Ultimate Flaky Buttermilk Biscuit

I couple of months ago I came across a recipe for the "Ultimate Flaky Buttermilk Biscuit" in "Cook's Illustrated"  Sept-Oct 2015).  I have tried this recipe and find it excellent.  I made one main change in the recipe to make a thinner biscuit and I bake the trimmings rather than throw them away.  Here is the recipe and pictures of the results.

3 1/2 cups (15 oz.) all purpose flour (King Arthur preferred)

4 tspn. double acting baking powder

1/2 tspn. baking soda

1 tspn salt (1 1/2 tspn if butter is unsalted)

(optional 2 Tbs sugar)

2 sticks (1/4 lb each) butter

1 1/4 cup (10.8 oz,) chilled buttermilk 

Place refrigerated butter in the freezer for 30 minutes; do not freeze hard.  Preheat oven to 400°F.

Mix thoroughly the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and the sugar (if used).  Coat the sticks of butter with flour.  Using a box grater with large holes, grate 7 tablespoons of each stick of butter directly into the flour mixture.  Place the remaining 2 tablespoon of butter into a dish for melting it .  Gently toss the grated butter with the flour mixture.

Add the buttermilk to the flour mixture and fold it into the flour mixture.  The mixture will look dry and crumbly.  Transfer the mixture to a floured work surface and dust with flour.  With your floured hands and a bench scrapper, shape the dough into a rough 7-inch square.  With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 12 by 9 inch rectangle.  During this rolling, and during future rollings, turn the dough over at the halfway point, because the top will elongate more than the bottom.  Fold the dough into thirds as you would a business letter, using your bench scraper and a spatula to release the dough from the work surface.

Again roll the dough into a 12 by 9 inch rectangle and fold the dough into thirds as you would a business letter.  Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for ten minutes after the second and the fourth rolling and folding procedure.  Do a total of five rolling and folding procedures.

By the fifth time the dough will appear smooth   After the fifth roll and fold, roll the dough into to a square 8 1/2 inch by 8 1/2 inch*.  Cover the dough with a sheet of plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.  After thirty minutes transfer the dough to a floured cutting board, and with a floured, sharp chef’s knife, trim off 1/4 inch from each side and discard the trimmings.  Cut the dough into nine equal squares of dough (2 2/3 inch on each side). Melt the reserved butter and brush the tops of the dough with it.  Freeze the raw biscuits for an hour or more before baking.  The raw biscuit dough may be frozen for as long as two weeks.

Bake the still frozen dough in the 400°F oven until the tops are a golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes.  (Bake on parchment paper to prevent the bottoms from becoming too brown.)

*Note:  If you prefer a smaller and thinner biscuit, you may do the final rolling to a square of 9 1/2 inches on a side, refrigerate for 30 minutes, trim off 1/4 inch on each side, and cut into sixteen biscuits, 2 1/4 inches on each side.  I make the edge trimmings into figure eights (inifinity symbols0 and bake.

Modified from Andrew Janigian, Cook’s Illustrated, Sept-Oct 2015.