Each time I make biscuits I have to go look up proportions of flour to butter and I never get it the same twice. These were delicious. They weren’t puffy or light at all, but rather they were flaky, tender, and very buttery. Eating just one was a huge challenge. (Which I failed when I ate another) The key to biscuits is to keep the butter from melting, so work quickly and never use your hands if you can help it.
In a large mixing bowl, combine:
2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp of kosher salt (I may have used more like two… I never measure salt.)
1 stick of chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes and re-chilled
3/4 cup of chilled buttermilk, give or take
Without ever touching the butter or the batter with your hands: Drop the butter cubes into the flour mixture and toss with a fork to coat and separate. With a pastry cutter or fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until you have very small beads of butter mixed throughout the flour. Pour in the buttermilk a little at a time and mix it with the flour/butter mixture until all the flour is worked in. The dough should still be very crumbly. Add additional buttermilk by the tablespoon if necessary.
Turn the crumbly batter onto a floured board and quickly pat into a square. I know most prefer round biscuits, but this reduces waste! Using as few passes as possible, thin the dough to about an inch thick with a rolling pin. It should just barely hold together at this point. Cut the dough into squares and carefully transfer them to a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes.
