Jam-Filled Buttermilk Biscuits

1. Preheat the oven to 425ºF with a rack in the middle position.

2. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda onto a sheet of wax paper. Then sift the dry ingredients again, this time into a large bowl.

3. Add butter to dry ingredients and blend in with a pastry cutter until the mixture is a coarse meal. (You may have to finish it off with your fingertips, but I recommend doing the majority of the work with the pastry cutter, so everything stays cold.) Add buttermilk and blend in lightly with a fork, just until the dry ingredients are moistened. It’s ok if not everything is incorporated, you’ll finish it off by kneading.

4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly about 6 times, just until everything comes together. Don’t worry if the dough is sticky, just power through and don’t add more flour. With lightly floured hands, pat dough out into a rough rectangle shape about 1/2-inch thick. Using a floured, 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out rounds and lightly shape each into a ball with your hands. Reshape scraps and cut out more biscuits. Place biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.

5. Using the end of a wooden spoon or your finger, create small indentations (a little over 1/4 inch wide) in the top of each biscuit. Fill each hole with jam (about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoons per biscuit). Brush the tops of the biscuits (not the jam, just around it) with milk or cream.

6. Bake biscuits until light golden on top, about 11-14 minutes. (Because biscuits need to bake at high heat, you don’t want too much heat to escape from the oven by opening it. I would bake one sheet of biscuits at a time instead of two at once.) Transfer biscuits to a wire cooling rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. Biscuits are best the day they’re made, but they’ll keep for a day in an airtight container.