Perfect, Flaky Biscuits

If you recall, one of my goals this year has been to try a new recipe each month. I love being in the kitchen -it brings on so many memories that give me warm and fuzzies, so forcing myself to spend time in there – without stressing about finishing the boys’ breakfast before a meltdown ensues or how many dishes I’ll be making – is good for my soul. But it’s so easy to get caught in a routine of making the same 15 things over and over. That’s why I’m challenging myself to try one new recipe that I’ve deemed to be ‘difficult’ each month. It doesn’t have to be a success, but I need to try it, enjoy the process and learn.

Thankfully, my first ‘challenge’ was a success – well, mostly. It took a few attempts – a bunch of recipes I found online just weren’t doing it for me. Too difficult, super dense, dry, whatever, it was proving to be a waste of flour and butter. It’s actually been an issue in the past, why I’ve never actually made them more than once or twice. But Alex is a biscuit lover, so I stuck to it, testing a bit here and there until I found the simplest, perfect, flaky biscuit. We may have had biscuits every night for 2 weeks, but trust me when I say, these are well worth it.

So let’s talk biscuits: is there anything better? I love bread and butter more than I care to admit, and a good biscuit is basically the best of both worlds. You know, buttery bread – flakey, moist, tender, amazing. To be totally honest, I don’t put anything on these – I eat them right out of the oven because there’s nothing better, but they would be amazing with some good jam or honey, I’m sure.

I like to occasionally use 1/4 cup of half and half and 1/2 cup of whole milk instead of just milk because fat is good and tasty. Make sure everything is super cold – feel free to measure the milk out, chop the butter and then throw in all into the freezer for a few minutes. You want to keep your butter in small pieces in your biscuits since that’s how those flaky layers happen.

Another tip: when you’re cutting your biscuits, do so in one, swift motion. If you’re using a knife, keep the blaze parallel to the surface and use even, sure pressure when you press down – same if you use a cookie cutter. Any hesitation will smush your layers together, meaning they won’t puff up or flake as well.

The best way I can think to describe these biscuits is that they remind me of those canned biscuits with peelable layers, but a million times better. And did I mention they’re easy? The vast majority of the tough stuff takes place in the food processor, and so long as everything is measured out you can make them with a baby on your hip – not that I know from experience or anything..

Perfect, Flaky Biscuits

Ingredients

2 cups of flour
.5-1 teaspoon of sugar
3.5 teaspoons of baking powder
.25 teaspoons of salt
3/4 cup of milk
1 stick of butter, very cold and cubed

Preheat your oven to 425. Pulse dry ingredients until light and fluffy. When measuring your flour, be SURE not to pack it – the best way to do this is to loosen up your flour in the bag/canister and then scoop spoonfuls into your dry measuring cup.

Add your cubed butter into the flour mixture and pulse until the butter is like large peas. Pour into a large mixing bowl.

Pour the milk on top of your flour mix. Using a fork, VERY gently fold the flour and milk together until just combined. The goal here is to work the flour the least amount possible, creating as little gluten as possible. This makes good biscuits, trust me.

Turn your dough out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead 4-5 times until a solid mass. Roll out to about 1-1.5 inches thick and cut. I form mine into a big square and then cut into squares because I don’t have a round cutter, but do what you’d prefer.

Place onto a non-stick baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. Enjoy and thank me a million times over. Try not to eat them all.

Okay so tell me – biscuit lover? What recipe do you struggle with? What do you think I should try next? Let me know in the comments!