Biscuits
These biscuits work great, in biscuits and gravy, on the side of soups and stews, split for shortcake or as breakfast sandwiches. Keeps up to a week in an airtight container; to serve, split the stale biscuits in half, brush with melted butter, arrange on a baking sheet, and broil until golden brown. Or reheat in a steam oven on light steam. The recipe's magic is in fully mixing the butter and flour, using low-protein flour to keep the biscuits from getting tough and make them fluffy and light, using yogurt for hydration and structure, to get straight, tall, moist biscuits, but use baking soda to offset the yogurt's acidity and help with browning. Patting them keeps the biscuits from being crushed and too dense, for lighter biscuits. Note: This recipe works best with plain, unsweetened, unstrained yogurts that include nothing but cultured milk in the ingredients list. Strained yogurts like Greek yogurt, or those that include thickeners, gums, and stabilizers, can produce biscuits with a gummy texture.
Servings: 20 small biscuits
Equipment
- 10-inch (#8) cast-iron skillet
- 1¾-inch cookie cutter
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 255 g all-purpose flour (9 oz)
- 15 g granulated sugar (½ oz)
- 15 g baking powder (1 tbsp)
- 2½ g baking soda (½ tsp)
- 7½ g koshering salt (1½ tsp)
Wet Ingredients 1
- 110 g unsalted butter (4 oz) cut into ½-inch cubes
Wet Ingredients 2
- 255 g yogurt (9 oz, about 1 cup plus 2 tbsp) plain
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 400°F.
- Sift flour into a medium bowl, then add sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; whisk until well combined (this may take up to 1 minute).Add the butter, toss to break up the pieces, and smash each cube flat within the dry ingredients. Continue smashing and rubbing until the butter has mostly disappeared into a floury mix, although a few larger, Cheerio-sized pieces may remain. This can also be done with 4 or 5 pulses in a food processor, just take care not to overdo it.The prepared mix can be refrigerated for up to 3 weeks in an airtight container, then used as directed below.
- Add yogurt, and stir with a flexible spatula until the flour has been fully absorbed. The dough will seem rather crumbly and dry at first, but keep mixing until it finally comes together (don't worry about over-mixing; until the flour has been fully incorporated, the greater concern is under-mixing).Once the dough forms a rough ball, turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
- With your bare hands, gently pat the dough into a squarish shape about ½ inch thick, then fold in half; repeat twice more for a total of 3 folds, using only enough flour to keep your hands from sticking. Finish by patting the dough to a thickness of ¾ inch. If needed, dust away any excess flour.
- Cut into 1¾-inch rounds and arrange in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Gather scraps into a ball, pat and fold a single time, then cut as many more biscuits as you can. The final round of scraps can be gathered and shaped into a single biscuit by hand.
- Bake until the biscuits are well-risen and golden brown, about 20 minutes.
- Let the biscuits cool for about 5 minutes to help set their crumb, then serve.
