Best Biscuits (recipes, techniques, etc)

I am surprised I don't see a thread dedicated to baking biscuits (moderators correct me if I'm wrong). So few ingredients, so much controversy over recipes and techniques. What biscuit recipe do you stand by?

I have been searching for a good biscuit recipe for years.

oh BR...your fans (and fans to be) are calling you

HI,

Biscuit mentions (and recipes) are scattered all over Shopping and Cooking. The only thread which is topically devoted is on biscuits and gravy. As I was looking around, I saw a thread on sausage gravy and merged it in.

WGN at noon today had a guest making biscuits, who used quite a bit of technique.

You may want to link some of the recipes into this thread to create an index of sorts.

Regards,
Cathy2

for weeknight biscuits i have great luck with the cooks illustrated drop biscuit method, which has the genius technique of melting butter, letting it cool a bit, and then pouring it in to cold buttermilk, where it forms curds that are the perfect size for distributing evenly throughout flour. they are very tasty but not flaky layers; i haven't found a recipe i like for that ideal of rolled out laminated flakiness.

(Biscuits and) Piquillo butter, prepared by Entente chef Mari Katsumura.

What's missing is a videoclip of her biscuit technique. I just sent a note to the webmaster, because the biscuit instructions are cut off at the bottom. They began baking the biscuits at a high temperature to brown, then lowered to finish baking.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:(Biscuits and) Piquillo butter, prepared by Entente chef Mari Katsumura.

What's missing is a videoclip of her biscuit technique. I just sent a note to the webmaster, because the biscuit instructions are cut off at the bottom. They began baking the biscuits at a high temperature to brown, then lowered to finish baking.

Regards,
Cathy2

Fwiw, I ate at Entente, had this biscuit and thought it was tremendous . . . flaky layers, slightly tangy and entirely delicious. One of the best I've ever had.

=R=

The only tip I can offer is White Lily flour (made from 100% soft red winter wheat) which every Southerner seems to swear by. You can find them at a local Meijer's, but I haven't seen it anywhere else in these parts.

Vivian Howard is a chef with a tv show called "A Chef's Life." It is a wonderful, wonderful show that is available on Amazon Prime (sometimes) and dvds are in many libraries. If you can find Season 1 episode 12 "The Buttermilk Belt", you will see Miss Lillie Hardy teach Vivian Howard how to make biscuits. It is something to see.

Vivian Howard has her first cookbook out called "Deep Run Roots". Her biscuit recipe is on page 366 (the book is 580+ pages) and she says:

"The instructions make them seem easier than they actually are. Don't think you're gonna wake up hungry Saturday morning and whip out a perfect batch of these biscuits the first time you try; you better have a plan B. It takes practice. At least it did for me."

Here is what Vivian Howard said on her blog about her experience making biscuits with Lillie Hardy:

"There’s this myth surrounding chefs these days, building us up to be much more than just folks going to work and doing their best to create tasty food that we feel good about. Instead, the job title suggests we know every technique, every temperature, and every thought process behind every dish out there. I would like to blame the media or the celebrity-chef consciousness for these assumptions, but the fact is, we as chefs don’t do much to discourage these misconceptions."

"As a group I think we have a very hard time admitting our failures. If a dish isn’t well received, it’s not because the dish doesn’t work. It’s because you, the diner, don’t have a developed palate. We are not vulnerable. Instead, we are “crazy” (for chefs, this is a badge of honor). Before service we get amped up. We fist pump and holler. I’ve even seen colleagues chest pump (an interesting ritual if you have some females in the mix). During a difficult service, we get “hammered.” When we have a great night on the line, we say “we killed it!” When admiring a peer, we describe him or her as a “bad ass.” Much of this behavior is a reflection of how hard a night’s service can be. I have often walked off the line following service and felt as if I had just left the frontline of battle. An evening in a restaurant kitchen is an onslaught of emergencies and a study in putting out fires. These experiences, night after night, nurture the facade our profession projects."

"So when I – as a chef who had endured countless nights on the frontlines of Chef and the Farmer – waltzed into Warren Brother’s kitchen last winter to make buttermilk biscuits with Lillie Hardy, I was confident, possibly cocky. I knew there were only three ingredients. I bought them myself. I also knew Lillie was not known for her cooking. She works with Warren and is an anchor at the farm, but she is not someone who spent her life at the stove. I was certain Lillie had nothing on me. I am a “bad ass,” who gets “hammered” on a regular basis and I “kill it” more often than not."

"Well thank God I didn’t fist pump myself prior to my biscuit class, because Ms. Lillie Hardy schooled me in a major way. I just couldn’t get the flour and the buttermilk and the lard to work together the way she did. Her hands moved without thinking and her eyes rolled so far in the back of her head as she watched me, it’s a wonder she didn’t fall down. Lillie may not have spent her life at the stove, but she had certainly shared many moments with the biscuit bowl. The way she coaxed the flour in, to meet the lard and buttermilk love, was magic, and something I think you must cultivate over a lifetime. By any chef’s standards, Ms. Lillie Hardy is most definitely a bad ass."

That Entente recipe looks good - similar to ones I've made, though mine are definitely . . . how do I say this . . . less healthy. I just use more butter, but these recipes are a dime a dozen and technique is far more important.

I go for flaky biscuits. Here's what mine look like:





They're always brushed with an egg wash before going in the oven, occasionally also with melted butter when removed.

So, some tips:

Flour - White Lily ain't what it used to be so don't get hung up looking for it. If you want your biscuits a little lighter, substitute some cake flour (because it has less protein) for some of the all purpose flour. I highly recommend using a kitchen scale, looking up the weights per cup of the flours you are using (assuming you're using a recipe that doesn't specify grams), and then going 3/4 unbleached all purpose flour and 1/4 cake flour. On the other hand, if you don't mind slightly denser biscuits, just use all purpose flour. . . . whatever you like.

Fat - Butter, butter and more butter (and unsalted). That's what gives you flavor. You want to use lard? Go ahead, but I would still use at least 80% butter (I'm always at 85% or more). The lard adds a little flakiness, and some porky flavor if you're not using leaf lard. And don't use crappy butter. Get the good stuff - Plugra, Kerrygold or some other European or European-style or local, small batch butter. These butters taste better and most critically have less water content. If you use the average grocery store butters in your pie crusts or biscuits, your biscuits/pie crusts will never be as great as they can be. I can always tell when biscuits/pie crusts have been made with ordinary grocery store butter . . . always.

Grated hard boiled egg yolk - I learned this trick from Bon Appetit some time back and have employed grated egg yolk since. So if you use the Entente recipe, take a couple of cold, hard boiled egg yolks and grate them (best to push through a sieve) into the flour before adding the butter. This adds protein and richness without making the biscuits any heavier. If you just added an uncooked egg yolk, the biscuits will be a little heavier.

Preparing the dough - 1) Cut your butter into 3/4 inch cubes and freeze for at least 30 minutes . . . this is a must; 2) mix the dry ingredients together (flour, powder, salt and if using, soda and sugar . . . fork, whisk, just to combine. 3) Then, mix the frozen butter into the flour mixture. Ideally, you'll have a Cuisinart or the like. Pulse until the butter is the size of peas (20 or so really quick pulses should get you there). 4) Place butter/flour mixture into a larger bowl, add buttermilk mixture (I say mixture because it may include cream or sour cream depending upon your recipe) and stir gently, just until mixture comes together. The more you work the dough, the tougher it will be (gluten formation, like making bread). 5) Refrigerate this massive lump for about 20 minutes. This allows biscuit dough to rest a bit and ensures that the butter stays cold (critical if you want flaky layers).

Rolling - The Entente recipe (and other good ones out there) mention a critical step. Folds! Roll the dough out, maybe 3/4" thick. Then take the rolled dough and fold it over as if you were folding a letter to fit in an envelope. Roll out again, fold again, then roll again to 3/4" thickness. Ideally, refrigerate again for at least 10 minutes, though I'd recommend 20-30. It's all about keeping the butter cold.

Cutting - I like round biscuits, but I'll admit that the leftover scraps are a pain in the ass. Biscuits made from the scraps put back together just never looks as good. So an alternative is use a sharp knife/cleaver to form square biscuits. If using a biscuit cutter, dip in flour and do not twist . . . push straight down. This makes a huge difference in appearance. Same technique really if using a knife.

Putting in the oven - I like my biscuits to have a crisp bottom. To do this, preheat your pan with butter (clarified ideally but not a huge deal), and working very quickly, put all of your cut biscuits on the preheated pan.

There, go make biscuits!

Joy wrote:By any chef’s standards, Ms. Lillie Hardy is most definitely a bad ass."

100% agree! Her biscuit making is pure reflex, confidence and joy. A pleasure to watch a master at work with ease of skill acquired after hundreds of times.

BR wrote:There, go make biscuits!

On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, I've made Brads biscuits twice, he was kind enough to give me the recipe after I tasted them at a party a few weeks ago. BR's biscuits are in a word Glorious!

My first attempt was fine, I overworked the dough. Second better, but still a low ink xerox copy of Brads.

G Wiv wrote:My first attempt was fine, I overworked the dough. Second better, but still a low ink xerox copy of Brads.

Did you do the folds? That may be the only thing standing between you and layers of buttery love.

BR wrote:Did you do the folds? That may be the only thing standing between you and layers of buttery love.

Yes sir, with proper resting. I think my problem is still overworking the dough. I figure 5-6 more times will yield "layers of buttery love" In the meantime even a rough copy of your BR biscuits are damn tasty, damn tasty indeed.

Making perfect and otherwise exceptional biscuits is very, very, very hard: you simply have to practice and learn, and if you're not a culinarily-attuned person, you'll never get it quite right.

But I'm NOT a baker, I'm a cook. I want to make first-rate biscuits easily, quickly, and reliably. I want to work ten minutes, bake for fifteen minutes, and eat happily, drenching my bikkies with, alternatively, sausage gravy, or excellent Québec local honey, and/or, if the moment so moves me, finish with a generous pour of superb Québec maple syrup.

Kenji makes all of this possible. His recipe is foolproof, and the results are everything one could ask for. Most assuredly they are NOT the splendiferous creations of a BR. But they'll do quite very well, thank you very much.

Again: Kenji, I owe ya!

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/worlds-easiest-biscuit-recipe.html

Geo

Geo wrote:Most assuredly they are NOT the splendiferous creations of a BR. But they'll do quite very well, thank you very much.

For years my go-to biscuit recipe was Grandmother's Southern Biscuits from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, last decade or so I interspersed this with a simpler buttermilk drop biscuit from, I believe, Cook's Illustrated. I've made Two-Ingredient Cream Biscuits by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart, similar to Kenji's and a slew of others just for sh*ts and giggles.

Yes, the two ingredient biscuit is delicious, easy to make, though sourcing self-rising flour is a pain in the midwest* and not overly taxing before morning coffee. BUT if you are out to impress guests, or just give yourself a treat, BR's biscuits are ethereal.

If you want to see a woman in complete control of her craft watch Lillie Hardy on A Chefs Life starts at 10:10

*I make my own biscuit self rising flour.
120g all purpose flour
30g cake flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
Mix well, will hold a few days, no more

I haven't found self-rising flour that difficult to find here. My local Target always seems to have Gold Medal brand. (And the Meijers have both the self-rising and regular versions of White Lily.) But, as you noted, it's not that difficult to make.

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:(Biscuits and) Piquillo butter, prepared by Entente chef Mari Katsumura.

What's missing is a videoclip of her biscuit technique. I just sent a note to the webmaster, because the biscuit instructions are cut off at the bottom. They began baking the biscuits at a high temperature to brown, then lowered to finish baking.

Regards,
Cathy2

Fwiw, I ate at Entente, had this biscuit and thought it was tremendous . . . flaky layers, slightly tangy and entirely delicious. One of the best I've ever had.

=R=

Link has been updated to show the video of how this biscuit was made.

Regards,
Cathy2

I just got an email from Baker Miller saying that they will be conducting a biscuit making class on 1/22. If you're a fan of their style of biscuits, this is an excellent opportunity to learn how they make 'em.

Well these were great!

Going back to when I was afraid of bread I left biscuits alone also. Too much mystique while saying they were easy and not enough specificity for me.

A friend asked recently about biscuits and I sent her here. And then I stumbled upon the Garden and Gun two-ingredient recipe and told her it looked good.

I just made it. It tastes great. I have no idea what the yield should be but I got 7 biscuits with substantial scraps.
I took the advice in the comments and since I did not have full-fat buttermilk I decreased the 1.5 cups of buttermilk called for ( I had standard grocer stuff) to 1 c. I melted 8 oz of butter and mixed that into the buttermilk. The total liquid yield was 1.5 c as suggested.

I will make these again and try freezing them unbaked.

http://gardenandgun.com/blog/easiest-bi ... -ever-make

Congrats Pairs, on biting the biscuit bullet. And now that you've tried these buttermilk biscuits--which are simple, but to my mind, not simple enough--you need to try Kenji's two-ingredient version, and compare to those you just made.

I'd be interested to see what you think!

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/worlds-easiest-biscuit-recipe.html

Geo

Geo wrote:Congrats Pairs, on biting the biscuit bullet. And now that you've tried these buttermilk biscuits--which are simple, but to my mind, not simple enough--you need to try Kenji's two-ingredient version, and compare to those you just made.

I'd be interested to see what you think!

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/worlds-easiest-biscuit-recipe.html

Geo

Thanks for sharing this recipe! I had some whipping cream left over and some self-raising flour in the cupboard I needed to use up, so I made these for breakfast this morning. They don't look quite as beautiful as pairs4life and BR's biscuits, but they are more than acceptable, and for ease of prep, a winner! The kids loves them with some butter and jam for breakfast. This is going into the recipe file. The only thing I found is that I needed to make them a little thicker than in the recipe (roll out to more like 8x8 instead of 12x12, I'm guessing) to get something more like the height to width ratio I prefer in my finished biscuit (I did two batches), but for stress-free biscuits, these are wonderful.

I need to try pairs4life's recipe next.

I'm pleased they worked for you Binko! and also pleased to get you a bit of payback for all the delicious stuff I've taken from you!

Geo

Binko wrote:

Geo wrote:Congrats Pairs, on biting the biscuit bullet. And now that you've tried these buttermilk biscuits--which are simple, but to my mind, not simple enough--you need to try Kenji's two-ingredient version, and compare to those you just made.

I'd be interested to see what you think!

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/worlds-easiest-biscuit-recipe.html

Geo

Thanks for sharing this recipe! I had some whipping cream left over and some self-raising flour in the cupboard I needed to use up, so I made these for breakfast this morning. They don't look quite as beautiful as pairs4life and BR's biscuits, but they are more than acceptable, and for ease of prep, a winner! The kids loves them with some butter and jam for breakfast. This is going into the recipe file. The only thing I found is that I needed to make them a little thicker than in the recipe (roll out to more like 8x8 instead of 12x12, I'm guessing) to get something more like the height to width ratio I prefer in my finished biscuit (I did two batches), but for stress-free biscuits, these are wonderful.

I need to try pairs4life's recipe next.

The Serious Eats recipe was recognized as the old White Lily flour ( back of the package) recipe in the comments. It is also the KA recipe and featured on Food 52 as well.

This is really great for cream to hand and/or small batches of biscuits. About 1oz of flour per biscuit. And and equal amount of cream. I made it 3 ingredients and added sugar to the mix as suggested.

I made these smaller so apx 8 oz of cream and SR flour gave me a smidge over a dozen cocktail biscuits. I used the drop method.

They may not be lookers but they taste great.

Nice look-back article in the NY Times Magazine with a couple of recipes for those of us above the Mason-Dixon line: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/you-are-making-your-biscuits-wrong.html?contentCollection=smarter-living&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Geo

Buttermilk biscuit breakfast, C+ #homecooking

G Wiv wrote:Biscuits coming along. C+. Might have been B- but too much variation biscuit to biscuit. #homecooking

Yeah, I can see Paul Hollywood shaking his head. "They're just not consistent."

Inspired by Rob Levitt's Publican Quality Meats brunch post on IG. Drop biscuit w/smoked sausage. Made the biscuits. Had the rest on hand. #lowandslowbbq #countmeafan #homecooking





Sausage biscuit, count me a Fan!