Cook\'s Country - 2019-06-07

COOK’S COUNTRY 19

PAT-IN-THE-PAN

BUTTERMILK BISCUITS

Makes 9 biscuits

If you have leftover buttermilk,

it can be frozen in ice cube trays,

transferred to zipper-lock freezer

bags, and frozen for up to a

month. Upon thawing, the whey

and the milk solids will separate;

simply whisk the buttermilk

back together before using it.

We developed this recipe using

Softasilk cake fl our. This recipe

can easily be doubled to yield

15 biscuits: Use a 13 by 9-inch

baking pan and extend the bak-

ing time by about 15 minutes.

We developed this recipe using a

metal baking pan.

12 tablespoons unsalted butter,

divided

4 cups (16 ounces) cake fl our,

plus extra for sprinkling

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons table salt

2 cups buttermilk, chilled

1. Adjust oven rack to middle
   position and heat oven to
   450 degrees. Grease 8-inch square
   baking pan with 1 tablespoon
   butter. Cut 10 tablespoons butter
   into ½-inch pieces and freeze
   until chilled, about 15 minutes.
   Let remaining 1 tablespoon
   butter sit at room temperature
   to soften.


2. Whisk fl our, baking powder,
   baking soda, and salt together
   in bowl. Add chilled butter to
   fl our mixture and smash butter
   between your fi ngertips into
   pea-size pieces. Gently stir in
   buttermilk until no dry pockets
   of fl our remain. Using rubber
   spatula, transfer dough to pre-
   pared pan.


3. Lightly sprinkle extra fl our
   evenly over dough to prevent
   sticking. Using your fl oured
   hands, pat dough into even layer
   and into corners of pan. Using
   bench scraper sprayed with veg-
   etable oil spray, cut dough into
   9 equal squares (2 cuts by 2 cuts),
   but do not separate. Bake until
   golden brown on top, about
   30 minutes.


4. Let biscuits cool in pan for
   5 minutes. Using thin metal
   spatula, slide biscuits onto wire
   rack. Brush tops with softened
   butter. Let cool for 10 minutes.
   Pull biscuits apart at cuts and
   serve warm.

Flaky versus Fluff y

There are many kinds of biscuits—and we’re fans of them all. The fl aky biscuit shown

on the left is made using the careful process of laminating (a technique also used to

make croissants), which involves rolling out the dough, folding it up, and repeating sev-

eral times to create alternating layers of butter and dough. The results are great, but

the path is steep. Our Pat-in-the-Pan Buttermilk Biscuits, shown on the right, are much

easier to make and bake up soft and fl uff y—perfect for mopping up sauce or gravy.

FLAKY LAYERS

Lots of work

FLUFFY INTERIOR

Fast and easy

Buttermilk or Bust
For many of our recipes that call for
buttermilk, we off er a substitution:
clabbered (or acidulated) milk. Curi-
ous if that would work here, we tested
clabbered whole, low-fat, skim, and
soy milks in these biscuits—and none
of them worked. Either the dough
was too wet to pat into the pan and
cut or the fl avor of the biscuits wasn’t
up to snuff. Buy buttermilk—these
biscuits are worth it (if you have any
left over, you can freeze it).
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Refrigerators were still a novelty in many corners of the United

States in 1931 when Lively B. Willoughby of Louisville, Kentucky,

patented his process for producing refrigerated biscuit dough

using a special baking powder

developed by Fleischmann’s

Yeast Company and a cylindrical

container originally developed for

epsom salts. Willoughby’s product

was called Ye Old Kentuckie Buttermilk Biscuits and sold well

throughout the 1930s and ’40s.

After a few corporate twists and turns, the Pillsbury Company

entered the picture in 1951, selling refrigerator biscuits made

using Willoughby’s process with a few improvements. The

1950s saw Pillsbury’s national profi le explode—the wildly popu-

lar Pillsbury Bake-Off was televised in prime time on CBS, and

the corporate jingle (“Nothin’ says lovin’ like somethin’ from the

oven”) became ubiquitous. But it wasn’t until 1965 that the stop-motion Pillsbury

Doughboy (real name: Poppin’ Fresh) burst onto the scene. His signature giggle

was originally voiced by Paul Frees, the actor who also provided the voice of Boris

in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

THE

AMERICAN

TABLE

Pat and Portion

Pat Dough into Greased Pan

No kneading or rolling required—simply

stir together the dough, transfer it to the

pan, and pat it in to fi ll.

Make Two Cuts in Each Direction

A greased bench scraper makes easy

work of cutting nine biscuits in the

pan—no rolling pin or cutter required.

The Pillsbury

Doughboy’s

real name is

Poppin’ Fresh.