There's not too many things more delicious as a hot-out-of-the-oven biscuit slathered with butter. Growing up, we ate those refrigerated canned biscuits whenever we had bacon and eggs. It wasn't breakfast without them, and we put everything on them, from butter to jelly to fruit preserves to syrup to honey to cinnamon-sugar. Now, I like to make homemade biscuits when I have the time. My only issue is that it's just the two of us now, and most biscuit recipes make a lot. My solution was this small-batch biscuit recipe that makes five biscuits!
To make these tender, layered biscuits you don't need many ingredients at all–and you probably have them already in your fridge and pantry. Here is what you need to grab to bake these biscuits for breakfast in the morning: flour, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar, butter and whole milk. The biscuit dough is rolled out and then folded again and again to create those tender layers. The biscuits bake up in the oven in less than 15 minutes.
Serve these southern-style biscuits for breakfast or brunch. You could also use them as a topping for chicken pot pie, for biscuits and gravy or even use them for strawberry shortcake.
Note: 30Seconds is a participant in the Amazon affiliate advertising program and this post contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission or fees if you make a purchase via those links.
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 12 to 14 minutes
Total Time: 27 to 29 minutes
Servings: 5
Ingredients
Helpful Products
Recipe Notes
- If the dough is too wet after adding the milk, sprinkle in a little more flour.
- A pie plate works well for this recipe.
- My mom used to cut open leftover biscuits the next day, spread them with a little butter and sprinkle on cinnamon-sugar. She'd pop them under the broiler until toasted and ooey, gooey on top. Kind of like cinnamon toast made with biscuits. So good!
- You could use gluten-free flour for a gluten-free biscuit.
- Try this recipe with buttermilk instead of whole milk.
Here's how to make it:
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together in a mixing bowl.
- Add the butter pieces and use your hands or a pastry blender to cut them into the dry ingredients. The dough should resemble coarse crumbs.Stir in the milk and mix with a fork until a dough forms (see Recipe Notes).
- Put the dough onto a floured work surface. Roll or hand-form into a 1-inch thick rectangle. Fold the rectangle in half, then over itself again, and then again (you are creating layers). Pat the dough gently and repeat, then form it into a 1-inch thickrectangle again.
- Use a biscuit cutter or the bottom of a study glass to cut the dough into five biscuits. You may need to reform the dough to cut remaining biscuits. Place the biscuits into a round baking pan or on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet.
- Bake in a preheated 425-degree F oven for about 12 to 14 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot from the oven with butter.
Nutrition Facts Per Serving
Calories: 164
Total Fat: 7.5g
Saturated Fat: 4.6g
Cholesterol: 19mg
Sodium: 239mg
Total Carbohydrate: 21.3g
Dietary Fiber: 0.7g
Total Sugars: 1.9g
Protein: 3g
Vitamin D: 4mcg
Calcium: 61mg
Iron: 1mg
Potassium: 144mg
Recipe cooking times, nutritional information and servings are approximate and provided for your convenience. However, 30Seconds is not responsible for the outcome of any recipe, nor may you have the same results because of variations in ingredients, temperatures, altitude, errors, omissions or cooking/baking abilities. This recipe has been analyzed by VeryWellFit. However, any nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and it is up to the individual to ascertain accuracy. To ensure image quality, we may occasionally use stock photography.
Need to convert cooking and baking measurements? Here are some kitchen conversion charts. Here's how to submit your recipes to 30Seconds.
Take 30 seconds and join the 30Seconds community, and follow us on Facebook to get recipes in your newsfeed daily.
Related Products on Amazon We Think You May Like:
30Second Mobile, Inc. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
- Tags
- 30-minute-recipes
- baker
- baking
- best-biscuit-recipes
- biscuit-recipes
- biscuits
- breakfast-biscuits
- breakfast-recipes
- cooking-for-two
- easy-biscuit-recipes
- flaky-biscuits
- food
- homemade-biscuits
- layered-biscuit-recipes
- layered-biscuits
- recipe
- small-batch-biscuits
- small-batch-recipes
- southern-biscuits
- sunday-brunch
- whats-for-breakfast
- whats-for-brunch
FAQs
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.
What makes homemade biscuits tough? ›
You want to be quick and gentle with the dough and only use as much flour as necessary to prevent it from sticking. Adding too much flour will create dense and tough biscuits. A bench scraper makes easy work of moving the dough without having it stick.
What is the best flour for biscuits? ›
There is some actual science behind why White Lily flour is lighter than others and, thus, better suited for items like biscuits and cakes.
What is the secret to biscuits? ›
Use Cold Butter for Biscuits
When the biscuit bakes, the butter will melt, releasing steam and creating pockets of air. This makes the biscuits airy and flaky on the inside.
Which liquid makes the best biscuits? ›
Just as important as the fat is the liquid used to make your biscuits. Our Buttermilk Biscuit recipe offers the choice of using milk or buttermilk. Buttermilk is known for making biscuits tender and adding a zippy tang, so we used that for this test.
What ingredient is responsible for the tenderness and flakiness of our biscuits? ›
Butter enriches baked goods by contributing tenderness and moistness, and is responsible for the flakiness in biscuits, pie crusts, and puff pastry. Because of its superior flavor, most bakers select unsalted butter over all other fats for use in baking.
What not to do when making biscuits? ›
So before you get ready to bake up you next batch, here are five mistakes you'll want to steer clear of.
- Starting with room-temperature ingredients. ...
- Using a stand mixer or hand mixer. ...
- Re-rolling the dough too many times. ...
- Taking biscuit-making way too seriously.
But if you chill your pan of biscuits in the fridge before baking, not only will the gluten relax (yielding more tender biscuits), the butter will harden up. 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.
How do you keep homemade biscuits from getting soft? ›
Take the biscuits and wrap them in a plastic cling film or zip pouch to make sure there's space for moisture to seep in. Lastly, put them in an airtight box and store inside a refrigerator to enjoy crunchy biscuits each time.
What kind of flour do Southerners use for biscuits? ›
White Lily brand flour, especially the self-rising flour, is the gold standard among Southern cooks who make biscuits on a regular basis. White lily, self rising. I use it for everything except those thing I make using either cake flour or yeast. If I'm using yeast I use King Arthur flours.
The solution: Use half cake flour and half all-purpose flour. This combination will give you a biscuit with light and airy interior with a pleasant, satisfying bite on the outside. Also, sifting the flour and other dry ingredients will give you a smoother, airier dough.
Are biscuits better with butter or shortening? ›
Butter is the winner here. The butter biscuits were moister with that wonderful butter taste and melt-in-your mouth texture. I'd be curious to test out substituting half or just two tablespoons of the butter with shortening to see if you get the best of both.
What makes homemade biscuits taste better? ›
Buttermilk adds a tangy flavor to the biscuits and makes them slightly more tender. Butter: We use salted European butter in this recipe. It will work with unsalted or salted butter. I like the extra saltiness of salted butter, but you can reduce the salt to 3/4 teaspoon if you prefer.
Why put an egg in biscuits? ›
Biscuit recipes tend to be egg-free, this makes them drier and the lack of protein to bind the mix helps achieve that crumbly texture. For super light, crumbly biscuits try grating or pushing the yolks of hard-boiled eggs through a sieve into the biscuit dough.
What makes Southern biscuits so good? ›
Southern cooks have several tricks when it comes to making tender and delicious biscuits, from the cutters they use, to the type and amount of liquid incorporated, to the number of kneads required to turn out a perfect dough. The not-so-secret ingredient they rely upon is soft wheat flour.
What 2 ingredients affect both flakiness and tenderness of a plain pastry? ›
Its combination of two fats – butter and shortening. Shortening gives the crust structure, keeping those pretty crimps in shape and preventing the crust from sagging. And butter adds its signature flavor. Both fats contribute to flakiness.
How do you achieve a tender and flaky dough crust? ›
Keep the dough ingredients cool
The key to standard pie crust is having pockets of fat surrounded by flour. But if that fat starts to melt and mixes with the flour, it can start to develop gluten, which can lead to a tough crust. To prevent this, keep everything as cold as possible.
How do you achieve a tender and flaky pastry dough crust? ›
The process of making a flaky pastry involves “cutting” one quarter of the total fat into the flour such as a pie dough till it forms what resembles coarse meal. Proper incorporation of the fat, in this step, provides flour lubrication and restricts or at least delays its quick absorption of added water.
What is the most important step in biscuit making? ›
Mixing. The multi-stage mixing method is preferred for its ability to produce consistent doughs which are not fully developed. Blending all dry ingredients to rub or cut the shortening into the flour until fat is fully distributed and pea-sized lumps are visible.
