There are an almost endless number of biscuits recipes, each with their own tips and tricks for improving different elements of the baked good, but ultimately they're all after the same thing: a flaky, burnished biscuit that comes out of the oven buttery and tall. That height, the way the dough puffs up and creates flakiness and layers, is often an indicator of a great biscuit. But it's difficult to know exactly what contributes to that stature. If your biscuits aren't reaching the great heights that you'd like them to, these five tips will help you get there.
Don't overwork the dough.
When it comes to isolating elements that help build height in a biscuit, how you work the dough is probably the most commonly overlooked. With tender pastries like pie crust and biscuits, you're trying to develop as little gluten as possible in the dough, which keeps your treats from becoming tough. Working with very, very cold ingredients is helpful, as is working quickly to make sure the heat from your hands doesn't melt the butter.
Many home biscuit makers are looking for a uniform dough. (An understandable instinct). However, your biscuit dough should be uneven and barely stay together — that's what will help create those airy pockets of buttery goodness.
Embrace stacking.
In biscuit-making, height and flakiness go hand in hand. Why? Because the layers of butter that get compressed and stacked as you build your biscuits are what create those flakey biscuit bits, and they also create steam in the oven — which helps the biscuits to expand as tall as possible.
Most biscuit recipes will tell you to fold or stack the dough in on itself once or twice, rolling it out in between stacking. If your favorite recipe isn't yielding the height that you'd like to see, consider adding an extra fold or two, which will create more layers. I've found that four folds is a good number: Any more than that and the biscuits can actually get too tall and flop over onto their side.
Go for clean cuts.
Whether you're making round or square biscuits, be sure you're using a knife or biscuit cutter, and that you're not twisting as you cut. It's important to create a clean cut that won't smoosh those outside layers onto one another, as that will bind the layers together and inhibit the puffing that creates height.
Bake them close to each other.
Often in baking, recipes will instruct you to place items far enough away from each other that they won't touch. 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.
Keep the oven hot.
When baking buttery treats like biscuits, the key is to bake them at a temperature where the water in the butter turns quickly to steam. This steam is a big part of how the biscuits achieve their height, as it evaporates up and out. Be sure your oven is fully preheated (depending on your recipe, you'll be looking at a temperature between 425 and 475 degrees Fahrenheit), and use an oven thermometer to make sure the temperature inside the oven is the same as the one the oven display says.
Finally, resist the temptation to open the oven part way through baking. Doing so will let a significant portion of heat out and can cause your biscuits to fall. Instead, keep an eye on them through the window in your oven, and wait to take them out until they're bronze, flakey and sky-high.
The biggest tip for creating tall and flaky biscuits is to put the biscuits in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking them. Once they are on the baking sheet, just pop the whole thing in the freezer.
The secret to the best biscuits is using very cold butter and baking powder. We've made a lot of biscuits, but this easy biscuits recipe is the one we turn to the most (they are so fluffy!). See our easy drop biscuits and cheese drop biscuits for even easier biscuits.
There are three things that guarantee tender, flaky biscuits every time: flour, fat and folding. The type of flour you use will take your biscuits from tough to tender.
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.
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.
Heavy cream provides rich butterfat that gives the biscuits tenderness and flavor, as well as moisture from its water content. The formula requires minimal mixing, reducing the risk of too much gluten development.
Can I use all-purpose flour? Yes, the biscuits will be denser, and you will need to add 1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder and ¼ teaspoon of salt for each cup of flour. But using White Lily self-rising flour or pastry flour combined with the mentioned baking powder and salt will give you the best results.
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.
As it turns out, adding hard-boiled egg yolks to your biscuit dough is a way to ward off an overworked, tough dough that can be the downfall of a butter-based pastry. When the trick is employed, the pastry shatters and then dissolves in your mouth quickly, tasting like a knob of flaky butter.
*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.
To create flaky layers in your biscuits, it's important that you fold the dough a few times. When cutting the butter into your dough, the fat forms small pockets coated by flour. By folding the dough you create layers of those fat pockets and flour.
Turns out when you put supremely cold or frozen dough in the oven, “it causes the water in the butter to evaporate more quickly,” said Fields. “When water evaporates it goes up, as steam, so it takes all the structure [of the biscuit] with it.”
“Short,” in a baking context, means that there is a high proportion of fat to flour. This is usually just applied to non-yeast doughs, by the way; you won't see references to a “short” challah dough or brioche, for instance. Usually these short doughs are very rich, crumbly, and tender with butter.
Introduction: My name is Dean Jakubowski Ret, I am a enthusiastic, friendly, homely, handsome, zealous, brainy, elegant person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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