My Cheffie Daughter Amanda, kitchen manager at a chain called Noodles and Company, had Thanksgiving off and requested Biscuits and Sausage Gravy for breakfast. In the past I made Alton Browns recipe and although I thought they were good, the family was not crazy about them. They thought they were too crumbly and a bit dry. Needless to say I didn't get frequent requests for biscuits. I decided to revisit this thread looking for something easy. I decided to combine a few techniques with Ray, Noboundries, recipe and some of my own tweaks. My long time goal was a biscuit that was light and tender yet firm enough to handle gravy or assorted spreads including sandwich fillings without being crumbly and falling apart....
I NAILED IT!!! Sorry No Pics, I was not expecting THIS good...
Southern Sandwich Biscuits in a KitchenAid Mixer
Ingredients
4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the board.
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbs baking powder (use one without aluminum)
2 tsp kosher salt
12 Tbs unsalted butter, 3 Half sticks, Frozen Solid!
1 3/4 cups Buttermilk, very cold.
1/2 cup Sour Cream.
2 Tbs Sugar
Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 450°F.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in the bowl of the mixer, stir together with your fingers.
3. Course grate the frozen butter into the flour in three installments, or 1/2 stick at a time, tossing together with your fingers after each installment.
4. Install the flat Paddle attachment. Add the buttermilk and sour cream then mix on lowest speed for about 15 seconds. Scrape the bowl, getting the dry stuff on the bottom and beat on second speed for 15 seconds more.
5. Turn the dough out onto a floured board, cleaning the dough off the paddle. Flour the top of the dough well and pat out to a 1" thick rectangle.
6. Fold the dough in thirds, like a letter, turning 90° and patting out to 1" thick. Repeat 3 times. Gently press the dough down to a 1" thick rectangle for the last time..
7. Use a round cutter, frequently dipped in flour, to cut into 3" rounds pulling the scraps to the side.
8. Important! STACK the scraps and press them together. Fold and press again 1-2 times until fairly uniform. Press out to 1" thick and cut additional biscuits, repeating this step until you get 12 biscuits.
9. Place the biscuits on a lightly greased cookie sheet- if you like soft sides, put them touching each other. If you like "crusty" sides, put them about 1 inch apart- these will not rise as high as the biscuits put close together.
10. Bake for about 13 to 15 minutes until the biscuits are a light golden brown on top and bottom. Do not over bake.
Thanks Ray for the starting recipe and the rest of you guys for posting your Tricks!...JJ