Buttermilk Spelt Biscuits

A simple, flaky buttermilk biscuit recipe with nutty spelt flour perfect for smearing with butter and jam. Plus, tips on how to cut butter into flour without a pastry cutter.

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I have a running list on the Notes App on my phone where I jot down recipe lists and flavor ideas as they pop in my head. The word “biscuits” has been at the very top of that list for a long time. Everyone needs a good biscuit recipe and I realized that I didn’t have one here on the blog, so it’s time to remedy that.

Last summer, I was working in a restaurant that was known for these little pimento and cheddar biscuits served with chive butter. They were by far the most popular appetizer, making the biscuit-making process a daily project in the pastry kitchen. During slow periods of service, we prepped biscuit ingredients for the next day which often meant grating about 8 pounds of cold butter every night. Let me go ahead and tell you that doing this in a sticky, humid Florida kitchen was the opposite of fun. Because of this, I took a little hiatus from biscuit-making at home. But now, we’re back and I’m so happy to have biscuits in my freezer again.

an easy buttermilk biscuit recipe

The theme of these biscuits is simplicity. You could easily stir in some herbs or shredded cheese if that floats your boat, but I wanted to keep them fairly simple. This way, you can use them as the base for breakfast sandwiches or enjoy them sweet with some fruit or jam. We start by whisking together flours, baking powder, and salt and then cut in cold butter (see below for specifics). We’ll stir in some cold buttermilk and then gently laminate the dough to get those extra flaky layers. After a quick chill, the biscuits are rolled, cut, and baked until golden.

A hot take: I like to bake my biscuits in squares for a few reasons. 1) Wayyyy less rolling. With squares, you won’t be left with excess scraps that have to be pushed back together and re-rolled. These scraps are often overworked anyway resulting in tougher biscuits so we’re just leaving them behind all together. 2) You only need a sharp knife, no biscuit cutter or glass. Using a sharper tool will also help keep your tall, fluffy layers in tact. 3) I think they are more cohesive to breakfast sandwiches, that’s just personal opinion.

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how to cut butter into flour

Often when working with pie doughs and biscuits, a recipe will tell you to “cut in the butter” which simply means to work cold butter into the flour until it’s broken down into small pieces. You can do this with a pastry cutter if you have one, but if not, no worries. You can also do this with two sharp knives, a fork, or even your fingertips.

Two Knives: If you choose to use two knives, simply place them in a criss-cross pattern and cut into the flour repeatedly until butter is broken down.

A Fork: Just use the back of a fork to smash and break up the butter into small pieces.

Your Fingertips: This is my preferred method because it uses the least amount of tools and I feel like I have better control over the final product. Simply place the butter cubes in the flour, toss to coat and then use your thumb and forefinger to smash the butter cubes flat. Then, you can go back and use your fingers to break the butter into smaller, pea-sized pieces, if needed.

And here’s a video of all of that if you’re a more visual learner! Whichever way you choose, just remember not to overwork the dough- you are aiming for butter pieces the size of peas or oatmeal, and remember to keep everything cold!

Buttermilk Spelt Biscuits
Yield
makes 12 biscuits
Author
Anna Ramiz
Prep time
15 Min
Cook time
15 Min
Inactive time
30 Min
Total time
1 Hour

Buttermilk Spelt Biscuits

A simple, flaky buttermilk biscuit recipe with nutty spelt flour perfect for smearing with butter and jam. Plus, tips on how to cut butter into flour without a pastry cutter.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup (60 g) spelt flour
  • 3/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, cold
  • 1 cup (227 g) buttermilk, cold
  • 2 tbsp heavy cream or egg wash, for brushing
  • Flaky salt
  • 1 tsp flaky salt

Instructions

  1. Cut butter into cubes and freeze while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, spelt flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until butter is broken down into pea and oatmeal-sized pieces.
  3. Make a well in the center of the bowl and add the buttermilk. Use your hands to toss the mixture together until all of the flour has been hydrated, the buttermilk is mixed in, and a shaggy dough begins to form. Turn the dough onto a clean work surface and gently knead the dough, just until it comes together in a rough rectangle.
  4. Pat the dough into a rectangle 1” thick. Fold the dough in half and then pat it back down to 1”. Turn the dough 90° and repeat the fold, patting the dough back into a rectangle about 1” in thickness. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 20-30 minutes.
  5. While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 425° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  6. Unwrap the dough and use a sharp knife to cut the dough into 12 even pieces. Place biscuits on your prepared baking sheet and brush the tops with heavy cream (or egg wash). Bake for 14-16 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and the bottoms are deeply browned.
  7. Remove the biscuits from the oven, brush them with melted butter, and sprinkle with flaky salt. Enjoy warm with lots of butter.

Notes:

You can leave out the spelt flour use just all purpose flour for this recipe without an issue. You could also easily substitute whole wheat flour or rye flour in place of the spelt.

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Rosemary Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies

These soft and chewy cookies are made by steeping rosemary and instant espresso into the butter. They are filled with dark chocolate pieces and topped with flaky salt.

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Ok, guys, I need a little vent session. Let’s talk about Instagram for a quick moment and then I promise, I’ll get back to the cookie content you came for. As you may know from my last little life update, we are currently in the process of moving from sunny Central Florida to Minneapolis (!!!) and there are a whole plethora of things (selling a house, packing a house, getting client work done, finding an apartment from across the country, hiring movers, loading a pod, driving across the country, etc, etc, etc) that have taken my attention for the last few weeks. I’ve taken a couple weeks off from sharing new recipes and allowed the blog to take a backseat for a bit while life settles in. So the last thing I needed during this move was for Instagram to rear it’s ugly head and throw a wrench into my plans. A couple weeks ago, my Instagram account was hacked and some little bot decided to post a RayBan advertisement on my page. I deleted the post, changed my password, and went on with my life. Then, a few weeks later, I woke up and checked Instagram (which I’ve finally learned is not a healthy thing to do first thing in the morning), only to find out that my account has been ‘temporarily locked’ as a precaution. I’ve gone through the security steps given in which I was supposed to receive a security code to verify my identity maybe a dozen times and have never received a code. I’ve tried to send a report (which is basically impossible when you are locked out of the app), and I even tried calling for support. Nothing. Nada. So I spent the last two weeks on a forced IG break.

All of this hooplah has really gotten me thinking because I HATE the idea that any part of my business is completely out of my hands and can be snatched away at a moments notice. As a food blogger, part of my business is partnering with brands for sponsored content. Imagine if I had partnerships lined up over this time—I would be breaching contracts and would lose income and there would literally be nothing I could do about it. It baffles my mind that Instagram has that kind of power over creatives. I decided this week, that I really hated the way that this dependency on Instagram has made me feel. I hate that I woke up to find myself locked out and was crying before my feet even hit the floor in the morning. I hate how it feels like something that is supposed to be a tool to help creatives grow their audience, has become this two-headed monster with the power to tank a person’s entire livelihood. I’m just not into this game anymore. So I’m choosing to focus on the blog for the time being and for the work that I create that I can control. While I finally figured out how to get back into my account, the time away was really perspective shifting. I’ll definitely still be sharing on the app regularly, but only as a way to get people excited about a recipe, not with a mindset that forces me to churn out content just for the sake of staying relevant.

how to support your favorite food blogs

To be honest, apps like Instagram are great with their likes and comments, but they don’t really help a lot if your goal is to share recipes and get people in the kitchen. The most important thing to a food blogger is blog traffic. Having consist traffic to your website provides for so many opportunities! So please, if you enjoy the content you find here or on any of your favorite food blogs, share links that lead back directly to their pages. Comment on recipes that you have made, pin images and recipes to Pinterest of recipes that you love and keep coming to our blogs!

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a chewy espresso chocolate chip cookie

Ok, back to what you came here for—cookies! These chewy, espresso chocolate chip cookies are a real winner in my book. They are made by steeping rosemary springs and espresso with butter, an tiny extra step that makes for a really fantastic cookie. When choosing an espresso for this recipe, you have a few options. You can use an instant espresso powder, which should dissolve completely in the butter, or you can use finely ground espresso powder, which may not dissolve completely but will give a bit stronger coffee flavor to the final cookie. The choice is yours, but since I like coffee that packs a punch and a little added texture, I prefer espresso powder.

These cookies are made using the all-familiar creaming method and the procedure is fairly straightforward for cookies. Melt/steep your butter. Cream butter with sugar, add the eggs, followed by dry ingredients and then chocolate. I always recommend using chopped chocolate over chips in cookie baking. Chocolate chips are coated in order to help them hold their shape during baking, which means you won’t get those much-desired chocolate puddles. Finally, the dough is chilled a bit before baking (if you’re wondering why—hop over here and read about the importance of dough chilling). These cookies, like all good cookies, are best enjoyed warm with lots of flaky salt and a big glass of milk.

a couple tips for baking rosemary espresso chocolate chip cookies

updated December 2021

I had a few folks reach out that their dough was drier than expected so I went back and tested this recipe a few more times to see if I could figure out where they were having difficulty. Here are a few things to keep an eye out to ensure that your cookies turn out perfectly!

  1. Butter

    Because of the way that melted butter hydrates flour, this dough will look slightly different than a traditional softened-butter method cookie dough. Once mixed, the dough takes on a shiny quality and will greatly benefit from that extra hydration time in the refrigerator before baking.

    When cooking the butter, be sure to only keep it on the heat, uncovered until the butter is melted and the mixture just begins to bubble a bit (this should only take about 5 minutes). If you keep the butter on the heat too long, water content will begin to evaporate and you will be left with quite a bit less liquid than the recipe calls for.

  2. Eggs

    I test all of my recipes with large eggs. A typical large egg weighs about 50 grams and each yolk weighs about 20 grams. If you are using smaller eggs, you may need to add an extra yolk.

  3. Flour

    This is a chance for me to wax poetic about the kitchen scale yet again. If you only ever take one thing away from this blog, let it be the kitchen scale. Baking with a kitchen scale (as opposed to relying on measuring cups) is really the only way to ensure accuracy and consistency in each recipe. If you were to scoop out one cup of flour 4 different times, you would end up with a different amount each time depending on the method you use, the brand of measuring cup you stock, or even the humidity in your kitchen. Weighing your ingredients ensures that you are using the correct amount every single time and, a fun bonus, it dirties fewer dishes.

    If you don’t have a kitchen scale, this is the one I have been using for the last 4 years and it has yet to let me down.

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Yield: makes 16 cookies
Author: Anna Ramiz
Rosemary Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies

Rosemary Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 10 MinTotal time: 25 Min
These soft and chewy cookies are made by steeping rosemary and instant espresso into the butter. They are filled with dark chocolate pieces and topped with flaky salt.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter
  • 3 sprigs rosemary
  • 2 g instant espresso
  • 1/2 cup (107 g) brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (190 g) all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 6 oz dark chocolate, chopped

Instructions

  1. In a small saucepan, combine butter, rosemary sprigs, and instant espresso. Cook over medium heat until butter is melted and bubbling, espresso has dissolved and rosemary is fragrant. Remove from heat, cover, and let steep while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. Remove rosemary sprigs from butter and discard. Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium speed for 1-2 minutes, until thoroughly combined.
  4. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and continue mixing until mixture is smooth and homogenous (about 2 minutes).
  5. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients mixing until just combined and no flour streaks remain. Fold in chocolate chips.
  6. Using a 1 1/2 tbsp sized cookie scoop, scoop cookie dough and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
  7. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350° F. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes, until the edges are golden brown, and then let cool completely on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with flaky salt.
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