THE Biscuit Recipe

Here's the  recipe that will change how you feel about biscuits.  It's simple, fast, easy, and always makes great biscuits.  There's no denying that following the recipe and using buttermilk, white flour, and butter makes the best biscuits, but I've also tried it with all kinds of substitutions - whole wheat flour, cake flour, olive oil, coconut oil, whole milk, soy milk, even water.  They always turn out acceptably, even if they aren't quite the pinnacle of biscuitdom.

BEST DROP BISCUITS (Cooks Illustrated Dec. 2007)

2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. cold buttermilk (OR 1 c. other milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice, let rest 10 minutes)
8 tbsp. (1 stick) butter

1. Preheat oven to 475º
2. Melt butter in microwave, then let cool slightly - about 5 minutes.
3. Mix dry ingredients together.
4. Mix cold buttermilk & cooled melted butter together.  Stir until it gets super clumpy.
5. Mix liquid into dry ingredients.  Stir until batter just comes together, don't overmix.
6.  Portion into 12 biscuits on a non-stick baking sheet. Bake 12-14 minutes.

That's it!  No cutting butter into flour, no rolling out dough, it's about 10 minutes to mix up the batter & get them into the oven.  Very do-able on a weeknight and these always get rave reviews at potlucks.  Of course, now that I've let out how easy they are I might have to come up with something else to bring to potlucks so everyone doesn't realize how lazy I am. Oops.

Some variations:

• Substitute 3/4c. masa harina for an equal amount of the white flour to make corn-bread-y biscuits.
• Cook & crumble 6 strips of bacon and mix into flour mixture, along with 1 tsp back pepper.
• Add 1/2c. grated cheddar cheese and 1/4c. green onions or chives to flour mixture.
• Add 3/4c. grated parmesan cheese and 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary to flour mixture.