Secret Recipe Buttermilk Biscuits (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to an excellent biscuit? ›

It's super simple and makes tall, fluffy biscuits ready for breakfast, sandwiches, and more! The secret to the best biscuits is using very cold butter and baking powder. We've made a lot of biscuits, but this easy biscuits recipe is the one we turn to the most (they are so fluffy!).

The butter version rises the highest — look at those flaky layers! The shortening biscuit is slightly shorter and a bit drier, too. Butter contains a bit of water, which helps create steam and gives baked goods a boost.

Baking Buttermilk Biscuits

When the biscuits hit the heat of the oven, the steam from the water in the butter creates those tall flaky layers. It's the same idea as pie dough.

When the fat is cut too small, after baking there will be more, smaller air pockets left by the melting fat. The result is a baked product that crumbles. When cutting in shortening and other solid fats, cut only until the pieces of shortening are 1/8- to 1/4-inch in size.

The two keys to success in making the best biscuits are handling the dough as little as possible as well as using very cold solid fat (butter, shortening, or lard) and cold liquid. When the biscuits hit the oven, the cold liquid will start to evaporate creating steam which will help our biscuits get very tall.

*Substitute buttermilk, light cream, or heavy cream for the whole milk, if you prefer; use enough of whatever liquid you choose to bring the dough together readily, without you having to work it too much. The higher-fat liquid you use, the more tender and richer-tasting your biscuits will be.

Heavy Cream.

The heavy cream adds flavor to the biscuit by adding a little more fat and helps hydrate the dough. The extra fat in the heavy cream is helpful because buttermilk in stores is often “low-fat” buttermilk.

in this case, it appears that the biscuit structure is just a lot more stable (structurally speaking) when there's less butter. When you get a lot of butter, you're kind of filling your biscuit with holes, which makes it unable to bear its own weight to rise very far.

While the quantity of acid could be fine-tuned, the consistency of milk-based substitutions will be unavoidably thin. Compared to cultured buttermilk, plain milk is watery, making the dough so heavy and wet that it oozes into a puddle, turning the biscuits flat and dense.

Should you refrigerate biscuits before baking? ›

For an extra layer of safety, punch out your biscuits onto a baking sheet, then refrigerate the entire sheet for 10 to 15 minutes before transferring to the oven. By nature, biscuits are a quickbread, which benefit from as little gluten development as possible.

If you do think this about your dough, fight the urge to add more dry ingredients — dough that isn't wet enough will bake into a hard, dry biscuit.

A hot oven helps biscuits bake—and rise—quickly. We recommend 475˚F for 15 minutes. Remove them from the oven as soon as they are lightly brown.

Cut off uneven edges and put these scraps to the side; clean cuts on all sides will encourage rise. Pat scraps together to make 1 odd-shaped ninth biscuit. Place biscuits close together in a 9-inch square pan and brush with melted salted butter. Place pan on top of the warm stove for 10 to 15 minutes to rise.

Don't overwork the dough.

Many home biscuit makers are looking for a uniform dough. (An understandable instinct). However, your biscuit dough should be uneven and barely stay together — that's what will help create those airy pockets of buttery goodness.

Use flour with low protein content

To make extra tender biscuits, you don't want to develop a lot of gluten. Flours with a higher protein content develop gluten more readily. To get the soft biscuits you're after, Catherine recommends using for an all-purpose flour with a small amount of protein.

While biscuits receive some leavening power from chemical sources — baking powder and baking soda — the difference between serviceable and greatness comes from the extra rise that steam provides. In order to generate steam, the oven must be set at a minimum of 425 degrees for at least 10 minutes prior to baking.

Cream of Tartar plays a crucial role in biscuit-making by serving as a leavening agent. When combined with baking soda, it produces carbon dioxide gas, leading to the expansion of the dough during baking.

To bake tall biscuits place you want to place biscuits next to each other, with edges touching on the baking sheet. If you separate the biscuits and bake them too far apart, they won't rise as tall. By placing the biscuits next to each other, they will be able to cling to each other helping them rise taller.