In the Kitchen with Early Bird Biscuit Co.

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Tim Laxton is up and baking biscuits before your alarm clock chimes. At Early Bird Biscuit Co., his quaint and cheerful Lakeside bakery, the owner and head baker uses quality local ingredients and his grandmother's own antique rolling pin to lovingly create 300 to 400 biscuits each Tuesday through Saturday. 

We stopped by his shop for our January breakfast and brunch cover story — hitting newsstands now — and decided to stay and bake a batch ourselves. Here, Tim Laxton shares his recipe for buttery, fluffy biscuits at home, just in time for the holidays.

As to suggestions for the home baker, Laxton has a few tips.

"Everything should be cold; every ingredient should be as cold as possible. The buttermilk should not be frozen, though," Laxton says, laughing.

Though the baker uses Virginia-milled self-rising flour — often hard to come by — he recommends White Lily, which can be found at Fresh Market and Ellwood Thompson's, as well as Homestead Creamery's whole-fat buttermilk.

Once you've baked a batch, be sure to follow the Laxton family's lead: "My mom always said that whenever you make biscuits, you have to give some away."

Early Bird Biscuits

Makes 4 large 3-inch-by-3-inch biscuits

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of self-rising flour
  • 1/2 stick of butter
  • 3/4 cup of whole-fat buttermilk

Method:

Begin by preheating your oven to 450 degrees. Then, level off your self-rising flour and pour 2 cups into a large mixing bowl.

Dip the half-stick of butter into the flour, to keep butter from sticking to the box grater. Grate your stick of butter into the bowl, patting the box grater to fully empty your butter shreds. "Grating the butter creates a void inside the dough, so that when the biscuits cook, there's an air pocket," Laxton explains. 

With your hands, toss the butter and flour together gently, then pour the buttermilk directly into the mixture.

Rotating your mixing bowl, pull in the sides of the mixture with a spatula and gently fold the butter, flour and buttermilk together.

Once formed into a cohesive mound, gently knead the mixture with your hands. Flour your hands and lightly roll the dough, picking up any loose flour.  

Flour a flat surface, and transfer your dough to the surface. Gently flatten the dough using your hands.

Using a rolling pin, roll out your dough until it is uniformly 1 inch thick.

Using a sharp knife, cut the biscuit dough into squares, being careful to make clean cuts on all four sides. Place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 6 to 7 minutes.

When the biscuits are golden brown, remove the tray from the oven, allowing them to cool.

Serve warm with fresh blackberry jam or butter, as shown above.