Is it a biscuit or is it a scone? Second Helpings #18

Flaky buttermilk biscuits two ways

Biscuit, Scone, Tomayto, Tomahto.

Is an American buttermilk biscuit just a British scone in disguise, or is it something completely different? Is it a case of; made from the same ingredients but you can tell the difference when you taste them? If you’ve had afternoon tea in the UK and a flaky buttermilk biscuit in the US you can’t deny the similarity, they’re both incredibly simple, and I am sure an argument could be made that biscuits probably originated from the idea of British scones. Both are made by rubbing butter into flour, hydrating and cut into rounds. The differences emerge when you dig into the ingredients, but even then it can be a little tricky to truly separate the two.

Before we dig into the differences let me say this, I am talking about American biscuits and British scones. In British english, a biscuit is basically a crisp cookie and as far as I am concerned an American scone is its own thing, a bastardisation of a british scone that we do not claim. When Americans talk about scones being dry, they’re talking about the triangular ones that you can find in every coffee shop, not the beautifully tender ones served at afternoon tea here in the UK.

Scones are sweet, apart from when they’re not (im talking about cheese) and they are made with milk/cream and most commonly with eggs, but they can also be made with buttermilk and sometimes no eggs at all. Biscuits are made with buttermilk, no eggs and are flakier than their scone counterpart, apart from when they’re not. Biscuits can be flaky but also incredibly soft and tender, made as drop scones. Confused yet? I am.

To my mind the two major differences are sweetness and methodology. Most scones in the UK are made by rubbing fat into flour until is resembles fine breadcrumbs, with biscuits the butter is left chunkier to help with flakiness. With scones the mixture is sweetened with sugar, with biscuits there is normally none. British scones are tender and lightly sweet, biscuits are flaky and without any real sweetness to them.

You can tell the difference when talking about you would serve them. Would you serve a scone with some sausage gravy or stuffed with some fried chicken? I doubt it. Would you serve a buttermilk biscuit with clotted cream and jam. Probably not. Biscuits and scones may be similar but the difference is in the details.

Buttermilk Biscuits
Makes 4 lage biscuits

250g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
100g butter, diced and chilled
175ml buttermilk

In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add the butter and toss in the flour. Using your fingertips press the butter into big flat flakes, rubbing it into the butter just a little to break up. The finished mixture should be flour mixed with lots of flakes of butter, if it looks like breadcrumbs you’ve gone too far. Place the bowl into the freezer for 15 minutes to chill the butter.

Drizzle the buttermilk, a little at a time, into the chilled flour mixture. Stir together with a dull butter knife, stirring the buttermilk into the flour. Repeat until all the buttermilk has been added. The mixture may look a little dry, but thats okay. Tip the mixture out onto the worksurface and use your hands to bring together into a rough rectangle. Using a dough scraper cut the dough into two, staking the two halves atop each other. Use your hand to press the mixture flat before repeating this process two or three more times. Doing this helps to combine everything fully, ensuring there is no large dry pockets of flour. Lift the dough onto a parchment lined tray and pop in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill the butter.

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To ensure the flaky texture we are after we are now going to laminate the dough. This isn’t real lamination where added butter is going to be layered atop the dough, we will create layers from the butter that already exists in the dough. Remove the dough from the freezer and place onto a well floured worksurface. Flour the top of the biscuits and then roll into a rectangle that is about an inch thick. Cut the length of dough in half and stack atop each other as you did earlier. Repeat this process twice more. Whilst this is similar to what we did earlier, rolling the dough out as we are doing here, rolls the butter in the dough into thin sheets which will puff up as the biscuits bake. After your final lamination, roll the dough into a square about 1 - 1 1/2 inch thick. Place back onto the baking tray and freeze for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 210ºC (190ºC Fan).

Remove the biscuits from the freezer and transfer them to the worksurface. Using a sharp knife, trim a small amount of dough from each edge of the square and then cut the square of dough into four equal sized biscuits. Trimming the edges reveals the layers in the bisciut dough and ensures the biscuits puff up to their full potential. If you don’t trim them in this manner the biscuits may bake lopsided.

Place the biscuits onto the baking tray, set relatively close together, just a couple cm’s apart. Brush the tops of the biscuits with a little extra buttermilk. Bake for 15 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits are nicely browned. Remove the biscuits from the oven and immediately brush with a little melted butter and sprinkle with some flaked sea salt.

Biscuits are best served whilst still warm but are good the following day too. You can refresh them with a few minutes in a moderately hot oven.

Wild Garlic Cream Cheese Biscuits
Makes 6 small biscuits

This take on a buttermilk biscuit was inspired by my most recent trip to NYC, by a biscuit we had at Librae bakery made with spring onions, dill and cream cheese. It was probably the least flashy thing on offer, at the bakery, but it was incredibly tasty and I’ve wanted to make a version at home ever since. My version varies a little from the original, in that it is made with wild garlic instead of dill, but I think I actually prefer it. The flavours are punchy and the textures amazing.