Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits

Out with the healthy eating today.  It is a stat holiday here (B.C. Day).  I am celebrating by making BBQ ribs, corn on the cob (first peaches & cream that is local that I've found), baked beans (I bought these and added green chilies) and finally homemade biscuits.  I always feel safe using an Ina Garten recipe.  I followed all her ingredients and her instructions exactly.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, more for cutting board
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced
• 1/2 cup cold 1% fat buttermilk, shaken
• 1 cold large egg
• 1 cup grated Cracker Barrel Old Cheddar
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon milk
• Maldon sea salt, for sprinkling on biscuits before baking

First thing I noticed/forgot is that I don't have a stand mixer.  So, here I went again down that road with a hand blender...I'm sure I have some kind of paddle for my food processor but I didn't feel like digging to find it.  I got the biggest, deepest bowl I could find and put in the flour, salt and baking powder.

I diced the butter small as I knew I didn't have the proper stand mixer.  I put it in the dry ingredients and blended on low.  That didn't work at all and flour was flying everywhere.

So, I got my pastry cutter out of the drawer and that worked like a hot damn.  I had pea sized butter in no time.  I stirred in a beaten egg with the buttermilk.  Then I hand mixed in the cheddar cheese and dumped the dough onto a floured cutting board.

I rolled the dough into a a rectangle (not a very good one) and then cut it into 8 pieces.  

I put this on a parchment lined baking sheet and put into the fridge until ready to bake.  I preheated the oven to 425 °F.  Scorcher of a day so that was wasn't too much fun.  

I brushed with some egg wash and sprinkled some Maldon salt over the tops.  I put them in for 25 minutes.  

These came out perfect!  They were fluffy and tender and voted tie for best dish of the night, along with the BBQ ribs.  I also got a "best biscuit I've ever eaten", so that says a lot.  Thanks Ina for the recipe!  Next time I'd skip the hand mixer all together, it can be done by hand with that pastry cutter, no problem.

I got lots of appreciation for a wonderful dinner and the beautiful flowers below.