Regina’s Butter Biscuits

Recipe from Regina Charboneau

Adapted by Kim Severson

Regina’s Butter Biscuits
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
Total Time
50 minutes
Rating
4(1,135)
Comments
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People travel long distances to eat Regina Charboneau’s biscuits. She built a blues club in San Francisco, called Biscuits and Blues, on their reputation. And in her hometown, Natchez, Miss., her biscuits are considered the best. She mixes traditional French culinary training with tricks passed on through generations of Southern bakers to create a layered, rich biscuit that has to be frozen to be at its flaky best. The dough will seem rough and the fat too chunky at first, but persevere. Using a tea towel as a base to move and manage the dough until it rolls out smoothly is a brilliant technique that makes the whole process easier and neater. —Kim Severson

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Ingredients

Yield:3 dozen 2-inch biscuits, 12 servings marmalade butter

    For the Biscuits

    • 4cups/480 grams all-purpose flour
    • ¼cup/41 grams baking powder
    • ¼cup/50 grams sugar
    • ½cup/120 grams (1 stick) salted butter, chilled and cut into 1-inch cubes
    • 1½cups/360 grams (3 sticks) salted margarine, chilled and cut into 2-inch cubes
    • 1¾cups/420 milliliters buttermilk, chilled

    For the Marmalade Butter

    • ½cup (1 stick)/120 grams salted butter, at room temperature
    • 3tablespoons sweet orange marmalade
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)

549 calories; 41 grams fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 5 grams trans fat; 16 grams monounsaturated fat; 8 grams polyunsaturated fat; 41 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 9 grams sugars; 6 grams protein; 652 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Make the Biscuits

    1. Step 1

      Put flour, baking powder and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Turn the machine on low and blend for 15 seconds. Add the butter, margarine and buttermilk to flour mixture before turning mixer back on. Turn mixer on medium and count to 10. This goes very quickly; the key is to not overmix the dough. There will be large chunks of butter and margarine, the size of quarters, in the dough.

    2. Step 2

      Scrape dough from the bowl onto a generously floured work surface or tea towel and shape into a long vertical rectangle about 2 inches thick. The dough will seem rough and messy. Using the edges of the towel, fold the lower part of the dough (about one-third) toward the center, then fold the top portion down. With a rolling pin, roll dough out to a 2-inch thickness. Fold the two ends in again, lifting the edges of the towel to help move the dough. Give dough a one-quarter turn, and roll it out again to a 2-inch thickness. Continue folding, turning and rolling dough until it is smooth, with noticeable yellow ribbons of butter and margarine throughout.

    3. Step 3

      Roll dough to 1½-inch thickness. Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut dough into rounds. Punch cutter into dough cleanly, without twisting. When refolding and rerolling the dough, gently stack it to retain the layers. Do not overwork.

    4. Step 4

      Place biscuits on a baking sheet and freeze. Once they are frozen, transfer biscuits to plastic bags. The unbaked biscuits can be frozen for 2 months.

    5. Step 5

      To bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. Place frozen biscuits in the cups of muffin tins. Let thaw in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Bake until golden brown, 23 to 25 minutes.

  2. Make the Marmalade Butter

    1. Step 6

      Put butter and marmalade in a mini food processor and pulse to combine. Alternatively, whisk together butter and marmalade in a bowl. (Can be made a week in advance and refrigerated.) To serve, bring to a cool room temperature and transfer to a serving bowl. Serve next to hot biscuits.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
1,135 user ratings
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Comments

nancy essig

To the lady who posted this recipe...How can you misrepresent it so with the picture chosen to accompany the recipe? I watched Regina make these on a vid and they were normal biscuit sized, not these towering things. I want the recipe for the towering biscuits please.

Cate Doty, Senior Staff Editor, NYT Cooking

Regina Charboneau, the creator of these biscuits, really recommends that you make these biscuits with the butter and the margarine. She says that without the margarine, the butter weighs the dough down, resulting in a shortbread-like texture. Kim Severson swears that these biscuits are the lightest and flakiest she's ever had.

Lapierrefine

Is it necessary to post what you will or will not do with certain ingredients? This is a forum to post helpful comments. So testing and adapting a recipe not a consideration? This is basically a pâte feuilletée, which is usually made using 100% butter. So try a recipe first, as offered, then make changes. Or try something new: read and research similar recipes. Note what is held in common. Experiment! No need to throw down the gauntlet in defiance of margarine, or calories.

escambron

Didn’t have margarine, so I used solid virgin coconut oil (about 1/2 of what was called for) and about 1/2 of the sugar (since I prefer less sweet biscuits.) I was worried it wouldn’t work, since the coconut oil stayed lumpy rather than stretching out with the butter although I kept folding and rolling, but upon cooking it made a lovely, fluffy, coconut-scented treat. I can’t wait to try the recipe as written…but the version I made was a hit with the fam.

The Soulful Mr T

Researching biscuit recipes: a general question about these types of biscuits: It occurs to me that I’d want to eat these hot, fluffy babies right out of the oven, i.e., I wouldn’t want to prepare them, bake them, put them in a warm towel in basket and drive half and hour to someone’s house and serve them an hour later when we all get around to dinner. In other words these are to be made at home and served directly out of the oven. Yes?

Laura M

I have always used lard when making biscuits. I am a bona fide Southerner

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Credits

Adapted from Regina Charboneau

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