Simple, flaky biscuit recipe

Scattered.

If I had to pick one word for my life the last while, it would have to be scattered. Just as one crazy thing is brought under control, the next careens into view. Like garlic butter in your cake pan. Or a teetering stack of biscuits.

One of my surest cures for scattered is bread. As I gather the bits of ragged dough and knead them together into a cohesive whole, I am, likewise, remade just a bit, my loose edges reintegrated and all that. It's one of my favorite meditative states.

Biscuits are the power nap of bread-baking. Fast as any quick bread, yet, when well done, as rewarding as any multi-day, wild-yeast rustic loaf. It's all about the crumb. Or the flake, in this case.

Biscuits are also dead simple, once you get the hang of it. If you know what the dough should look like and, secondarily, how it feels, biscuits are quick and simple. (The elapsed time on the photos in my making biscuits photo set is just under half an hour, and it would have been faster without the constant interruption of the photos.)

Fresh is best! Just out of the oven, a biscuit is layers of delicate, steaming flaky near-pastry. Add a smear of butter and a dollop of jam and it could be dessert!

Reheated biscuits can be quite good, even though they lack the possible transcendence of a biscuit moments from the oven. My recipe makes a 2-3 person batch of about half a dozen biscuits. (I used to be anti-reheated biscuits entirely but have softened after trying these the morning after.) Reheat, if you must - and I say this as someone whose default recipe includes leftovers for stay-at-home me the next day - covered in a 350 oven for 5 min or so, depending on how much insulation your covering provides. A pie pan with foil will heat in 5 min, a pizza stone with a heavy ceramic cover (i.e. my oven) gives you more leeway, taking 10 or a few more.

Biscuits are a perfect recipe for teaching small children to bake. I was tempted to start this article, "When I was a child, I baked as a child..." because that is when I was taught to make biscuits and they are that easy. Plus, tiny child hands can be very gentle, which helps with the flakiness.

I should make biscuits more often.

Biscuits for two

                      makes ~6

My definition of "for two" is two each for and some leftover for my breakfast the next day. Your math may vary.

                                                       

Ingredient	US volume	US weight	Metric weight
Flour	2   1/4 cups	10   1/8 oz	285   g
Salt	3/4   tsp	1/8   oz	4-5   g
Sugar	1   tsp	5/8   oz	18   g
Baking   powder	4   tsp	5/8   oz	19   g
Butter,   very cold	1/3   cup	2   5/8 oz	75   g
Milk,   very cold	1   cup	8   oz	225   g

1. Preheat oven to 450°
2. Place flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in food processor and pulse for a few seconds to combine.
3. Cut butter into small pieces and add to food processor. Pulse half a dozen times and check for the size of the butter pieces. Repeat if necessary until the butter is in pieces roughly the size of peas.
4. Put flour mixture in a mixing bowl and add the cold milk. Toss together gently until barely combined. I use the little white plastic tool in the picture to lift the dough from the side of the bowl and dump it on top of the rest of the dough.
5. As soon as the dough holds together, turn it out on a lightly floured counter. Gently "knead" the dough a few strokes until it is a mostly a cohesive ball. (Click here for a close-up of what the dough looks like before kneading. Here's the after shot.)
6. Roll the dough into a rectangle 1/2-3/4 inch thick, depending on how tall you like your biscuits. Cut into 2 inch circles, you should get ~6, and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. (See note about leftover dough.)
7. Bake at 450° for 8-10 minutes. Butter and eat while still warm.
   

Notes

• I use a food processor to cut up the butter for biscuits, pie crusts etc. If you don't have a food processor, you can use a large fork, a pair of dull knives, or just rub the butter and flour gently between your fingers to create the same effect. Your hands will warm the butter a little bit, so if you have time to chill the dough briefly after doing this, do - your biscuits will be flakier.
• There will be some dough left over after you cut the biscuits. Unless you need all of the biscuits for this meal, smoosh it into a ball, wrap it in plastic and stick it in the refrigerator until the next morning. They will be a bit better than if the dough is rerolled immediately.
• I use one of those plastic cutting boards you can pick up for a buck or so because it contains all of the mess and makes cleanup a snap.
• I encourage you to check out the images in my making biscuits flickr set and get a closeup look at the texture of the dough at various steps in the process.

Comments

[SnowGurlie]

These were delicious. Normally my family doesn't like sugar added to the mix, but all were complete fans of this recipe. I'll be keeping it. Thanks.

[Cassie]

These were the best. I loved them so much that today I used yesterday's mashed potatoes and made a batch of you potato bread. It's absolutely wonderful. I'll defiantly be using both recipes in the future.

[Sorina]

You have a lovely blog. Great recipe it really does look so delicious.

[GothicGirl]

Those look so good ... really tasty.

Jealous!!

Thanks for sharing the recipe! I may be making those tomorrow for breakfast!

[KathleenM]

I've been using baking powder and soda. I noticed the soda included in the directions, but not in the ingredients. Great 'tower of biscuit' photo.

[Nick]

Baking soda is included in the directions, but not ingredients. How much?

[kitchenmage]

Nick, None and I fixed the recipe. That's what I get for grabbing a template from a different recipe.

[heather]

biscuits were really good, I added a tad more sugar, and glazed them on the top with butter, and that made them perfect for me. thanks for the great recipe!

[Keva]

I can't believe that on my first try, these biscuits came out Fantastic!! I substituted with 1 cup of buttermilk instead of regular milk like your recipe calls for and they still came out fluffy, light, and light golden in color. I'm sticking with your recipe.

[Aubrey]

I tried this recipe out with what we had in the house: wheat flour instead of white, and 1 1/2 tsp organic blue agave sweetener instead of sugar, and 2% milk. I also didn't use a processor but did it all by hand. They turned out delicious, especially with blackberry preserves on top! :)

[Christy O]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I've been trying over a year to make good biscuits, I've tried so many recipes and none of them have been good. These were great! Finally, I've made light, flaky biscuits. The pictures were so helpful, thank you again.

[Jennifer]

These turned out great and my whole family loved them! We've been looking for an alternative to the frozen grocery store biscuits and we have found it now. And your pictures and detailed descriptions were so helpful. Thank you!!

[Travius Mattheus Finlius]

I might be thick...what happened to the pea sized butter in step three?

[cehualli]

These were fantastic, thanks!

Any tips for getting the flakes into layers?

[kitchenmage]

Travius Mattheus Finlius, the bits of butter are mixed in (it's why the flour is lumpy in the photo above) and flattened into the smears of butter (look here) that separate the flour and give you the flaky layers.

cehauli, Chill, baby, chill. grin Seriously, the trick to flakes is not overworking the dough - you can still see the butter in places when it is done - and keeping it cold. I start with cold butter and milk and if the kitchen (or butter) is warm, I sometimes toss the dough in the fridge for a few minutes before baking. You can even cut the biscuits, toss then on a pan and put the pan in a freezer for 15 min. before baking. Well, if you have a big freezer...

[tangela]

i'm guessing that the butter called for in the recipe should be the salted kind, because i made the biscuits with unsalted and they tasted kind of bland. [the pitfall of baking cakes and cookies and such all the time--i always go for the unsalted stuff first]

unless i did something [else] wrong...?