What can you substitute for buttermilk
Is your don’t have buttermilk, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup and fill it with milk. Let it sit for about 5 minutes to thicken.
While these biscuits are fantastic without any additions, sometimes you need something over the top. Adding caramelized onions and gruyére is a heavenly combination. However, you can leave them out completely if you don’t have 30 minutes to caramelize your onions and substitute green onions and whatever cheese you like.
What I’ve been doing lately is to make a large batch of caramelized onions and refrigerate them. Then they’re ready to add to a quiche or biscuits as needed. If you need to read up on how to caramelize onions, check out my technique for French Onion Rounds.
Of course you can leave them plain and just serve them with butter and you can’t go wrong.
How to make buttermilk biscuits:
You only need to keep a couple of things in mind to make perfect biscuits. First start with cold butter and buttermilk. The colder the better. Next try to use a good quality flour. I discovered that Bob’s Red Mill not only makes almond flour, which I use all the time, but they make an All Purpose Flour. Their flour is as light as air, whole grain and unbleached with no Bromates. When you start with quality products, it really makes a difference in something like biscuits.
Step 1: Add the dry ingredients to a food processor and add COLD chunks of butter, processing until the butter is pea size. You want the butter to still be in little chunks when you add the buttermilk. If adding cheese and onions, add it now.
Step 2: Add buttermilk and process just until the dough starts to come together. It should look pretty messy. If you don’t have a food processor handy, you can use a pastry cutter, try to avoid using your hands which will melt the butter. If that happens, you don’t get the nice pockets of air that make a biscuit tall and flaky.
More homemade bread recipes
- Soda bread
- Pull apart bread
- Potato rolls
- Challah rolls
- Sour cream rolls
- Onion yeast rolls
- Cornbread biscuits
- Pineapple rolls
Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 16 tablespoons butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 4 ounces gruyere
- ½ cup caramelized onions 1-2 onions
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoon cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425º. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
- In a food processor, add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Process until combined. Add cold butter and press until it resembles coarse meal. Transfer to a large bowl. Add cheese and onions and stir to combine.
- Add buttermilk and mix lightly just until dough comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a rectangle. Cut into 4ths and stack each fourth on top of each other. Pat into a rectangle and repeat 3 more times.
- Pat or roll dough to 1 inch thickness. Using a 21/2 inch round cutter, cut dough without twisting. Place on prepared pan and freeze for 10 minutes.
- Remove from freezer. Beat egg and cream together in a small bowl. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with pepper.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
