Buttermilk Biscuits

3 Cups Cake Flour – White Lily or pastry flour is fine too
2 Tbsp. Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
1 Tsp. Kosher Salt
1/3 Cup Unsalted Butter – Cold and cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 1/2 Cups Buttermilk – Cold

Preheat the oven: A super hot oven is critical when baking biscuits. Preheat the oven to 475° for a good 30 minutes.

Combine the dry ingredients: Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and butter in a large bowl.

Cut the fat and flour: Work the butter into the flour with your hands for 2-3 minutes. Here’s the important part. Blend the dough until fat starts to make the flour crumbly. You want to still see large pieces of butter as well as small ones. If you can’t see chunks of butter and your mixture becomes mealy and dry, you’ve over belnded the dough.

Add the buttermilk: Add the cold buttermilk to the flour in thirds. You may need a bit more or less buttermilk depending on the weather. The biscuit dough should be a little wet when finished.

Flatten the dough: Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Flatten the dough with your hands until 1″ thick, no rolling pins needed! Cut the biscuits with a biscuit cutter and place on a baking tray. Brush each biscuit with melted butter.

Bake: Bake the biscuits for 8-9 minutes, until just golden on top. Brush with more butter once out of the oven.

Serve with honey and your fixin’ for some good eatin’!

Earlier this week I discussed how to make a no-fail pie dough for the perfect crust. So naturally I’ve been anxious to post our first pie recipe! And whats a better recipe to start with than good old fashioned blueberry pie? Some might say apple, but I say nonsense! Blueberries are the perfect balance of sweet and sour. And the really good ones are only available for about a month a year. Being from Michigan, blueberries are a local treat widely available towards the end of summer. I’m pretty sure I’m just partial to blueberries and I’m eating a lot of them right now, so expect to see more on the topic. : )

Pie Crust

2 Pieces of Pinned Pie Dough – Simply follow our easy pie dough recipe

Once the dough is pinned: Place one piece of dough in your pie pan, gently push the dough into the corners of the pan and trim off the excess. Place into the freezer for 10 minutes. Reserve the second piece of dough for the top crust.

Blueberry Pie Filling

6 Cups Fresh Blueberries
1/2 Cup White Sugar
1/3 Cup Corn Starch
1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
Zest of 1 Lemon
3 Tbsp. Butter – Unsalted and cut into small cubes

Combined ingredients: Mix all ingredients gently in a bowl and place in the frozen pie crust. Take the reserved top piece of dough and place on top of the berry filling. Tuck the top dough under the edge of the bottom dough, and crimp the edges with your fingers or a fork, your fingers are preferred. Chill the pie in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven: Preheat the oven to 375°. Make an egg wash by whisking one egg with a tablespoon of milk. Once the pie has chilled for 30 minutes, remove from the fridge, brush with the egg wash and cut 3 small slits in the top of the pie.

Bake the pie: Bake the pie for about an hour on a sheet tray lined with foil for easy cleanup. The pie may take a few minutes longer or a few minutes less. Once you see the juices thick you know the pie is done.

Cool the pie: Cool the pie completely before serving , at least and hour and a half. I can’t stress this enough, cool the pie completely! The filling will be very loose when warm. It’s still mighty delicious, but loose.

Enjoy!

I love making pie dough! It’s just about the quickest, easiest and most versatile you’ll find around! You can use this recipe for practically everything including fried pies, empanadas and even samosas! Pie dough is made using a baking technique called the biscuit method. Essentially you cut your fat into flour, add your wet ingredients and viola you have the basic technique used for making scones, biscuits, pie dough, streusel and shortbread! I like an all butter pie dough, without lard or shorting, for the rich butter flavor. Some might say an all butter dough is less flaky than one with lard or shorting, I don’t find that to be true. To me, an all butter crust is the only way to go and that’s coming from a very lactose intolerant chef. One thing I’ve learned for certain in my life is you just can’t beat good butter.

Pie Dough

2 1/2 Cups AP Flour – Sifted
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Cup Butter – Cold, unsalted and cut into small cubes 1/2″
1/4 – 1/3 Water – Ice cold

Blend the butter and flour: Cut the cold butter into small 1/2″ pieces and add to the flour and salt. Here is the important part, don’t over blend the fat into the flour! You can use your hands or the pastry blender shown in the pictures. I prefer using my hands because it allows me to really feel the dough and when I’ve blended it enough.

Blend the dough until fat starts to make the flour crumbly. You want to still see large pieces of butter as well as small ones. If you can’t see chunks of butter and your mixture becomes mealy and dry, you’ve over blended the dough.

Start adding the water: Once the butter is cut-in, start adding the ice cold water a 1/4 cup at a time. Temperature and humidity play a huge role in how much water is needed, so the end amount my range a bit. You want to add just enough so the dough forms a ball, but doesn’t feel wet.

Work the dough: Once the dough has formed a ball, work the dough by kneading it 3 or 4 times, just to bring it together and make the dough tight. Cut the dough into four equal pieces, flatten them into discs and place in the refrigerator to rest for at least and hour before using. Each piece will be a perfect size for a top or a bottom crust once pined.

Tips for rolling: The longer the dough rests in the fridge the easier it will be to roll. Use flour when rolling, but try not to be excessive. A nice crust is usually around 3/8″ thick and will not fall apart when handled. Try to remove any excess flour from the pinned dough with a pastry brush.

Tips for blind baking: Blind baking is the process of simply baking the crust before any filling is in it. Doing this helps to ensure a flaky and cooked crust. I only blind bake when I’m using the crust more as a shell, like a tart or a pie that has a filling that doesn’t need to be baked. Generally if my pie does not have pie crust for a top layer, I blind bake.

Here’s how to blind bake with success. Once you pin out your dough, place it in your pie dish, cut off the excess dough, stab it with a fork a few times (a process known as docking) and place it back in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. This allows the gluten to relax and helps the dough not shrink in the oven. Once chilled place a piece of parchment paper over the dough and fill with beans. The beans help the dough to hold its shape when baking.

Storing for the long haul? Pie dough will last about a week in the fridge but will last around six months in the freezer. Just wrap it tight with plastic wrap, place it in a zip lock and put in the freezer. I always make sure to flatten my pie dough into circles before I freeze it. This way it stacks nice and thaws quickly!

For the Cake

½ lb Butter – Unsalted
2 ½ Cups White Sugar
4 Extra Large Eggs – At room temperature
Zest of 6 lemons
3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
½ Tsp. Baking Powder
½ Tsp. Baking Soda
1 Tsp. Kosher Salt
¼ Cup Lemon Juice – Freshly Squeezed
3/4 Cup Buttermilk – At room temperature
1 Tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract

For the Glaze

2 Cups Confectioners Sugar
3 ½ Tbsp. Lemon Juice – Freshly Squeezed

Cream the butter and sugar: Combine the butter and sugar and cream in a mixer, using a paddle, until light and fluffy. With the mixer on a low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, and the lemon zest.

Add the dry ingredients: Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl combine the lemon juice, the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures to the batter in three additions. Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans, smooth the tops, and bake at 350° for 45 minutes to an hour or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

Make the glaze: Combine the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice in a bowl, mixing with a wire whisk until smooth. Pour over the top of the warm/cooled cakes and allow the glaze to drizzle down the sides.

Serving suggestion: Simply top a slice of the lemon buttermilk cake with a few of your favorite fresh berries and a dollop whipped cream! The best!