Best Ever Biscuits
Ina Pinkney has quite the following in Chicago where she fed eager diners for over 30 years at her restaurant where she excelled with breakfast, lunch and brunch oriented dishes. These are her baking powder biscuits, made extra light with buttermilk and baking soda as well. In her book, Ina’s Kitchen, she recounts how she came to be a restaurant owner and shares her favorites such as these biscuits and her version of Heavenly Hots.
Reprinted with permission from Ina’s Kitchen
- 10 oz. Flour, all purpose
- 1 Tbsp. Baking powder
- ½ tsp. Baking soda
- ¼ tsp. Salt
- 1 Tbsp. Sugar
- 4 Tbsp. Buttermilk powder
- 4 oz. Butter, unsalted, cut into pieces, frozen
- 1 c. Water, ice cold
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone liner.
- Into a food processor, put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar and buttermilk powder. Blend thoroughly.
- Add the butter and pulse 6-8 times and then run for 4 seconds more.
- Put the mix into a bowl and add the ice water. Stir gently, but thoroughly, until it forms a shaggy dough.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead about 10 times.
- Pat into a circle about 1-inch thick and use a 2-inch biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits.
- NOTE: Use only a straight up and down motion…. never twist. Twisting the cutter may prevent biscuits from rising properly.
- Place on prepared sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned. (Leftovers, if there are any, can be frozen.)
– I always keep weighed and portioned cut butter in containers in the freezer. ALWAYS.
– I use dried buttermilk powder, which you can find in the baking section. Since buttermilk usually comes in quarts, it always goes to waste. The powder keeps forever. Directions are on the canister.
– In order to be ‘ready’ for biscuit craving, I make the dry mix with the butter. Then I put the mix in a container in the freezer so all I have to do is add the cold water and bake!
Keeping the mix ready in the freezer is brilliant!