Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits

Hello Biscuit Bakers!

This is a recipe that needs no disclaimer--even the buttermilk is from scratch. No Bisquik, no Pillsbury. However, I must credit pinterest once again for the link to the recipe.

It was also the starting point of tonight's dinner including biscuits, Penne Rigatti, and Sauteed Vegetables. Usually when crafting dinner for three, you start with the main dishes and find sides to compliment them. Tonight, I wanted to make buttermilk biscuits and asked what my family wanted to go with them. I must say, I was shocked that they wanted plain pasta (in the case of my brother) and vegetables (for the rest of my family. But the result was surprisingly harmonious...

The Recipe: Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits

• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 stick butter
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup water
• (The milk and lemon juice could be substituted with 3/4 cup buttermilk)

The Process:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 
• Slice and dice your butter.
• Combine flour, salt, sugar, baking powder in a large bowl.
• Add the butter chunks, constantly mixing so that the butter becomes evenly dispersed.
• Hand mix until crumbly. It is very important to hand mix, or the biscuits will not be light and flaky.
• Mix in buttermilk, egg and just enough water to make a workable dough. 
• Mix the dough until it is just barely combined (I believe I may have overmixed slightly).
• Roll the dough onto a floured cutting board about 1 inch thick.
•  Cut with a 2 inch biscuit cutter, or a 2 inch round cup (any mothers will recognize the purple sippy cup I used...it was quite nice!). 
• My recipe made 16 biscuits, but it will make less if you roll the dough out thicker. 
• Place on a greased baking sheet (they were supposed to be touching one another and I failed to follow this...next time I will and let you know how it goes).
• Bake 11.5 minutes (the pinterest recipe says 12-15 minutes, but I think I should have stopped at 10 minutes) or until golden brown.

The calories: 

Flour: 1734 calores

Salt: 0 calories

Sugar: 9 calories

Milk: 65 calories

Lemon Juice: 6 calories

Baking Powder: 3 calories

Butter: 800 calories

Egg: 70 calories

Water: 0 calories

___________________
TOTAL per biscuit (for 16 biscuits): 168 calories

Okay, so this looks like a lot. But let's compare them to a few national restaurants....

One regular McDonald's biscuit: 260 calories
One Popeyes biscuit: 260 calories
One Dunkin Donuts biscuit: 280 calories
One Denny's buttermilk biscuit: 190 calories

So comparatively, it's not terrible! I don't feel as awful given that I ate five and swum 2000m today at a rather high pace, as well as biking four miles :)

What went right:
          They were great on the inside, and my family and I very much enjoyed them!

What went wrong:
          My little brother saw me baking and when he realized there was lemon in biscuits, he was able to taste it, so did not like them as much as he might have otherwise. Additionally, I believe I should have taken them out after 10 minutes, because a few of the biscuits were more cooked on the bottom than desired. I might even bake them for 9 minutes.

What I would do next time:
        Next time, I will change the bake time and bake them right next to one another so they can't spread out. It might also be fun to try them with mix-ins like bacon and cheese, or marinara and rosemary or basil.

Will I do this in college?:
        Yes, for sure! They are a great alternative to fast food biscuits, and do not take long to prepare.

Overall, I'm very glad I made these today, even though I'm not so happy I ate five...they were quite delicious!

We did not finish the biscuits, so I've frozen the last few to be reheated and enjoyed later...the recipe says this will be alright, so I'll let you know how they turn out!