Buttermilk Biscuits with Chives
adapted from Pinch My Salt1 1/4 c. cake flour
3/4 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/4 c. well-chilled butter, cut into 1/4-1/2 inch cubes
2 T. chopped chives
3/4 c. buttermilkPreheat oven to 500 degrees.
Sift flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. Add butter cubes and cut into mixture using a pastry blender until it looks like coarse meal (alternatively you can use two knifes, or simply your fingertips). Note: Do not over mix — the little chunks of butter help the biscuits stay flaky. Mix in chives and stir to coat.
Add buttermilk and stir lightly with a wooden spoon until dough comes together in a ball. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and pat into a 3/4 – 1 inch thick slab. Using a biscuit cutter, cut biscuits without twisting the cutter. Flip cut biscuits upside down onto an un-greased baking sheet (flipping the biscuits makes sure that any crimped edges don’t impede your biscuits from rising) . Form dough scraps into a mound and cut with biscuit cutter. Repeat until dough is gone.
Bake for 9-10 minutes, until biscuits are golden brown. Serve warm. Enjoy!
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I can’t quite remember when buttermilk became a regular fixture in my refrigerator. But somehow it did, and now I use it all the time — salad dressings, as a marinade for chicken, in biscuits, in cornbread, in pancakes — I even drink it straight!
I’ve been craving homemade buttermilk biscuits since I took a 24 hour train ride from Tacoma, WA to San Jose, CA two days ago. For the most part, I brought my own food to eat on the train, but when I woke up at 6 AM after almost 20 hours on the train, the cold spareribs and cheese bread I brought with me just didn’t sound so appetizing. So, I headed to the dining car and ordered myself a good ol’ american breakfast — coffee, scrambled eggs, grits, and a biscuit. I knew when ordering this was not going to be gourmet by any standards, but I at least hoped it would be decent. No such luck — I was greeted with a plateful of reconstituted powdered eggs, tasteless grits, and a styrofoam biscuit — yuck! (Thank goodness the coffee was ok — I could go a couple days without food, but CERTAINLY not without coffee…)
So, when I got home, I resolved to make some damn-good buttermilk biscuits to satiate the craving left by the Amtrak dining car. I was too tired after I got home yesterday to cook anything, so today was my day. I baked up a batch of biscuits, then made them into little sandwiches with shredded bbq’d spareribs and garlicky swiss chard — YUM!! and so much better than Amtrak…
About to board train from Tacoma to San Jose
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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Delectable Dairy, Grand Grains, Honorable Herbs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Those biscuits look wonderful! Buttermilk has become a fixture in my fridge, too! It seems like I put it in just about everything lately!
Hi Nicole — your recipe is great, and definitely lends itself to experimentation! how else do you use buttermilk?
I use buttermilk in pretty much all quick breads now, usually muffins. But it’s also great in mashed potatoes and homemade ranch dressing. You can soak chicken breasts in it before baking or frying. I know I use it for lots of other things but it’s not coming to me right now! I’m using it at the moment in a yeast bread recipe…whole wheat buttermilk oatmeal bread. Yum! :-)
Jen – you know how people will comment on a blog “I’m gonna make this” and you know they really aren’t. I’m telling you this looks delish and I have it saved in my recipes to make file. Definitely want to make this and love buttermilk. 20 hours on a train sounds terrible!
–Marc
jen, drinking buttermilk straight, I think you are becoming an Indian. We do that at our house all the time. Add some grated ginger, black pepper and cumin and you sort of have a lassi.
Marc – believe it or not, the train was rather peaceful, especially since I brought all sorts of homemade tasty treats — little pulled pork sandwiches, ripe peaches, blackberry cobbler etc. I could have done without the overnight stint, but the rest was pretty nice! I hope you enjoy the biscuits! I might add cheese next time I make the biscuits
maybelles mom — I have loved lassis since I spent time in India a few years back — I make a version now with plain yogurt, some water, a bit of sugar and ground cardamom. I definitely will try your version — I never considered how close in taste yogurt and buttermilk are
Oh Jen,
I never took train journey before, it sounds very relaxing!
Biscuits look so good, so puffy and I take your word that it is taste that ” damn-good buttermilk”
Ooooooh, happy day! I’ve had a serious craving for biscuits lately and these look perfect. In my previous biscuit making adventures, I find they’re awesome right out of the oven, but get a funky texture at room temperature. How do these fare?
elra — they were ‘damn good’!
Candace — I can’t really say about the room-temperature texture, as when I ate the leftovers I split them open then toasted them; the texture was just fine this way
yay for train travel! it’s not the most convenient thing to do on the west coast – i think it’s great that you embody such a sustainable way of life, and not just in the kitchen.
This might sound strange, but I was wondering if you think any other kind of flower would work here? I have a hard time digesting wheat flower.(Very possibly, the answer is ‘nothing’, because the wheat flower probably makes the buttermilk stand out and taste so fabulous…)
Saltpepperlime — I’ve had good luck using amaranth flour for biscuits before, but haven’t done too much experimentation beyond that. Generally for quick breads, a lower gluten content is desirable (i.e. cake flour, AP flour rather than bread flour); so the conclusion seems to follow that if you’re going to use low or gluten-free flours, biscuits & quickbreads are the place to do it. I bet using some potato flour would be tasty here too.
Thanks, Jen.
I have never heard of amarath flour…I’ll look into that and see if I can find it here in France.
Your idea about potato flour is really good! I’ll bet that goes great with buttermilk.
Thanks for the freezing tips!
I feel the same way as you about buttermilk, as did (does?) Elvis Presley, from what I’ve heard.
The chive biscuits are lovely. If geography and the seasons conspire to deprive you of chives, you might fry chopped green onions, draining the excess oil before incorporating. They’re certainly less subtle, but well paired with a little pepper and a nice old crumbly cheddar, either mixed in conservatively or served with.
Thanks for the site!
-david
or fresh tarragon and a little orange peel (no onions).
Hi David — Elvis liked buttermilk, eh? who’d have thought… the green onion version you mention sounds great, as does the orange/tarragon. This morning I am actually making a version of these where instead of forming biscuits, you pat the dough into a sort of crust with an indentation. You then fill it with a little gravy and top it with some sauteed spinach, crumbled breakfast sausage, and an egg (think breakfast biscuit pizza)