This Cook's Country recipe emerged from a desire to make a biscuit recipe that compromised a bit on quality in order to gain a lot of speed -- which mainly means that instead of rolling out the dough and cutting it to get flaky biscuits, you press it into the pan to get fluffy ones.

To symbol, this is not a good tradeoff. In their estimation the flakiness is the entire point of biscuits, and if they aren't flaky, why bother? For my part, though, I find these quite tasty in their own right, and the rolling and cutting is the part I like least about making biscuits, so it's actually a pretty good deal.

Pat-in-the-Pan Buttermilk Biscuits

Cook's Country

Ingredients

• 1 + 1 + 10 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 4 c. cake flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 c. buttermilk, chilled

Directions

1. Put 10 Tbsp. of the butter in the freezer to chill for ~15 minutes.
2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 450°F.
3. Grease an 8" square baking pan with 1 tablespoon of butter.
4. Leave the remaining 1tbsp out to soften.
5. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
6. Add chilled butter and smash between your fingertips into pea-sized pieces.
7. Gently stir in buttermilk until no dry pockets remain.
8. Using spatula, transfer dough to greased pan.
9. Flour your hands and pat the dough into an even layer and into the corners of the pan.
10. Using an oiled dough scraper, cut into 9 equal squares, but do not separate.
11. Bake until golden brown on top, ~30 minutes.
12. Let cool for 5 minutes. Turn out onto wire rack, brush with melted butter, and let stand for 10 minutes.
13. Pull apart and serve.