Stop what you’re doing. Put down what you’re eating. The best biscuit recipe you’ve ever encountered is at hand, and it’s time to make biscuits for breakfast. To pair with the rich, flaky breakfast breads, we’ve got a pared-down version of homemade strawberry jam.
What makes a great biscuit? The quality of its flakes. That means that when you pull apart the two halves of a biscuit, the crumb tears into flakes. Biscuits should be light, yet rich. The outside should be crisp and golden, while the inside must be soft and, as already mentioned, flaky.
To achieve these requirements, a few tips. First, you must use cold butter and buttermilk. By keeping the butter very, very cold (as in, straight from the fridge), you make sure that little crumbs of it remain isolated in the dough, separating the flour into “layers.” Keeping the buttermilk cold helps preserve the cool temperature of the biscuits–until they hit the oven. Then, when the butter crumbs finally melt, the flour “layers” turn into those precious flakes.
We cut our biscuits out with a small round cutter–but you could use a glass.
While the biscuits are baking, cube a lot of strawberries, and let them simmer with sugar in a pot. They’re reduce and thicken, and that’s your jam. Pull the biscuits from the oven. You must eat them warm. Split them in half, spread with butter, and dollop on the jam. Yum!
Get the whole recipe below.
Homemade Biscuits with Strawberry Jam
INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup cold buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.
Using your hands, “cut” or “crumble” the butter into the flour mixture by rubbing the butter and flour mixture together until the butter is very thin and evenly distributed.
Using a spatula, wooden spoon or your hands, stir in the buttermilk and gently mix just until a dough forms, trying not to mix too much as this will toughen the dough.
Place the dough onto a floured surface and roll or press out until about 1” thick. Using a biscuit cutter or an inverted drinking cup, cut out 12 3” discs by pressing the cutter straight down as you cut—do not twist the cutter as this compacts and seals the edges of your biscuit, making them less light and flaky. (If you have extra dough, you can reroll it, but the biscuits won’t be as light and fluffy.) Place the cut out biscuits on a greased sheet pan and bake, on the middle rack and turning the pan halfway through, for 14 to 17 minutes, or until lightly browned and cooked through.
Serve with your choice of garnish, butter, jam or make egg sandwiches with them!
