I really screwed up while making buttermilk biscuits this evening. Every recipe tells you to mix the dry ingredients (in this case, whole wheat pastry flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder) and cut in butter BEFORE adding liquids.

With quick breads (muffins, banana bread, biscuits), the batter or dough starts rising the instant wet ingredients hit the dry ingredients. Don’t answer the phone before hustling it into the oven.

With my mind out to lunch, I blithely dumped buttermilk/ yogurt into the dry ingredients. “This doesn’t look right,” I thought.

Horrors! I forgot the butter! Throw it away and start over? I’ll try something….

Working quickly, I chopped cold butter into small pieces and lightly mixed the dough. Gently kneaded for one minute, smashing larger pieces of butter with my fingers as I folded and kneaded the dough.

Surprisingly, the biscuits were delicious, tender and light. See the layers?