Easy Buttermilk Biscuits... from Scratch!

Biscuits are not unfamiliar at our home. They are one of Matt’s favorite breakfast dishes, especially when paired with sausage. I love biscuits with melted butter and raspberry jam, and can eat them by the plateful.

It’s hard to find a flaky, flavorful recipe for buttermilk biscuits that doesn’t involve a pre-made mix, or that doesn’t feel painfully excruciating and complicated. That’s why I love the recipe found in Mac and Cheese Cookbook by Allison Arevalo and Erin Wade.

These lovely cooks suggest not over-mixing your dough, which allows for a fluffier, lighter biscuit. I was skeptical at first, but after eating these beauties, I have a hard time believing I’ll try anything else. As a bonus, this biscuit recipe is deceptively simple, making them a perfect choice for brunch, breakfast and snack time.  Enjoy!

Easy Buttermilk Biscuits 

Ingredients: 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon kosher salt

8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, plus melted butter for topping your biscuits

1 cup buttermilk

Instructions:

•  Preheat your oven to 450°F. Grab a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper. 

• Mix your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 

• Cut your butter into small chunks or pats, and slowly incorporate the cold butter into your flour. Use your pastry cutter to blend (if you’ve got a mixer, use your paddle attachment on a low speed). Your batter will be coarse. 

• Add your buttermilk and mix your batter until the ingredients are barely mixed together.

• Turn your dough out onto a floured surface, and pat it into a thick round, about an inch thick.

• Take a cookie cutter and cut rounds of dough (about 2-inches in diameter). Place them onto your lined baking sheet, and brush them with melted butter. 

• Bake for about 10 minutes, or until your tops are a nice, golden brown. Allow them to cool, and then enjoy them by the bunches.

Sugar Donut Muffins for your Valentine Love Muffin

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope you are enjoying yourselves, regardless to whether you are single or in a relationship. I love Valentine’s Day because people are extra affectionate, and my students give me chocolate. No matter what, I win.

It’s also the first Valentine’s Day that I get to share with my new husband. Last year, my hubs was living 2,000 miles away, and while we were together for the holiday, it was bittersweet because we both knew our time together had an expiration date.

This year, we got to wake up late, and I decided to surprise my husband with something a little sweet. Matt’s not a big fan of breakfast foods in general, but will eat them when forced. Getting Matt to eat things that are delicious, good for you, and fun to make became a life mission.

This recipe for sugar donut muffins, pulled from Stylish Cuisine, hit two of my three requirements. I definitely recommend it for any time you want something sweet, but aren’t in the mood for something elaborate.

Sugar Donut Muffins
approx. 10 servings regular muffins, 24 mini-muffins

¾ cup sugar
1 large egg
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼  tsp salt
¼  tsp ground nutmeg **I used a scant ¼ of allspice instead because of allergies
¼  cup vegetable oil
¾  cup milk 
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp butter, melted

½ cup sugar, for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.

2. 

   Eggs and sugar mixture should
   be light and airy

   In a large bowl, beat together sugar and  egg until light in color.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract.
   
   
4. Divide batter evenly into 10 muffin cups or ~24 mini-muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
   
   
   
5. Bake for 15-18 minutes for standard-sized muffins or 11-12 minutes for mini-muffins, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. I decided to try out the suggestion I'd read about, and immediately lowered the temperature of the oven to 325 degrees once I put in my muffins, and added a few minutes to my cooking time. This let my muffins rise nice and high. HOWEVER, if you pull them out too soon, they look like little bald men heads on top. Cook all the way through!
   
   

   

   Look at that lift.

   
   
6. While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour remaining sugar into a small bowl. When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from the pan and roll in sugar. Cool on a wire rack.

These things are perfect as they are.

My husband decided that he wanted to eat these bad boys with buttercream frosting, because... sugar tastes better with sugar. *sigh*

So to get back at him for that, I sent him, the biggest Bears fan ever, this lovely Valentine's E-Card. 

Hope you enjoy your Valentine's Day!