Our easiest ever biscuit recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to a good biscuit? ›

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.

“… beaten biscuits are what people made in the days before baking soda and baking powder was around. In order to get the biscuits to rise, cooks would beat the dough with a mallet, rolling pin, or even an ax for over half an hour util it blistered.”

White Lily brand flour, especially the self-rising flour, is the gold standard among Southern cooks who make biscuits on a regular basis. White lily, self rising. I use it for everything except those thing I make using either cake flour or yeast. If I'm using yeast I use King Arthur flours.

Buttermilk can produce better results when baking biscuits than using regular milk or cream. Buttermilk is acidic and when it is combined with baking soda, it creates a chemical reaction that produces carbon dioxide gas, which causes the dough to rise and gives the biscuits a light and flaky texture.

*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.

Use good butter and dairy

Because biscuit recipes call for so few ingredients, it's important that every one is high quality—you'll really taste the difference. Catherine recommends splurging a bit on a grass-fed butter or European-style butter (now's the time to reach for Kerrygold!).

Dr Gadoud said: “Funeral biscuits were biscuits served at or associated with funerals. They were generally two biscuits wrapped up and presented to each person attending the funeral or sent out with the invite to the funeral or afterwards.

What is the oldest biscuit in the world? ›

The earliest surviving example of a biscuit is from 1784, and it is a ship's biscuit. They were renowned for their inedibility, and were so indestructible that some sailors used them as postcards.

That is why you will notice that recipes usually call for a small amount of baking soda, typically ¼ teaspoon per 1 cup of flour. Do not make the mistake of trying to substitute equal parts baking soda for baking powder in recipes. Your baked goods will have no leavening, be quite flat, and have an altered taste.

The earliest biscuits were a simple combination of flour and water that resulted in little more than baked paste. Soon people learned that adding fat to the recipe made them tasty and flaky. In the Northern states butter is the favored lipid. In the South, lard or shortening is the standard.

The writer described them as "a kind of sugared biscuit, which are wrapped up, generally two of them together, in a sheet of wax paper, sealed with black wax." The biscuits were given to each person attending the funeral, and were a custom of the funerals of "lower and the middling class of people." In Lincolnshire, ...

Buttermilk adds a tangy flavor to the biscuits and makes them slightly more tender. Butter: We use salted European butter in this recipe. It will work with unsalted or salted butter. I like the extra saltiness of salted butter, but you can reduce the salt to 3/4 teaspoon if you prefer.

Texture: A good biscuit should have a fluffy and tender texture, with a slightly crispy exterior. It should not be too dry, hard, or crumbly. Flavor: A good biscuit should have a rich and buttery flavor, with a hint of saltiness.

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.

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.