THE BISCUIT WORKSHOP—ORANGE SCENTED BUTTERMILK BISCUIT CINNAMON ROLLS

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Let the warming scents of cinnamon and orange fill your home and welcome the holiday season with these, I promise you, easy to make Orange Scented Buttermilk Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls. Sure you could pop open a can from the refrigerator section of your local grocery store and have basic cinnamon rolls in 30 minutes or so… piping hot and full of artificial flavors, colors and preservatives—uh, yum? Guess what, you can do better than that and it won’t even take that much time.

It all starts with one simple recipe and you’ll be able to make both the Orange Scented Buttermilk Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls and my Buttery Buttermilk Biscuits. I’m mean come on, just look at those flakey layers! You know, the buttermilk biscuits, brushed with a little melted butter and a sprinkling of crunchy Maldon salt and fresh ground pepper might just deserve a spot on your Thanksgiving table in place of the typical, dare I say tired, dinner rolls. Just a thought.

The beauty of these quick cinnamon rolls means you get all the deliciousness of a cinnamon roll without having to plan ahead the night before to give yeasted or sourdough cinnamon rolls time to rise—a couple times. Don’t get me wrong, I love them and will eventually share my sourdough cinnamon roll recipe with you all but sometimes you just don’t have the extra time or you get that spur of the moment craving and lets face it, nothing involving yeast is spur of the moment.

I love to bake these in a cast iron pan, but never fear an 8 or 9 inch cake pan will work as well. Just know that if you do bake them in cast iron it’ll take a bit longer, but oh so worth it. I hope you love these as much as I do and keep them on repeat all throughout the holidays and beyond. Now get in there a whip up some way better, and better for you than store bought, Orange Scented Buttermilk Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls… and some flakey, Buttery Buttermilk Biscuits while you’re at it.

THE BISCUIT WORKSHOP

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Checkout the Culinary Workshops page for details on the Biscuit Workshop. We’ll be making both Buttermilk Biscuits and Orange Scented Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls. My kitchen isn’t massive, so reserve your spot soon. If this proves to be a popular workshop I’ll be doing it again, so if you can’t make it this time, check back for more dates. Hope to see you soon in the Fiddlehead Kitchen.

Buttermilk Biscuits

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I’ve made many a biscuit in pursuit of the perfect version. Some recipes use self-rising flour, some use yeast, some are treated like a laminated dough to give lots of layers. The yeast versions, while good, take more time and sometimes you just want a biscuit like, now. The greatest thing about a classic biscuit is they can be pulled together and in the oven in a matter of minutes and you know what that means? You’ll be eating them, slathered with butter and maybe some jam in no time at all. Welcome the weekend with the smell of biscuits baking, then eat 2 or 3 ... or maybe 4, who’s counting.

Preheat oven to 500° 

Makes about 9 to 12 biscuits, depending on the size biscuit cutter you use. I used a 2 ¾ cutter and got 9, when I've used 2 ½ I get about 12.

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, use a good one like Kerry Gold or Plugra

1 cup cold buttermilk

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Slice the cold butter and with a pastry cutter, cut butter into the flour mixture. You’re good when you have pieces of butter the size of peas throughout the flour. Add the cold buttermilk and toss together with a fork, just until it comes together into a shaggy clump. Dump the clump of dough out onto a lightly floured board and gently knead. Gently! You just want to it to come together. Pat it out into something like a roundish square and very lightly, like almost no pressure, roll to about a 1 inch thickness. Cut the biscuits out using a well floured cutter. Cut straight down, no twisting. You want these biscuits to rise to their full potential in the oven and if you twist that cutter, it’ll pinch off the dough and keep them from reaching lofty heights. Bake them for about 12 to 14 minutes at 500°. Brush the tops with a little melted butter when they come out of the oven. Then of course more butter, naturally.