Best quick biscuit recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to the perfect biscuit? ›

Use Cold Butter for Biscuits

When the biscuit bakes, the butter will melt, releasing steam and creating pockets of air. This makes the biscuits airy and flaky on the inside. We default to our Land O Lakes® Salted Butter when baking biscuits.

Just as important as the fat is the liquid used to make your biscuits. Our Buttermilk Biscuit recipe offers the choice of using milk or buttermilk. Buttermilk is known for making biscuits tender and adding a zippy tang, so we used that for this test.

Crisco may be beneficial for other baking applications, but for biscuit making, butter is the ultimate champion!

White wheat in general is around 9-12% protein, while the hard reds are 11-15%. As far as brands of flour, White Lily “all-purpose” flour has been my go-to for biscuit making. It's a soft red winter wheat, and the low protein and low gluten content keep biscuits from becoming too dense.

But if you chill your pan of biscuits in the fridge before baking, not only will the gluten relax (yielding more tender biscuits), the butter will harden up. And the longer it takes the butter to melt as the biscuits bake, the more chance they have to rise high and maintain their shape. So, chill... and chill.

Heavy cream provides rich butterfat that gives the biscuits tenderness and flavor, as well as moisture from its water content. The formula requires minimal mixing, reducing the risk of too much gluten development.

Taste-testing results:

Three of five thought the water biscuits were fluffier and better overall. Two of five thought the milk biscuits had a little better taste.

Buttermilk adds a tangy flavor to the biscuits and makes them slightly more tender. No food processor: Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl, and use your hands or a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour until crumbly.

Mixing. The multi-stage mixing method is preferred for its ability to produce consistent doughs which are not fully developed. Blending all dry ingredients to rub or cut the shortening into the flour until fat is fully distributed and pea-sized lumps are visible.

How can I get my biscuits to rise higher? ›

Bake them close to each other.

Biscuits are an exception to this rule: Placing them close to one another on your baking sheet actually helps them push each other up, as they impede each other from spreading outward and instead puff up skywards.

The basic formula is as follows: 2 cups AP flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 6 tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup milk—and the add-in(s) of your choice. I'm giving you two savory options. The red is a sun-dried tomato and cheddar biscuit with paprika and a touch of cayenne.

High-fat butter, such as Kerrygold Butter, is best. The rich fat from the butter releases water when the biscuits are baking which is what contributes to the beautiful layers and flakiness that we love about biscuits.

When it comes to biscuits, more butter is better. But does the style of butter make a difference? For most of us, butter is a big draw when it comes to biscuits. Alongside buttermilk, it's the primary flavor we taste, and arguably the most important ingredient.

Cutting butter into flour or other dry ingredients is an essential part of preparing pastry dough, biscuits and crumbly pie toppings because it gives a light and flaky texture that can't be replicated with any other technique.

Use a sift to mix your dry ingredients.

Sift together all your dry ingredients instead of simply mixing. This will smooth out your lumps and you'll have a much more consistent bake. Some people will also freeze their dry ingredients to keep the dough as cold as possible. Again, cold dough is what makes a flaky biscuit.

As it turns out, adding hard-boiled egg yolks to your biscuit dough is a way to ward off an overworked, tough dough that can be the downfall of a butter-based pastry. When the trick is employed, the pastry shatters and then dissolves in your mouth quickly, tasting like a knob of flaky butter.