How to Make a Perfect Biscuit

Your biscuit ingredients really matter. Here are three areas that I find are most important when making biscuits.

1. Baking Powder

One of the most important parts of a fluffy biscuit is the baking powder. Make sure your baking powder has not expired. If it is "dead" your biscuits will not rise. Instead, they will be flat and hard. 

HOW TO TEST BAKING POWDER

Add ½ cup of hot water to 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Does it bubble? Then your baking powder is still active. If there is no reaction, your baking powder is useless. Throw it away.

2. The Fat

Originally biscuits were made with lard, or rendered pig fat. That is still a great way to make fluffy, flaky biscuits. Another healthy alternative is to use real butter. (Contrary to much nutritional advice, natural animal fats are not bad for you.)

3. The Milk

Use whole milk or buttermilk for the best results with homemade biscuits. Buttermilk not only adds a wonderful flavor to your biscuits, it also adds a delicate texture. If you don't normally keep buttermilk on hand, a great alternative is buttermilk powder. Mix it with the amount of water called for in your recipe. I normally mix it with milk for even more flavor and tenderness.

However, you can simply add the buttermilk powder in with your dry ingredients and proceed with the recipe as normal. 

How you mix up your biscuit dough is very important for the texture of your biscuits and is the reason for most biscuit failures.

Rule #1 Use a dough blender.

Using a dough blender tool helps with the mixing. It is faster than using any other tool ensures that the fat is mixed into the flour in a uniform way. Some people call the dough blender a pastry cutter which seems to be the wrong name. You are not cutting the pastry but cutting fat into the flour.

Rule #2 Do not over mix the dough.

Once you have added your milk, there is a danger of over mixing. (Don't worry about this when you are cutting in the fat. There is no danger until you add the milk.)

Mix only until the milk is mostly incorporated into the flour. Do not try to mix out all the lumps or beat the dough. (Horrors! A gentle hand is necessary.)

Remember that you are going to gently knead the dough a few turns on a floured counter top, so leave some mixing to do during that process. Once most of the dough has formed a large ball, turn it out onto the counter top. There may be bits that have not mixed in. That is fine. Dump them on top of your ball, and gently work them in.

Rule #3 Briefly knead the dough.

Knead the biscuit dough for only about three to four turns -- 1. push & fold, turn. 2. push and fold, turn. Do this only enough to make the dough a solid mass with no dry spots. 

Once your dough has been cut, mixed, and kneaded, you are ready to cut out the biscuits. More warnings are necessary here.

Leave Your Dough Thick

Do not pat out your dough too thin. This is a huge biscuit blunder and results in wimpy, flat biscuits. If you like tall and fluffy biscuits, leave your dough thick on the counter top -- 1 inch thick!

There is no need to literally roll the dough. Just press it with your hands until it is the right thickness.

I find that most recipes are geared towards thinner biscuits. In other words, if a recipe says it makes eight biscuits, I can only make five of my thick ones, so I normally double any recipe.

If you really want harder biscuits with more crust and less of a fluffy inside, then pat your dough down to ½ inch. 

Use a Biscuit Cutter

Of course a drinking glass will work, but a special biscuit cutter is easier to use and easier to clean as well.