CRUSTY BUTTERMILK BISCUITS

Crusty Buttermilk Biscuits image

Provided by Martha Stewart

Time 45m

Yield Makes about 35 biscuits

Number Of Ingredients 6

3 cups wheat flour
2 cups cake flour, such as Anson Mills White Lammas, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 cups best-quality buttermilk

Steps:

Preheat oven to 500°F. In a large bowl, whisk together both flours, baking powder, and salt until thoroughly combined. Using your fingers, quickly work in butter, rubbing between your fingers to flatten as you go. (Roughly half of butter should have the consistency of very coarse meal; the rest should be in largish flattened pieces.) Make a well in mixture; pour in buttermilk. Stir quickly just until dough is well moistened and just beginning to form a mass. (It will be very wet and sticky.)
Turn out dough onto a generously floured board or biscuit marble; sprinkle just enough flour over it to make it easy to handle. Knead quickly, without applying too much pressure as you fold. (The goal is to develop structure quickly without deflating.) Once it forms a cohesive dough, move to side of board; scrape up kneading flour.
Sprinkle a fresh, light dusting of flour on board. (Do not flour top of biscuit dough.) Flouring only hands and rolling pin as needed, roll out dough approximately 1/2 inch thick. With a floured fork, pierce all the way through at 1/2-inch intervals. Using a 1 3/4-inch round cutter, stamp out biscuits (without rotating cutter); place them on parchment-lined baking sheets, almost touching. Gather and reroll scraps; punch out and place more rounds. Bake until biscuits are puffed slightly and brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Serve warm.