Dispatch toned this one out as a routine biscuit run. On scene, there's a wrinkle: a full cup of cornmeal sitting in buttermilk and honey before it ever meets the flour. ATK's pitch is that a ten-minute soak takes the grit out and gives you cornbread flavor in a biscuit that rises tall instead of spreading flat. That's a bold claim for a 50-minute biscuit. I ran it to find out if it holds up under firehouse conditions or if it's just test-kitchen theory. Makes 12 biscuits.
Recipe by America's Test Kitchen / Cook's Country Cornmeal Biscuits
Fuel
1 cup (5 oz / 142 g) cornmeal. Go fine or medium grind; coarse cornmeal makes gritty biscuits, but there is a time, place, and palate for coarse biscuits too.
1¼ cups buttermilk. No buttermilk on the rig? Whisk 1 tablespoon lemon juice into 1¼ cups milk and let it sit about 10 minutes until it thickens slightly.
1 tablespoon honey
2 cups (10 oz / 283 g) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces and chilled
1 oz (2 tablespoons) melted butter, for brushing
Flake salt, to taste
Tools
Rimmed baking sheet
Parchment paper
Large bowl
Whisk
Food processor
2½-inch biscuit cutter
Pastry brush
Wire rack
Tactics
Rack in the middle, oven to 450, parchment on the sheet pan. Whisk the cornmeal, buttermilk, and honey together in a large bowl and let it soak for 10 minutes. That soak is what takes the grit out, so don't rush it.
While it sits, load the food processor with the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cold butter. Pulse until it looks like coarse meal, dump it into the soaked cornmeal, and stir until a dough forms.
Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. ATK calls for 8 to 10 turns. The dough will fight you, and it will look too dry to ever come together. Keep going (see Critiques). Pat it into a 9-inch circle about ¾ inch thick.
Cut rounds with a floured 2½-inch cutter, re-flouring between every cut, and move them to the sheet pan. Gather the scraps, pat them back out to ¾ inch, and cut the rest.
Bake about 5 minutes, until they start to rise, then drop the oven to 400 and go another 8 to 12 minutes, until golden brown. Let them rest 5 minutes on the sheet, brush the tops with melted butter and hit them with flake salt, then move them to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temp.
Modifications
Ran it as written, with one addition at the finish: after the 5-minute rest, 1 oz of melted butter brushed on top and flake salt to taste. That's the way my wife and I like them.
After the Fire Critiques
Believe in the power of kneading. The dough comes out of the bowl dry, and you'll have real concerns it's never going to come together. Stay on it. Keep at the knead and it finally does. Worth every turn.
They freeze well. I froze them baked. Rewarming is a cinch, and they hold up well, so a full run of 12 doesn't have to be eaten in one shift.
Indulge.