The Best Biscuit Recipe Ever with Callie's HLB - Darling Down South (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to an excellent biscuit? ›

Use Cold Butter for Biscuits

For flaky layers, use cold butter. When you cut in the butter, you have coarse crumbs of butter coated with flour. 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.

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.

So, while biscuits were certainly baked in Northern kitchens, they didn't replace bread as the carbohydrate of choice. In the South, by contrast, the available flour was milled from low-protein soft wheat, which lacks the protein content necessary to make great bread but is the ideal flour 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 wheat in general is around 9-12% protein, while the hard reds are 11-15%. As far as brands of flour, White Lily “all-purpose” flour has been my go-to for biscuit making. It's a soft red winter wheat, and the low protein and low gluten content keep biscuits from becoming too dense.

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

There are many theories about why Southern biscuits are different (ahem, better) than other biscuits—richer buttermilk, more butter, better grandmothers—but the real difference is more fundamental. Southern biscuits are different because of the flour most Southerners use. My grandmother swore by White Lily flour.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. Using a fork or pastry blender, cut in cold butter until mixture is crumbly and about the size of peas. Gradually add buttermilk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and gently knead 3 to 4 times.

What are the ingredients in farmhouse biscuits? ›

With a love of old family recipes, the finest ingredients, traditional baking methods and above all a simple love of baking biscuits. INGREDIENTS: Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Vegetable Oils (Rapeseed, Sustainable Palm), Sugar, Salt, Flavourings, Raising Agent: Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate.

I have a bag of self-rising White Lilly flour in my cabinet now and we use it because it makes the best biscuits. It makes great biscuits because it has low protein levels. It has low protein levels because it is made from soft wheat which is primarily grown in the Southern U.S.

Biscuits are mostly of Southern origin and in traditional Southern homes the biscuit reigns supreme especially at breakfast when they are served with grits, eggs, bacon, sausage and often with milk gravy (also known as country gravy or sawmill gravy).

Key Ingredients in Southern-Style Buttermilk Biscuits

All-purpose flour: Use the all-purpose flour you have on hand (no need for special brands). Baking powder and baking soda: These are the leavening agents that make the biscuits light. Unsalted butter: Freeze the butter beforehand so that you can grate it easily.

Pillai became known in India as the 'Biscuit King' or 'Biscuit Baron'. He took over Nabisco's other Asian subsidiaries. Pillai then established links with Boussois-Souchon-Neuvesel (BSN), the French food company, and by 1989 controlled six Asian companies worth over US$400 million.

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.

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.

The butter version rises the highest — look at those flaky layers! The shortening biscuit is slightly shorter and a bit drier, too. Butter contains a bit of water, which helps create steam and gives baked goods a boost.