Ingredients:

  • 2.5 cups all-purpose flour (312g)
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder (15g)
  • 0.25 teaspoon baking soda (1.5g)
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt (6g)
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (12g)
  • 0.5 cup unsalted butter, frozen and grated (113g)
  • 1 cup cold full-fat buttermilk (240ml)
  • 2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter (28g)

Instructions:

  1. Whisk the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl until fully combined.
  2. Grate the frozen butter. Use a box grater to shred the 0.5 cup frozen butter directly into the flour mixture.
  3. Incorporate the fat. Use a fork to gently toss the butter shreds until they are coated in flour. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs with visible butter bits.
  4. Pour in the 1 cup cold buttermilk and stir with a spatula just until a shaggy dough forms. Note: Overmixing at this stage will develop too much gluten and make the biscuits tough.
  5. Flour your surface and pat the dough into a rough rectangle. Fold it in half, rotate 90 degrees, and repeat 5 or 6 times. This creates the lamination for those visible layers.
  6. Pat the dough to 1 inch thickness. Use a 2.5 inch cutter to press straight down — do not twist! Twisting seals the edges and kills the rise.
  7. Place the biscuits on a parchment lined sheet so they are just touching. Note: Side by-side placement helps them climb upward rather than spreading outward.
  8. Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 15 minutes until the tops are deeply golden and the kitchen smells like a bakery.
  9. Brush the tops with the 2 tablespoons of melted butter immediately after removing them from the oven. Listen for the faint sizzle as the butter hits the hot crust.