Buttermilk Biscuits from Baking at Home with the Culinary Institute of America.
With the advice of Alton Brown, I put all the ingredients in the freezer for about 30 minutes so they would be nice and cold when it came time to mix. The butter was so cold that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to mix it in to the specified "pea size" but I guess I managed it. After adding the milk to the dry ingredients, the dough was sooooo sticky. I thought it was over and that I had messed up big time. It took a LOT of dusting with flour for it to get to a manageable point. Then it actually rolled out pretty easily, I just kept dusting it.
I have no biscuit cutter, so I turned a 3-inch custard cup upside down and used that. It worked OK, but next time I think I'll use a washed tin can because it will cut through the dough better. Once again, the inconsistent oven temps gave me trouble. It was set to 425, but when I was about to put in the 2nd tray, it was somewhere between 475-500. DANG!
The biscuits looked really pretty. I brushed the tops with milk as the recipe suggested, and I don't know how that effects their browning. It was neat to see the definite difference between the first batch and the second (re-rolled from scraps) batch. The second were much flatter, almost squished-looking.
Here's the problem that's sending me to the grocery store: I've got the wrong salt. My husband thought that grinding up sea salt would be the same as the table salt you could use for baking. NOT SO!! And I've since heard that sea salt granules are actually a different shape than table salt, so it sticks to the food differently. This definitely explains why these biscuits as well as the pumpkin bread I tried before just seemed a little bland.
Anyway, I think it's time for some cookies, so I need to pick out a new recipe!
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