Simple Tips to Light and Fluffy Biscuits (2024)

FAQs

Why aren't my biscuits light and fluffy? ›

The key to making great biscuits is to use cold butter. We dice up the butter and then refrigerate it until ready to use. Cold butter will produce the fluffiest layers in your biscuits. Do not over-mix – once liquids touch the flour, mix just until dry ingredients are moistened.

It's easy! We use an oven-safe skillet to bake biscuits and bake them close together. I've found that biscuits rise taller when they are placed close together. Since we use such a hot oven, the liquid in the dough steams and helps them to rise.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Baking soda is a much more powerful leavener than baking powder, about 3-4 times as strong. That is why you will notice that recipes usually call for a small amount of baking soda, typically ¼ teaspoon per 1 cup of flour.

A hot oven helps biscuits bake—and rise—quickly. We recommend 475˚F for 15 minutes.

And the longer it takes the butter to melt as the biscuits bake, the more chance they have to rise high and maintain their shape. So, chill... and chill.

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.

Do you bake biscuits on greased or ungreased? ›

Baked goods may require longer baking time and also may be more likely to stick. Biscuits, scones and shortcakes are usually baked on ungreased cookie sheets or baking pans. Follow the directions in your recipe.

The process simply involves using a pastry brush to lightly coat the top of your unbaked biscuits with a liquid ingredient known to create that browning effect once heated. One of the most popular choices for this is cream, which imparts a rich golden color to the crust.

Sugar gives sweetness, but it is also important in developing the texture of the biscuit. Dissolved sugar tends to inhibit starch gelatinisation and gluten formation and creates a biscuit with a more tender texture. Undissolved sugar crystals give a crunchy, crisp texture.

One of the main roles of milk in baking is to provide moisture. It can help to keep baked goods from becoming too dry and crumbly, and can also add tenderness to the texture.

If the fat melts or softens before the biscuits bake, the biscuits will be hard and flat because there's no place for the CO2 to go except out of the biscuits. Don't work in a hot kitchen. If the dough seems to be getting too soft or warm, place it in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes.

If your freshly baked biscuits seem too soft after they're cooled, then they're either under baked, or there is too much liquid in the recipe.

Biscuit making is an art. It requires the right touch—and that means with your hands. A blender or processor will create too much friction, heating up the butter and flour quickly. You also have to be careful not to over-blend or you'll end up with chewy biscuits.

Kneading too much and overhandling biscuit, shortcake and scone dough overdevelops the gluten in the flour, resulting in a chewy, tough baked product.