These biscuits have been on my family's Thanksgiving and Christmas table for the past ten years. A combination of fats and a very specific rolling technique makes them puff up and separate into flaky layers when they bake. They are equally welcome for dinner or brunch and delicious served with butter alone or with honey or jam.
I will be the first to say that these biscuits aren't typical of recipes that I post on this blog. They are made with refined white flour, which is full of gluten, and two different kinds of fat. What gives? My food philosophy is that if you eat well on non-holidays you can feel free to indulge a couple of times year. These are my favorite holiday indulgence.
The recipe also gives me a segue into a deeper dive into healthy fats, which I've written about here and here. This time, it's an opportunity for a primer on trans fats. But trans fats are banned, you might say. Can't I just jump to the recipe? You can, but I hope you'll stick with me for the deep dive. Your heart will thank you.
The History of Trans Fat
The original biscuit recipe called for shortening, and I used Crisco brand, the creamy white stuff in the can with the blue label that was in everyone's pantry for most of the 20th century.
Crisco was the original trans fat, first coming on the market in 1911 as an alternative to lard. It was made by a process called hydrogenation of liquid cottonseed oil. Cottonseed oil, which was toxic to humans until the process for refining it was perfected, was later replaced by soybean oil.
Hydrogenation is a chemical process that forces hydrogen atoms into the double bonds of polyunsaturated oils, changing them into saturated bonds. This little chemical trick turns liquid oil into a solid which is more stable at room temperature and in high heat cooking.
A vegetable oil that had all the properties of animal fat was a marketing dream come true. Unfortunately, it was too good to be true. In the process of manipulating the oil, it was converted into a chemical shape that is only rarely found in nature. The trans in trans fat refers to the shape of the fat, a shape that our cell membranes don't particularly like, a shape that causes heart disease.
I want to pay tribute to a scientist named Fred Kummerow who raised the alarm about trans fats in the 1950's when he noticed that the arteries of people who had died from heart disease were clogged with artificial trans fats. Kummerow spent the better part of six decades raising the alarm about the dangers of trans fat, finally suing the FDA in 2013, a move which led to their ban in the U.S. in 2018.
What You Should Know about 'Banned' Trans Fats
But Crisco is still on our supermarket shelves. If you check the label, it clearly states '0 grams trans fats.' Does that mean it's safe? Not so fast.
It turns out there is a loophole in the law that banned trans fats. As long as there is less than 0.5g per serving, food manufacturers are still allowed to use them and claim that they don't. The size of the serving size is up to the manufacturer, and basic math can set it small enough to claim '0 grams trans fats on the label.' You will still find trans fats in products such as shortening, commercial baked goods, fried foods, imitation butter spreads, and canned frosting.
If you eat multiple products or multiple servings of foods containing '0 grams trans fats', you can easily surpass the limit that is safe for your health.
The trick to identifying trans fats is on the list of ingredients. If it says 'partially hydrogenated' anything - that's a trans fats.
Crisco and other products now contain something called 'fully hydrogenated' vegetable oils. This means that every one of the chemical double bonds in the fat has been forced into a saturated bond (as opposed to only some of them in a partially hydrogenated oil). The manufacturer claims that these aren't dangerous, but is that true? In my opinion, we simply don't know, and it's not worth the risk.
The safest option is always to eat real food - food that is as close as possible to how it is found in nature, without chemical adulteration in a factory.
Substitutes for Shortening
For biscuits and other baked goods that call for shortening, I recommend Spectrum all-natural shortening made from palm fruit oil, which is naturally stable and solid at room temperature. There are some environmental concerns around the harvesting of palm oil, and I also like this product because it is certified by several different organizations as responsibly sourced.
Another alternative is lard. Lard? Isn't that a saturated fat?? Lard is a real food fat that has been used for centuries in cooking until it was demonized in the faux heart-health controversy of the mid-20th century. Like all fats, lard contains a combination of different types of fats. It contains more monounsaturated fat - the same 'heart healthy' fat that is in olive oil - than saturated fat.
Finally . . . on to the recipe.
Recipe Tips
Easy does it should be your mindset when making these biscuits. When blending the dough, avoid overmixing so that you don't develop the gluten, which will make the biscuits tough.
When rolling the dough, use a downward pushing motion, so that the dough spreads underneath the roller, rather than stretching it with a pulling motion.
The method for rolling and folding these biscuits was a little tricky to describe. Luckily, my darling niece, who often comes over to help me bake for the holidays, is of the TikTok generation, and she modeled the technique for me.
Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
Makes 16
Ingredients
2 and 2/3 cup all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons salted butter, cold
3 tablespoons salted butter, melted
3 tablespoons non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening or lard, cold
1 cup whole milk buttermilk, cold
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat and let cool until step 6.
Blend all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a medium-sized bowl.
Cut 6 tablespoons butter into small chunks, approximately 1/2-inch square. Add butter chunks and shortening to flour mixture. Stir together briefly with a large spoon.
Blend fats into flour using a pastry cutter, knife and fork, or your fingers, until the bits of fat are the size of peas. Do not over blend. The large hunks of fat are what make the flakes when the biscuits are rolled and baked.
Add the cold buttermilk to the flour mixture. Blend with a fork just until the buttermilk is incorporated, but some dry flour is still visible.
Add the melted butter to the dough and mix again briefly with a fork.
Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a well-floured pastry cloth or counter. Knead together just until a cohesive ball of dough is formed. Let rest for a couple of minutes.
Using short, quick strokes with a rolling pin, roll the dough forward and backward (not side to side) until it forms a rectangle approximately 12x4 inches.
Fold the dough into thirds, bringing the top down and the bottom up so that you have a small square 3 layers thick. Turn the dough one-quarter turn and flip it over.
Repeat steps 8 and 9 five to six times. The dough will become smooth, but you should still see streaks of butter.
On the final time that you turn and roll the dough, roll it in all 4 directions to form an 8x8 rectangle. It should be about 3/4-inch thick.
Carefully lift the square of dough and press it into an 8x8 nonstick baking pan. This step isn't necessary, but it helps to give the biscuits straight edges.
Flip the pan onto the floured pastry cloth or counter. Using a very sharp, long knife, cut the square into 4 smaller squares, and then cut each smaller square on the diagonal into 4 triangles. Press through the dough with the knife; do not saw back and forth.
Carefully separate the biscuits and place onto a baking sheet lined with a silicone liner or parchment paper.
Bake for 12-15 minutes. The baking time can vary depending on the characteristics of your oven, so keep checking every couple of minutes until they are golden brown.
Unbaked biscuits can also be frozen and stored until ready to bake just before eating. I usually make mine a week or so before the holiday and, once frozen solid, store them in a ziploc bag.
Do not defrost frozen biscuits. Add approximately 5 minutes to the baking time.