I cannot even begin to describe how delicious these biscuits are! This recipe was inspired by a dish described in Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber. My mom took her Granny's buttermilk biscuit recipe, made some lovely additions, and I get the privilege of sharing this recipe with y'all (I asked for permission)! Without further ado!
NOTES
There is no rhyme or reason to how much salt to use to draw out the water. There is no other salt added to the recipe so be generous. I use about 1 tablespoon.
If you don't have cheese cloth, a clean kitchen towel will work but might need a little more elbow grease to get all the water squeezed out!
Grating the butter, in my opinion, allows for the butter to be better distributed through the dough and needs to be handled less than if you cut the butter into small cubes.
If you have fresh thyme, double the amount to 1 teaspoon.
No buttermilk, no problem. Place 1 tablespoon of distilled white vinegar into your measuring cup and then add whole milk to measure to 1 cup. Allow this to sit for at least 5 minutes. The vinegar with curdle the milk and voila! Homemade buttermilk.
These are best served warm. You could brush with more melted butter or some orange marmalade. Use a high quality marmalade like Bonne Maman. I also have a local jam vendor that made a blackberry vanilla basil jam that just about knocked my socks off alone but added to this biscuit...just let me be!
I also mixed 2 tablespoons of heavy cream with the 2 tablespoons of melted butter and poured it over the top of the biscuits before baking. This increased my baking time by about 5-7 minutes but they are so light and fluffy! If you add the heavy cream I would recommend putting your pan on a sheet pan just in case it bubbles up.
As always, if you make this recipe, please let me know how you like it in the comments below. I would love to know how you made this your own or if you kept it as is! If you share it on social media, please tag me @Myranda.McCaffreyNowak on IG, FB and TikTok!
