface and pat down to about 1/2 or 3/4 of an inch. Cut with a biscuit cutter or the rim of a glass.
I prefer to cook ‘em on a cookie sheet covered with parchment.
13 minutes at 415 degrees (our oven runs a bit hot, so you may want 425) to golden brown and delicious.

This recipe is basically the “Classic Baking Powder Biscuits” from a Williams-Sonoma breakfast cookbook combined with an Alton Brown method. I never got his biscuits to come out right: too complex and too wet.

3 Responses to “World’s Best Biscuits”

  1. joe blow says:

    oven temp?

  2. Linda says:

    I can attest that these are indeed the World’s Best Biscuits! Light, flaky, buttery, and delicious!

  3. Kathy says:

    Woo Hoo! These truly are the World’s Best Biscuits! We have been trying different recipes for years and were mostly happy with “Freddy’s Biscuits until. . .
    When we have extras (once) they heat up well and they are great with our homemade gooseberry jam!
    Thanks again so much for the recipe!

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