 (Photos by Tom McCorkle for The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post) | Week 6: It's not dinner without biscuitsMany families have a chosen dinner bread. We are a biscuit family. Whatever we have for dinner, be it spaghetti and meatballs or Dad's baked-in-a-bag chicken, the last thing to settle on the table is a basket of warm biscuits wrapped in a kitchen towel. The trick — and this is something I learned after watching my little sister slyly attract the biscuit basket to her side of the table each night — is to create an empty spot very close to your assigned seat, so whoever brings in the biscuits naturally places the basket in front of you. The person with the easiest access to the biscuit basket is also the most cunning at the table. When it comes to biscuits in a family with hearty appetites, it takes strategy, fast hands and plausible deniability. Our family biscuits are dense, tall and golden on top, often with a natural seam from rising that makes it easy to split the biscuit horizontally. Once they're cracked open, steam rises and we top the biscuits with softened butter. While it's important to savor each bite, it's almost equally important to keep an eye on the basket to make sure a second or third biscuit is still available for you. You'll understand this greed after you make a batch. In Week 3, we practiced incorporating cold butter into flour by making Apple Cranberry Crumb Pie. This week, we'll bring that same technique to our biscuit dough. Incorporating cold butter chunks into the dough will help create a tender, flaky and tall biscuit in the same way that butter bits help make a flaky pie crust. Water will evaporate from the cold butter in a hot oven, generating steam that helps create lightness and layers. This week, we're adding a technique: lamination, which is the process of rolling and folding dough to create layers between the flour and butter. You may know the term "lamination" as the process of making puff pastry or croissants. This technique, when applied to biscuit dough, is more rough-and-tumble, but it's a simple way to create layers within our dinner bread. We've got three things going for our biscuits: - Cold butter to create steam and lift
- A light lamination to layer those butter bits on top of one another
- Baking soda and baking powder to create a chemical rise
All that's left after these emerge from the oven is to make sure the biscuit basket lands near your seat at the table — or just make a double batch so everyone gets their fill. Baking at altitude? Check out this handy guide with tips for making slight adjustments to achieve the results you're after.  | This week's toolbox | Here's what you'll need to nail this week's recipe: Rolling pin: Whether a French-style rolling pin with tapered edges or an American-style one with handles and a rolling dowel through the center, choose whatever feels good to you. (A wine bottle works in a pinch, too.) Of course, there's a world of possibilities when you have a good rolling pin — just think of all the pie crusts and cinnamon rolls in your future! Biscuit cutter: A round biscuit cutter will cut through this dough with a thin metal slice. This precision will actually help the biscuits rise higher than if you cut them with, say, a pint glass, which compresses the edges of the biscuits, forcing the dough to work harder for its rise.  | Recipe | Better Buttermilk BiscuitsThese flaky but sturdy layered biscuits are the first thing everyone reaches for on my family's dinner table, and there never seem to be enough of them. The temperature of the butter is key here. With a quick hand, we work cold butter chunks into the dry ingredients, keeping the butter bits rather large, which helps build layers with the folding-and-rolling process known as lamination. During the baking, the water in the butter will steam and evaporate, helping to create a light, flaky texture. The reward for our efforts is a nearly mile-high carb. For easy printing and scaling, view this recipe on our website at washingtonpost.com/recipes. IngredientsMakes 12 biscuits
Prep time: 30 mins
Bake time: 15 to 18 mins Scant 3 cups (360 grams) flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks (170 grams/6 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 large egg
3/4 cup (180 milliliters) cold buttermilk, plus more for brushing the biscuits StepsPreheat the oven to 400 degrees; position the rack in the upper third of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Using your fingers, quickly work the butter into the dry ingredients until some bits of butter are the size of peas and/or small beans. Bits of cold butter is what we want in our dough. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, combine the egg and buttermilk and beat lightly with a fork. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ones. Stir with a silicone spatula until a shaggy mixture forms — the dough will be moist but not overly wet. Lightly flour your work surface. Transfer the dough there and, using a floured rolling pin, gently roll the dough into a 1-inch-thick and 2 1/2-inch-wide oval with the narrow end of the oval facing you. Fold the dough in thirds, as you would a letter. Rotate the dough a quarter turn and roll it out again into a 1-inch-thick oval. Repeat the folding. Rotate the dough another quarter turn and repeat the rolling and folding once more, for a total of three rolling-folding cycles. Rotate the dough a quarter turn for the fourth time, and roll it out to a 1-inch-thick oval. Using a 2-inch round biscuit cutter, create 10 to 12 biscuits (do not twist the cutter). Press any dough scraps together and lightly re-roll and cut them to make a few more biscuits out of the remaining dough. Place the biscuits 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet and brush the tops lightly with buttermilk. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool slightly. Serve warm.
These biscuits are best the first day but will keep, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to 2 days. Nutritional facts (per biscuit): Calories: 230; Protein: 4 g; Carbohydrates: 26 g; Fat: 12 g; Saturated Fat: 9 g; Cholesterol: 50 mg; Sodium: 240 mg; Fiber: 0 g; Sugar: 3 g. Did you make the recipe?We want to see how your biscuits turned out! Share your Baking Basics creations with us on Instagram with #eatvoraciously. The Overnight Dutch Oven Bread from Week 3 was a smash hit. Just look at these lovely loaves from Lacie, Polly and Keri! Next week: Eggs are power players in baking, and they're the key to craveable cream puffs. Have a question about the recipe?Email us at voraciously@washpost.com or message @eatvoraciously on Instagram. If you're having trouble viewing or receiving this or other newsletters from the series, or have other email tech questions, drop us a note here. Visit Voraciously.com for recipes, how-to guides, the latest food trends and much more. Joy Wilson is a self-taught baker turned professional, food photographer and cookbook author. She is the author of "Homemade Decadence" and teaches baking workshops at her studio, the Bakehouse, in New Orleans. Find her at @joythebaker on Instagram and Twitter. | 
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