Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients:
| 3½ | cups all-purpose flour (White Lily recommended) |
| 2 | tablespoons sugar |
| 2 | teaspoons salt |
| 1 | tablespoon baking powder |
| ½ | teaspoon baking soda |
| 1¼ | cups butter, very cold, grated |
| 1 | cup cold whole buttermilk |
| 1 | egg, beaten (optional) |
| flaked sea salt (optional) | |
Stir together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Cut in cold butter until mixture is crumbly. Pour in buttermilk and stir until mixture holds together in a shaggy dough.
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat dough into a rectangle and chill for 10 minutes. Cut dough into even quarters, stack them, and pat down into a rectangle again. Chill for another 10 minutes. Repeat the quarter, stack, pat, and chill process twice more.
Preheat oven to 425° F. Cut and stack the fourths once more, and roll out dough to 1‑inch thick. Cut rounds using a 3‑inch cutter dipped in flour. (Re-roll scraps to cut additional biscuits, but these won’t have the same loft as the first cuts.)
Place biscuits on a baking sheet with at least an inch between. Freeze about 10 minutes until cold. For the best finish on stand-alone biscuits, brush with beaten egg, and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake at 425° F until tops are a light golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes.