Flaky Biscuits

The only problem with these biscuits is that they’re likely to be tastier than whatever they’re accompanying. The trick to these is keeping the dough soft and rolling and folding the dough with melted butter. This is an adaptation of the basic biscuit recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Makes at least six beautiful 2″ biscuits, more if you count the deformed ones.

You can see the wonky biscuits in the back. They all taste good, though!

5 Tbsp. cold butter
1 3/4 c. A.P flour
OR 1 c. AP + 3/4 c. cake flour (ideal)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. + 2 Tbsp. whole milk
2 Tbsp. butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 450.

Sift together the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a fork or pastry mixer, until the largest butter bits are the size of peas. Add the milk and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until the ingredients just come together and form a sticky ball.

Dump the dough out onto a well-floured board and toss it a few times to coat with flour. Knead gently 2-3 times until it comes together. Roll out the dough until it is a bit bigger than a sheet of typing paper. Brush it with melted butter. Fold it over once and repeat. Do this 3-4 times and then roll out the dough to 3/4″ thick.

Cut out 1 1/2-2″ biscuits (I use a tuna can with both ends cut off, though you can make them into squares for zero waste) and place them on an ungreased sheet pan*. Bake for 10-12 minutes, turning the pan around halfway through the baking, to ensure even browning. The edges should be golden brown and the bottoms should not be burnt.

*If you have extra dough left after cutting out circles, moosh it together into a couple of balls and make a divot in the center. Put a spoonful of jam in and bake with the rest of the biscuits.

NOTE:

These can be made with a food processor. Cut the butter up and put it in the freezer for 20-30 minutes so it’s hard. Put the dry ingredients in the FP first, and pulse to mix. Then cut in the butter (careful not to grind it too much), and then add in the liquid. It should come together in one ball when it’s done, after a couple of pulses.