Biscuits

I’m not much of a baker, but I make really good biscuits. That’s because they happen to fall right into my wheelhouse as a baker, which sits somewhere near the crossroads of Lazy Efficient St. and Impatient Ln. I can have them ready to go into the oven in the time it takes it to heat (to 450°F; biscuits do not mess around). And I almost always have the few required ingredients on hand, or can fake them.

The recipe you use is not important. I use an old one from 4H: 2 C of flour to 1 TB each of baking powder and sugar, 1 t salt, 1/4 C butter, 3/4 C milk (for a dozen 3” biscuits or 8 4” ones). Pretty sure this is the same recipe your grandma uses. The ingredients themselves are not terribly important either: you can sub watered down Greek yoghurt for the milk, as I have on many occasions; or shortening for butter, as I have in a pinch.

What matters is the technique, which favors the unprepared and impatient baker (aka moi). I always keep my butter in the freezer to minimize what I call ”refrigerator burn” (oxidation and odor absorption), which means it’s never “chilled” for cutting into the flour mix. But what frozen butter is perfect for is *grating*, a trick I discovered by accident when I was in a hurry one morning and then learned that everyone else does now for precisely the same reason—it yields perfect-sized, ice-cold little butter granules to laminate into the dough and create fluffy layers. That’s the other trick; you need to knead the dough a bit—well, at least fold it a few times—to achieve proper fluff. A lot of recipes will warn you on the pain of death, or at least humiliation, not to “overwork” the dough, but trust me, you don’t want to be too precious with it. After you dump the shaggy mess out on your lightly floured countertop or cutting board, squish it into a ball and then flatten and fold on itself 5-6 times. The folding develops just enough gluten to make layers and laminates the butter between them.