120 Biscuits Recipe (The Original and the BEST!) (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to the best biscuit? ›

The secret to the best biscuits is using very cold butter and baking powder. We've made a lot of biscuits, but this easy biscuits recipe is the one we turn to the most (they are so fluffy!).

A hot oven helps biscuits bake—and rise—quickly. We recommend 475˚F for 15 minutes. Remove them from the oven as soon as they are lightly brown.

Use Cold Butter for Biscuits

This makes the biscuits airy and flaky on the inside. We default to our Land O Lakes® Salted Butter when baking biscuits.

Selecting the liquid for your 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.

Taste-testing results:

Three of five thought the water biscuits were fluffier and better overall. Two of five thought the milk biscuits had a little better taste.

Buttermilk also adds a subtle tang. Cream biscuits are made with heavy cream. Cream biscuits are beloved because they're incredibly easy-to-make. But, since cream is much milder than buttermilk, they won't be quite as flavorful (unless you incorporate more spices and seasonings).

“If you want the most luscious biscuits ever, brush the tops with melted butter after they come out of the oven,” says James. Brushing the butter on after baking ensures that the butter soaks into the baked biscuit so you get that great buttery flavor in every bite.

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.

Crisco may be beneficial for other baking applications, but for biscuit making, butter is the ultimate champion!

Should you chill biscuit dough before baking? ›

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.

Make sure your butter is at the correct temperature – use unsalted butter softened to room temperature for creaming and cold, unsalted butter for biscuits and pastries that require butter to be rubbed into the flour.

But the best was the frozen butter, which made biscuits with the lightest, flakiest and softest texture, as well as with the highest rise. This is because the bits of frozen butter remained more intact during mixing than the cold butter. Try it in our recipe for Buttermilk Biscuits.

Buttermilk is an essential ingredient in making perfect southern-style biscuits. Its acidic nature reacts with the baking powder to create the fluffy, tender texture that we all know and love. Plus, it adds a tangy flavor that pairs perfectly with savory dishes.

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.

Crisco may be beneficial for other baking applications, but for biscuit making, butter is the ultimate champion!