For most of us, butter is a big draw when it comes to biscuits. Alongside buttermilk, it's the primary flavor we taste, and arguably the most important ingredient. I recently tested some of the most popular biscuit recipes on the internet, and I learned a lot about biscuit making. With one exception, all of the recipes I tested used butter, but rarely did they specify the style of butter. As I split open what seemed like my millionth biscuit, I wondered if there was a way to improve even my favorite recipe by changing the style of butter I used. To find out, I made four more batches of my favorite biscuit recipe, each with a different style of butter. Here's what I learned.
The 3 Types of Butter You Should Know About — And How to Use Them
Regular Old American Butter
I used Land O'Lakes unsalted as my point of comparison — a regular American-style butter that is widely available and very consistent. As a reminder: At its simplest, butter is the product of churning cow's milk until the solid fat separates from the liquid. That solid, called butterfat, can contain different concentrations of fat, usually measured in percentages. Land O'Lakes, like most American butter, has a butterfat percentage of about 80 percent. The remaining 20 percent of the stick is mostly water, with a couple of percentage points worth of milk solids other than fat. The biscuits I made with Land O'Lakes were perfectly delicious, flaky, and not lacking in buttery flavor — or so I thought.
There are many types of European butters out there, but their main calling card is that they have a higher butterfat percentage than American butters. Kerrygold, a widely available Irish butter, is 82 percent butterfat. It didn't seem like much of a difference to me, but those two percentage points packed more fat and less water into my biscuits. I'm not sure I would have noticed the difference if I hadn't known, but the Kerrygold biscuits seemed to taste just a touch better to me.
In general, with baking you want to use unsalted butter so that you can control the amount of salt in your final product. I tend to follow this rule, but I did notice that even the biscuit recipe that I liked the best only called for a small amount of salt. When I tried the recipe with a stick of salted Land O'Lakes butter, I found that the extra salt brought out a little more flavor. My takeaway? Don't be afraid to add a little extra salt to your biscuit dough, or to use up a stick of salted butter you might have sitting around.
Salted vs. Unsalted Butter: What's the Difference?
Cultured Butter
Cultured butter is made with live cultures — it is lightly fermented (think crème fraiche or yogurt) to create a tangy flavor. I used Vermont Creamery's unsalted cultured butter, which has a butterfat content of 82 percent, in my testing. Uncooked, the butter has a pleasant tanginess, but I found that the flavor was mostly lost in the baking process, especially in a recipe that called for buttermilk. Cultured butter also happens to be a good bit more expensive than regular butter (2 sticks cost me $6), so I will stick to slathering it on my warm, finished biscuits in the future.
Grass-fed Butter
My winner in the butter wars was Nellie's Free Range Slow Churned Butter. It's a European-style, American-made butter and it stood out because it has the highest butterfat of any of the sticks I tested: a whopping 84 percent. I was worried that the lack of water would create a denser biscuit (water evaporation helps biscuits achieve their lift), but I was wrong. The result was the most delicious, most buttery biscuit of all the ones I made. After more than a dozen batches, it made me excited to eat just one more biscuit — I can only imagine how I would have felt if I wasn't nearly biscuit-ed out.
The Takeaway
At the end of the day, biscuits are buttery and delicious, no matter what type of butter you use. As long as you're using a great recipe, you're going to end up with something absolutely incredible. That said, if you're looking for a way to up your biscuit game, look for the highest butterfat percentage butter you can find — Nellie's is a great option, but different grocery stores may have different products available. I'd also advise never saying no to a slather of cultured butter for serving.
Related:
This *Cool* Trick Is the Secret To Perfectly Flaky Biscuits
15 Easy Drop Biscuit Recipes to Make With Few Ingredients
In general, with baking you want to use unsalted butter so that you can control the amount of salt in your final product. I tend to follow this rule, but I did notice that even the biscuit recipe that I liked the best only called for a small amount of salt.
But the vast majority of baking recipes call for unsalted butter, plus salt measurement, to guarantee the recipe will turn out as intended (not too salty and not under salted).
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.
High-fat butter, such as Kerrygold Butter, is best. The rich fat from the butter releases water when the biscuits are baking which is what contributes to the beautiful layers and flakiness that we love about biscuits.
in this case, it appears that the biscuit structure is just a lot more stable (structurally speaking) when there's less butter. When you get a lot of butter, you're kind of filling your biscuit with holes, which makes it unable to bear its own weight to rise very far.
When you cut in your fat, you leave it in small pea-sized lumps. Those lumps get coated in flour and melt during baking into layers. If your fats are too warm, the lumps will melt and form a hom*ogeneous dough, resulting in dense, leaden biscuits.
Place the dough on top of the butter and use a spatula (or your hands) to evenly spread the dough out to the edges of the pan. Cut the unbaked dough into 9 squares (3×3 pattern). Bake for 28 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Allow the butter to be absorbed into the biscuits before cutting and serving.
This helps create more consistent results for home bakers replicating a recipe. In general, salted butter is preferred for cooking (or simply spreading) as it adds more flavour and has a longer shelf life, while unsalted butter is the go-to for baking.
*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.
If you're baking and swapping in salted butter, the excess water from salted butter may make more of an impact. This is because extra water can have an effect on how gluten reacts and forms within dough. Consider slightly lessening any additional water the recipe may call for.
Although unsalted butter is the preferred choice for bakers, spreadable butters like Western Star Soft and Spreadable Soft n Less Salt can be used straight from the fridge. For creaming butter and sugar for biscuit and cake doughs it should be used chilled.
So what's the final verdict? Butter is the winner here. The butter biscuits were moister with that wonderful butter taste and melt-in-your mouth texture. I'd be curious to test out substituting half or just two tablespoons of the butter with shortening to see if you get the best of both.
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.
This helps create more consistent results for home bakers replicating a recipe. In general, salted butter is preferred for cooking (or simply spreading) as it adds more flavour and has a longer shelf life, while unsalted butter is the go-to for baking.
Butter that's straight from the fridge doesn't get fully incorporated into a batter; instead it gets broken down into small pieces throughout your dough. Since butter is about 18 percent water, steam is released in those pockets during baking, which helps create flaky layers.
The higher butterfat percentage in European butter is one of the main reasons why many consider butters from across the pond to be superior to those produced in the US. It's better for baking, but it also creates a richer flavor and texture even if all you're doing is smearing your butter on bread.
Hobby: Web surfing, Skiing, role-playing games, Sketching, Polo, Sewing, Genealogy
Introduction: My name is Maia Crooks Jr, I am a homely, joyous, shiny, successful, hilarious, thoughtful, joyous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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