Hailing from down home Virginia, my friend Lindsay is my link to Southern cooking at its finest. She never ceases to amaze the up-tight, health conscious, Northern eater with her sweet potato casserole for our Thanksgiving Feast (complete with brown sugar and marshmallows) or cheesy biscuits for Super Bowl Sunday. This tiny blond knows her way around every East Village Eatery, especially if it’s serving up waffle fries, mac n’ cheese, or pierogies.
Don’t get me wrong, she doesn’t indulge in this southern, Paula-Dean-ish instinct daily. She has qualifying half-marathon times and could stair-master most gals under the table. But, every once in a while, Lindsay lets her heritage shine. So, in honor of our Southern belle, I figured biscuits were a no-brainer.
What better place to look for a spot-on biscuit recipe than the Blackberry Farm Cookbook? (Answer: nowhere.) These guys do southern eating in style. And by style I mean better than anything I’ve ever tasted. So using good ol’ Blackberry’s recipe as a guide, I launched into Lindsay’s world of cheesy southern carbs.
Before you get started, take ½ a stick of butter out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature. You want it spreadable and soft. Take the other half of that stick of butter, cut it into small cubes, and put it in the freezer. You want it nice and cold. Preheat your oven to 400⁰.
Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar into a large bowl. Take our your cold, cubed ½ stick of butter and massage it into the flour mixture with your fingertips. You want to rub it in until the mixture resembles cornmeal or flakes. The more rubbed in, the better. Put the butter and flour mixture back in the fridge (the butter needs to stay cold) while you prepare the cheddar and rosemary.
When your cheese and rosemary is ready to go, make a well in the middle of the cold flour & butter mixture and pour in your buttermilk. Stir the mixture with a fork until it just comes together. Over-mixing is the enemy here. Under-mix and you’re golden. Pour the dough out onto a floured, non-wooden-cutting-board surface and flatten it with your hands (it helps to flour your hands) until it is about a 1 inch thick square. (You want to handle it as little as possible.) In the middle third of the square, spread out half the soft butter, half the grated cheddar, and half the chopped rosemary. Fold the dough up in thirds like a letter, and turn it 90 degrees (so, like a hand on a clock, the folded dough “letter” goes from 9 PM to 12 PM… get it?). Push it out into another 1 inch square and fold in, letter style, the rest of the butter, cheese, and herbs.
Flatten the dough into a 1 inch square one final time, and cut out your biscuits with a floured cutter. I used my ½ cup measuring cup, or you could use a drinking glass, or whatever circular thing you want. Depending on the size, you’ll get 9-12 biscuits. Place them on a lightly buttered baking tray (only butter directly under the biscuit – extra butter on the pan will burn and smoke in the oven).
Bake in a 400⁰ oven for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 325⁰ for another 5-10 minutes. They’re ready when they’re browned and crispy on the outside. Allow them to cool on a wire rack, or eat them piping hot! Lindsay, here’s to you!
Recipe:
- 1 ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ stick salted butter, cold and cut into cubes
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ stick salted butter, room temp and spreadable
- 1 cup freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
Makes 9-12 biscuits, depending on the size