The story goes that I ate 10 biscuits that morning. I don’t remember the number and I think that’s beside the point, because what I do remember is that my young teenager self thought that maybe, she didn’t actually sleep over at her friends house and maybe, in fact, was in breakfast paradise. Those were the butteriest (but light!), fluffliest, flakiest biscuits I had ever tasted and I’ve been waiting since 7th grade to come across them again. A few years ago, I embarked on a search for my dream biscuits, desperate to find a recipe that would become my go to. After trying and tweaking recipes every weekend for a year, I found the winner (no tweaking necessary!): Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat Biscuits by Samin Nosrat. Best Biscuits Ever.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat Biscuits

If you buy one cookbook, no, if you buy one book this year, make it this one? It’s basically a how to cook book. This is a gem to go through. The book starts with thorough lessons on Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat and how those elements make or break cooking, and then it ends with a beautiful recipes section to work through!

I wish I could offer you one of these biscuits right now. They are light (even though they are basically made with butter, cream, and flour) and the layers are tender and the flavor is rich and tangy from the buttermilk. You obviously should spread some butter on, letting it melt a little before you have that first taste. That’s the way my kiddos like them.

When I read the recipe for these biscuits, I was so desperate to make them but I didn’t have a stand mixer. I told my friend my delima and out of the kindness of her heart she called me over to her house last autumn. With 5 kids between us, happily playing in the yard (for now), my friend, her mama, and I got to work in the kitchen. It felt like magic, watching through the oven and seeing the dough rise tall and turn golden brown. When I tasted and realized these were the biscuits from 7th grade, I was so happy I could *almost* block out the sight of our kids “ruining” them in chocolate syrup and whipped cream.

Let’s Make Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat Biscuits

Grab your mixer, or your friend who has a mixer, and lets get started!

This is such an interesting recipe! You might question some of the steps, but just trust! Samin says and so we do. You add your flour and half the chilled butter and mix until the flour is the consistency of sand. See?

Add the rest of the butter and mix again until the large pieces of butter are the size of peas. At this point, depending on how warm my kitchen is, I’ll put the bowl into the freezer for 10 minutes before I get my hands into the flour! This is one of my favorite parts. You take the larger pieces of butter and flatten them between your fingers (quickly now!) and you imagine all the flaky layers this will make in your biscuits.

After you mix the cream and buttermilk in you’ll take your dough to a floured surface and pat it out into a rectangle so you can start folding it over. It’ll look shaggily suspect but just go with it.

You’ll fold. Fold again. Fold again. The dough will start to become smooth, almost like play dough. If it isn’t, pat it out and fold again.

Until you get this. It’ll be soft to work with. You’ll roll the dough out and start cutting some Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat beauties out!

Per my not having a stand mixer, you can imagine how I wouldn’t have a biscuit cutter either. Well, friends, I splurged the $4 and got one. Life changing. It’ll help so much. Wipe it out between each cut and that’ll help each biscuit stand tall and proud.

We’re getting so close now. Brush with cream and lets bake, lets bake, lets bake.

Freezer Instructions for Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat Biscuits

With school starting up here, I am planning on making a few batches and keeping them in my freezer. We can have fresh biscuits to go with our eggs in the morning for some comfort breakfasts. Hoping this will help get my oldest sleepyhead out of bed. She struggles to get up early and it’s even harder during the dark and cold Minnesota autumn and winter mornings, I’m hoping biscuits help. Freezing is easy. Just freeze unbaked biscuits and after they are solid, store in a plastic bag. Brush some cream on the tops and bake from frozen.

And top with butter. And honey. OR neither. These pretties can stand on their own for sure.

Best Biscuits Ever

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Author: Come Sit At The Table
Prep Time: 25 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins
Total Time: 45 mins
Yield: 16 biscuits 1x
Category: Breakfast
Cuisine: American

Print Recipe

Description

Samin Nosrat’s recipe for biscuits from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat! These are the lightest, fluffiest, most flavorful buttermilk biscuits.

Ingredients

Scale

16 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, chilled
1 cup buttermilk
31/2 cups all purpose flour (18 1/2 ounces)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup heavy cream, chilled, plus 1/4 cup more for brushing biscuits, chilled

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 450. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place the cubed butter and the buttermilk in the freezer for 15 minutes.
Measure the flour, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer (using the paddle attachment) and mix at low speed just until mixed together, around 30 seconds.
Add half the butter, a few pieces at a time. Mix until the flour mixture looks like sand (around 8 minutes).
Add in the rest of the butter and keep mixing for about 4 minutes. The butter should be the size of large peas.
I sometimes pop the bowl in the freezer for about 10 minutes before moving onto the next step, depending on how warm my kitchen is, this can be really helpful so the butter doesn’t get all melted in your fingers in the next step!
Transfer the mix to a large bowl and using your fingers, flatten the largest pieces of butter. Samin’s tip: pretend you’re making the “cha-ching! Cash money!” motion.
Create a well in the center and pour the chilled buttermilk and 1 cup of cream. Using wide circular strokes, stir the dough until it comes together (its okay that it’s shaggy looking!)
Flour the counter and place the dough on the counter. Pat until its about 3/4 inches high and about 9 inches by 13 (gentle now!).
Now it’s time to fold: fold it in half, then again, and then a third time. Roll out into 9 inches by 13 inches again and if the top of the dough is not smooth, repeat the folding and rolling process again.
Lightly flour the counter once more, and roll the dough until its about 1 1/4 inches thick. Cut straight down with a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter (if the dough sticks to the cutter, wipe it clean between cuts. I usually do this in between each cut so the biscuit will rise straight up). Reroll the scraps and cut the remaining dough into biscuits (about 14-16 biscuits)
Place the biscuits 1/2 inch apart on the baking sheet and bush with cream. Bake at 450 degrees for 8 minutes, then rotate the pans and switch the pans oven positions. Bake another 8-10 minutes, until they are golden brown and light when you pick them up.
Cool biscuits on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Serve warm with honey butter!!!!

Notes

To freeze, place the cut biscuits on a baking sheet and place in the freezer until solid. Store in freezer safe bags for up to six weeks. To bake, preheat the oven to 450 and brush the biscuits with heavy cream. Cook frozen biscuits (do not defrost) for 10 minutes. Lower the oven to 375 and bake another 10-12 minutes.