are those teaspoons or tablespoons?

Hi,

Maybe if you use your fingertips to rub in about half the butter they would turn out better?
Jeff

I know it's not the healthiest choice, but I get very flaky biscuits if I use all butter, no shortening

Lard makes the fluffiest Biscuits but somewhere one has to make a choice.
I do have a no lard biscuit recipe that includes yeast.  One that's kept in the fridge and taken out as needed.  Angel Biscuits.   :) Mini Oven

My first post here, but wanted to say how great those biscuits turned out. Went perfect with the Venison Salisbury Steak. Of course the smore's were just the perfect finish to the meal, at least as far ans the 5 yr/old was concerned. But it was the perfect meal for this -6 degree weather we're having.

For flaky pie crusts, the butter has to be really cold.  I think I've seen Alton Brown even stash the cut pieces of butter in the freezer for a few minutes before use.  I've no idea if this would affect biscuits in the same way.

This is a neat thread!  It kinda hits home to me... 

Various members of my mother's side of the family have been working on making a really good biscuit for about the past year or so.  It is challenging in some respects, one of us is diabetic, but it has been so much fun!  My uncle has tweaked his recipe so that it has NO fat in it at ALL.

Mine is the COMPLETE and UTTER antithesis of that lolol

FWIW, here are my tips and pointers for a good, southern biscuit (I am in alaska, but we are from the south :-) ).

Basic recipe:

2 cups *WHITE LILY* self rising flour

1 stick COLD butter plus more for top

1/2 cup COLD buttermilk

sweet milk (regular milk for the non-southerners :-)...I use skim) to get correct dough consistency.

Ok, here are the tips:

First of all, white lily flour is KEY.  It is EXTREMELY soft, delicate, makes a perfect crumb and tolerates a lot of working of the dough (this will come into play later).  Can you use other flour?  Well yes, but NOT AT ALL with the same results.  White lily has become a bit of a "thing" in our family, and I came back from the south with 50 lbs of it in my luggage last fall!  My uncle just sent me another 20 lbs...and not a moment too soon...our family was going to have to go without biscuits until I got some more WL!  It is THAT vital!

Now, if you just cannot find it, nor can bring yourself to order it, then probably other VERY soft flour would do.  We just happened to find this and not been interested in experimenting.

Yes, this is a lot of butter....I never promised it would be fat free, just nummy! :D  I have used slightly less butter in the biscuits, maybe a tblspoon or two less, but I would not go too much less than that.

You want to work the butter into the flour.  However, you do NOT want "coarse meal".  You actually want slightly bigger than that, and flatter. I take VERY cold butter, slice it into manageable pats then I work it into the flour with my hand.   

Buttermilk:  I get a quart of buttermilk (low fat--see this is a healthy recipe! lol) and pour it in 1/2 cup measurements either into baggies or small tupperware containers and freeze those.  It freezes wonderfully and keeps me from wasting buttermilk.  Also, when I defrost (in the micro usually) I make sure that there is still "slush" bits in there when I can. If you do not freeze it, that is ok.  It will still work well.

Pour that into the flour mixture and work it through.

Now, at this point it will not be enough liquid.  This part is the only really picky part of the process:  add some regular milk into the dough, JUST until it comes together.  You do NOT want a wet dough!!!  You DO want a very soft dough, but NOT a wet dough, NOT a stiff dough.  If the dough gets too wet and you have to add more flour, the flavor will STILL be good, but the texture will be altered.  Better to go slow with liquids instead of being heavy handed and having to add more flour.

Why not use all buttermilk instead of using some sweet milk?  I find that all buttermilk makes the biscuit sort of....I dunno...soggy seeming.  It has an unpleasant mouth feel...like the dough is never quite cooked through and is almost unbearably rich (not in a good way, but in that "ugh...too much!" way).  Plus it tastes too tangy....like bread soaked in buttermilk lol. 

Now the next part of this will help with flakiness.  Do not worry too much about "overworking" the dough.  Like I said, with white lily we have not found that that was a problem at all.  You are going to put this on a floured surface, flour the TOP lightly as well, and FOLD it over on itself.  Turn it a quarter turn, then flour the top again and FOLD it.  Do this a few more times.  This, along with COLD butter, COLD buttermilk will help with flakiness.  You are physically adding flakiness.  I usually do this about five to ten times. 

Now while you cannot really overwork the dough, you still want to work it the least amount possible.  That is why a nice soft dough will be better than a stiff one. Do NOT knead, just fold and press.

Roll or press the dough to the depth of your liking.  My uncle makes the dough SO thick that it comes to the top rim of the biscuit cutter.  I make mine thinner (I like to eat "many" smaller biscuits instead of "only getting one" (albeit big!) biscuit :D).  Mine probably are about half the thickness of the cutter.

Cut the biscuits with a biscuit cutter (or a knife if you want square biscuits), NOT the rim of a glass.  You need the sharpness of the cutter to keep from pressing the edges of the biscuit together. This will help it rise more if the edges are cut, not squished.

Place the biscuits in a pan with the sides well-touching.  Feel free to crowd them.  This is also key so that they go TALL not wide.

Bake in a 425 oven for about....oh....well until the tops are a nice golden brown.  About 12 minutes or so, depending on the oven.  Do not overcook--you want light golden not dark brown.

The last thing you do is take the biscuits out of the oven and place thin slices of butter on top of EACH biscuit.  This is also key to a really good biscuit :D  Yes this step is vital.  Let the biscuits soak up the butter and serve (the parts on the edges where the butter flowed down the sides are the best parts!)

Hope this helps!

You might say, biscuits run in my family, my Mom's from Arkansas, it's a given.  All purpose flour was invented for biscuits, or is it biscuits were invented for all porpoise flour.  In the General Store, in Summers AR (where my Great Grandma lived, she died at ninety eight, and made her biscuits to the end, with shortening), there were old adds.  If they had anything to do with flour it was about how fluffy your biscuits would be.

Ok, to make them fluffy, you mix the baking soda with flour, and salt (if you use it):

Then mix in the COLD shortening, butter, or lard, Thoroughly:

Now, mix in the COLD milk,  quickly.

Don't knead it like bread, the more you handle it, the less fluffy it gets. 

Bread flour makes them tough, i never tried cake flour, 100% Whole wheat or rye, makes them crumbly.

Hope this helps.

jeffrey

I have found that the size of the fat used is the also a key to getting a flakey biscuit. When I cut in the fat I stop when the pieces are the size of GRAVEL not peas. I use a combination of shortening and unsalted butter. The flour used is so very important also. I use a combination of All purpose unbleach flour and Whole wheat pastry flour. The protien content winds up being around 9.5%-10%. HTH

Bee Well