• Line a small sheet pan with parchment paper or butter a small cast iron pan.

Mixing (cutting) in butter

• Toss cold butter cubes into the dry ingredients and, using a pastry cutter or your fingers, mix in the cold butter until you have a mixture of flat pieces and crumbly, pea sized bits of butter mixed into the flour.

Making biscuits

• Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the cold buttermilk. Use a sturdy wooden spoon to bring the wet and dry together until you have a fairly uniform, loose dough. The flour won't look all mixed in and that's okay. It will come together.
• Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Using your hands, gently bring it everything together into a rough square.
• With a bench scraper, or knife, cut dough into four smaller squares. Stack the quarters of dough on top of each other. Smush it all down into a square again. Repeat this cutting and stacking procedure 1 more times, for a total of 2 cut and stacks.
• Pat or roll the dough into a large rectangle about ½ inch thick.

Round biscuits

• Using a biscuit or cookie cutter, cut out your biscuits. Do not twist the cutter when cutting them out! That will effectively seal the edges of the biscuits, keeping them from fully rising. Just press straight down and lift straight up. Gather your scraps as you go and re-form them together and cut as many biscuits as you can. You should get 5 to 6 biscuits.

Square biscuits

• Using your bench scraper, or a knife, cut your dough into 4 biscuits.

Baking instructions

• Place in freezer while you preheat the oven to 450°F.
• Brush the tops of the biscuits lightly with an egg wash made of 1 egg whisked with 1 tablespoon of water. Sprinkle with flaky salt, if desired.
• Bake in 450°F oven for 14-16 minutes, or until golden brown.