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.Tips for Perfect Buttermilk Biscuits

Source of Recipe

Eula Mae Dore (posted on internet somewhere)


Recipe Introduction

notes were from original poster

List of Ingredients

1 Good recipe for biscuits
1 Light touch with dough


Recipe

Here are some of Eula mae Dore's biscuit-making tips: +

First go out and replace your baking powder, unless you bought it within the last four months. More baking flops occur from old, tired baking powder than from any other cause. And don't rely on the old test of checking the freshness of baking powder by putting a spoonful in a glass of water to see if it fizzes. Baking powder, like a carbonated drink, can fizz a little and still be almost flat. Buying new baking powder costs very little when you
consider the cost of baking failures.

+ Next, Eula Mae insists that sifting the dry ingredients four times is the reason her biscuits are perfect. I tested the recipe sifting and not sifting and, indeed, sifting does make a slightly higher, more tender biscuit.

+ After you cut the biscuit dough, put the pieces on a baking sheet upside down. This ensures a taller, lighter biscuit by making sure any edges crimped by the pressure of the cutting don't interfere with the rise. (The French use the same trick when making puff pastry.)

+ The tip that helped me the most was using less flour than usual. Eula Mae's dough was soft and sticky. She handled it gently, dusting her hands and the dough with only enough flour to make the dough manageable. The result was a lighter biscuit.