My mom never made biscuits when I was growing up, other than blobby drop biscuits made out of Bisquick. Those were uninspired, so I didn’t learn the art of biscuit-making when I was young.
Now I’m an old lady, and I’ve perfected biscuit-making, mostly by learning from America’s Test Kitchen.
The key tips:
Have fresh baking powder.
Keep everything cold. In fact, it’s best if you freeze and then grate the butter into the flour.
Chill both the kneaded dough square, and then again the cold raw biscuit pucks for about 20 minutes each.
Don’t twist the biscuit cutter as you cut down through the dough.
And my own tips:
Greek yogurt is a great substitute for buttermilk. In fact, I think it might make a superior biscuit. Just thin it a little with some plain milk to add back in a bit of moisture.
When you’re giving the dough its initial three or four kneads, pat it out into a square, spread it with a thin layer of yet more butter, and then fold the dough over on itself in thirds, like a business letter. Pat it out and give it another fold before it goes into the fridge to chill.
Paying attention to all these tips made yesterday’s biscuits the best I ever tasted. Mr. brown seconds my opinion.
I do love to make buttermilk biscuits from recipes. I like to add say dill, sun-dried tomato or sunflower seeds and garlic to a recipe so it tastes stimulating.
I’ve been working on my buttermilk biscuit game for about 20 years. Part of the appeal for me is how quick they are: I can get a batch on the table in less than half an hour, start to finish. So, my tips:
-Food processor works great for incorporating the butter quickly.
-Leave some butter in little chunks; it helps with the layering.
-Whole buttermilk is key, and can be hard to find. Low-fat or nonfat buttermilk makes an inferior biscuit.
-If you’re really wanting to be fast, you can make drop biscuits. They’re not layered, and they’re not as neat-looking, and they don’t make tasty breakfast sandwiches. But they’re super-fast, and they have a lot of crunchy nubbly bits, and you can easily add some grated cheese and herbs (I like thyme, oregano, garlic powder, and smoked paprika, along with sharp cheddar) to make something truly glorious.
Huh. I’ve never seen anything other than 2% buttermilk. Maybe that’s why my yogurt substitute worked so well. I used full-fat Fage Greek yogurt and the biscuits puffed up high and fluffy.
I cut the biscuit dough with a sharp chef’s knife, instead of using a glass or biscuit cutter. The edges aren’t as compressed, and I can use the entire amount of dough without committing the sin of mashing the extra dough back together.
If square biscuits bother you, just make your sausage patties square. Or better yet, cover them in sawmill gravy, and nobody will know.
I used to make biscuits. I quit because there is no limit to the number of biscuits I will eat. I can force myself to stop after 6, but really would gladly eat all 12 I would make. With butter and homemade blackberry jam. I never thought about the lowfat buttermilk/yogurt issue but that makes sense.
There’s a restaurant nearby called All Hail the Biscuit that makes great biscuits. I have to order one to go since I have no will power and will keep ordering them if I stay.
Darigold dairy here in the PNW makes a Bulgarian buttermilk that I insist on for anything requiring buttermilk, but it can be a little difficult to find. I have a couple of grocery stores local to me that stock it.
I also add sourdough starter to my biscuit mix, varying liquids as necessary to achieve the proper consistency.
Now I want biscuits, but blood sugar this morning says no
These three, especially the food processor. I bought a cookbook years ago called “Southern Biscuits”, by Nathalie Dupree. She advocates for using your fingers in a snapping motion to incorporate the butter. Tedious and unnecessary, in my opinion, and results in having to do another refrigeration step. I whisk the dry ingredients together by pulsing the processor, then drop the very cold butter into the mix after cutting it into about 1/4"-1/2" pieces; dump the cold buttermilk in, then pulse 3-4 times. Quickly scoop it out onto a lightly floured surface, then do the folding thing as mentioned above. If done quickly, you don’t have to refrigerate the dough. My biscuits explode to heights never seen before.
As mentioned above, you can substitute yogurt for buttermilk. I’ve even put a little sour creme in with some milk. Saul Goodman.
When I make biscuits, it’s mostly experimental, and done by feel. And despite that experience, I definitely still have good batches and bad.
I’ve learned that, contrary to what you might think, you can have too much butter. And lard or Crisco work almost as well. A mix of both butter and shortening might even be best.
I made cream biscuits once (with no butter or milk – the cream supplies both the moisture and fat), and they turned out surprisingly well. I’ve also found the freshness of the baking powder is crucial, and of course so is temperature.
We’re often warned against overworking the dough, but I think it can be underworked, too. You want it to hold together well and have layers, which requires more handling than the TV chef warnings might cause you to think.
I use a knife and make square biscuits, to minimize scrap dough and kitchen uni-taskers.
If you want to go to the effort, instead of using butter, shortening or even lard, find a store you can buy a jar of beef tallow. No chilling required; the higher melting point imho produces a superior biscuit even with general purpose flour.
The flavor of butter is so delicious that I stick with it even if another fat is easier to work with or gives flakier results. Same with pie crust: I’m all-butter all the way.
I thought Buttermilk was by definition low-fat, because it is the residue Milk left over from making Butter, which of course is virtually all extracted fat.
For Camping, a lot of guys swear by Cream biscuits. No butter or lard to cut in or anything. Flour, cream, baking powder, salt, that’s it. I guess they are very easy to make this way and taste fantastic.
I blame not using the proper flour. And I don’t use all the known fancy tricks. I like the Red Lobster make-at-home ones, which taste like the restaurant ones.
My mom was a Norwegian from Minnesota. I don’t think she ever ate biscuits when she was growing up, and the Bisquick ones she occasionally made were to appease my dad, whose family came from Alabama. I don’t think he was appeased, though. And I (born and raised in California) never ate a proper biscuit myself until the last couple of years when I learned to make them myself.
Grits are another matter. Yep, they’re southern. I haven’t acquired a taste for it as a breakfast food, but I do like polenta with ragu bolognese for dinner.
In my experience, lard or Crisco work better than butter, to achieve a very tender biscuit. And they’re more authentically Southern as well. Once they’re out of the oven, that’s the time for butter, melted and basted on top.
Also: use White Lily or Southern Biscuit flour. Yes, it does make a difference. They’ll not only be more tender, they’ll rise better.
