Mile High Perfect Biscuits Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to high rising biscuits? ›

A hot 425° oven helps give the biscuits a nice oven spring, or initial rise caused by the reaction to the heat. Eat them fresh. Biscuits are best hot right out of the oven.

For flaky layers, use cold butter. When you cut in the butter, you have coarse crumbs of butter coated with flour. 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.

Basically, you pat the dough out into a rectangle, then fold it up into thirds (like you're folding a letter to put in an envelope), then repeat that process. This trick applies to scones too. This step ensures your biscuits will bake up tall, with distinct layers of flaky goodness.

Buttermilk adds a nice tang to the biscuit flavor and helps them rise better.

But to get the rise you want without killing the tang (which would be the result of too much baking soda), you'll need to incorporate baking powder as well, taking advantage of the delayed double-action to add even more levity. Combining the two leavening agents produces a biscuit that is both light and tangy.

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 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.

Biscuit recipes tend to be egg-free, this makes them drier and the lack of protein to bind the mix helps achieve that crumbly texture. For super light, crumbly biscuits try grating or pushing the yolks of hard-boiled eggs through a sieve into the biscuit dough.

US biscuits are made today with chemical leaveners. The basic recipe uses flour, baking powder, a fat ( butter or Crisco or lard), salt, and buttermilk. The acid in the buttermilk activates the baking powder, the heat of the oven melts the fat. The biscuits rise and are tender and flaky.

What ingredient caused your biscuits to rise? ›

While biscuits receive some leavening power from chemical sources — baking powder and baking soda — the difference between serviceable and greatness comes from the extra rise that steam provides. In order to generate steam, the oven must be set at a minimum of 425 degrees for at least 10 minutes prior to baking.

When you fold the dough, these pieces of butter stack on top of each other, creating rough layers of butter and dough that translate to flakiness once baked. Buttermilk Biscuits get maximum flakiness from a folding step built into the recipe.

Buttermilk adds a tangy flavor to the biscuits and makes them slightly more tender.

Biscuits w/ LARD and Shortening

Biscuits with shortening create beautiful layers and flakiness, but nothing compares to the taste of a biscuit made with real butter.

Yes, you can substitute sour cream! Thin it with milk or water to get the right consistency. For each cup of buttermilk needed, use 3/4 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup liquid. Editor's Tip: Sour cream has a higher fat content, so this will result in richer-tasting foods.

A hot oven helps biscuits bake—and rise—quickly. We recommend 475˚F for 15 minutes. Remove them from the oven as soon as they are lightly brown.

Conclusion: More baking powder makes the biscuit rise more (imagine that!). About 1 tablespoon of baking powder per 2 cups of flour seems to be about the right amount, but even halving or doubling this amount should not ruin your biscuits.

US biscuits are made today with chemical leaveners. The basic recipe uses flour, baking powder, a fat ( butter or Crisco or lard), salt, and buttermilk. The acid in the buttermilk activates the baking powder, the heat of the oven melts the fat. The biscuits rise and are tender and flaky.