Biscuits are a deceptively easy snack to make, a perfect way to feed guests or your family. But if you want to take your biscuits to the next level, there’s always something to learn and improve on in the world of baking! With biscuits, that’s their texture. How do you get a perfectly tender, buttery, flaky crumb? Here are some tips!
Cold Butter
The way that butter and the other fats in your biscuit dough react with the baking powder or soda and flour in the oven is essential to creating fluffiness by adding air pockets as it melts. You don’t want that reaction to happen before the biscuits start baking, so to help avoid it put your butter in the freezer for 15 minutes before cutting (or even grating it) into the dry ingredients. Make sure your milk is directly from the fridge too.
Use Full-Fat Ingredients
Baking isn’t the time to skimp on milk fat by using skim. Use full-fat milk, or for even more tender biscuits with even more flavor, try using buttermilk. If you don’t have any on hand, you can make some yourself by adding a spoonful of lemon juice to your milk and mixing, then letting it sit for a few minutes until it’s nice and thick.
Technique Plays a Role
Don’t let this scare you—the technique isn’t complicated! It mainly involves not overworking the dough. You don’t need to knead and fold it for five minutes—just fold it over a few times to avoid creating too much gluten or getting rid of the fat pockets. The dough should still be lumpy and have some small lumps of butter visible! Additionally, during baking, try to resist the urge to open the oven until it’s really time to take them out.
