I fully confess that pie crust and biscuits are still something I have not mastered. I think it’s the hockey player in me…I’m just too rough on them. You know, work them over and then slam them into the sides of the bowl. Or something like that. 😀 So when King Arthur Flour said we’d like to send you some self-rising flour and some stuff to help make biscuits would you be interested (note this is not a paid post), I said sure. I am not good with biscuits so this would be a good challenge for me. And I’ve never made biscuits with self-rising flour before so I was extra curious.
I made two batches, the former science teacher in me was curious. The first batch I made was just plain and I did the method of frozen butter and put them in the freezer for 20 minutes before baking. These ones tasted good and tender but really did not rise. Now I don’t know if it’s because I was too rough on them or if it was the freezing.
The second batch I threw in some freeze dried cherries (not dehydrated). I also just used cold butter and no freezing. These got a little more rise but were more like a scone. I was in total favor of that though. These were crispy on the outside and soft and flaky on the inside. I cut them open later than night and make mini ham sandwiches out of them using my mom’s homemade cherry jam. So good. I did notice that the recipe commented that if you put them in a round pan that you will get higher biscuits so I’m going to give that a try next time.
If you decide to make biscuits and want some extra help you can always call the King Arthur Baking Hotline 855-371-2253 for some support. If you don’t like talking to people they have live chat on their website as well.
What about you? Are you a good biscuit maker? Any tips you can leave me? If you do, leave a comment and you will be entered to win a $25 gift card to King Arthur Flour. Winner will be chosen using a random number generator on Thursday September 3rd (eek, is it really almost September!) 8pm (PST).
Easy Cherry Self Rising Biscuits
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Self-Rising Flour
1/4 cup cold butter (cut into pats), or shortening
2/3 to 3/4 cup cold milk or buttermilk
¾ cup freeze dried cherries
Preheat the oven to 425°.
Place the flour in a bowl.
Work in the butter just until crumbs are the size of large peas.
Add 2/3 cup of the milk, and stir until the mixture holds together and leaves the sides of the bowl, adding more milk or buttermilk if needed.
Scoop the dough onto a well-floured surface, and fold it over on itself several times, using more flour as needed to prevent sticking.
Fold in the dried cherries.
Roll or pat the dough into a 5″ x 8 1/2″ rectangle about 1/2″ to 3/4″ thick.
Cut biscuits with a sharp, round 2″ cutter, dipping the cutter into flour between cuts to reduce sticking.
Or cut the rectangle into 12 small rectangular biscuits, which will allow you to skip the step of re-rolling and cutting scraps. If you’ve used a round cutter, pat the scraps together, and cut additional biscuits.
Place the biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet, leaving about 1″ between them for crisp biscuits. Arrange biscuits so they’re barely touching for soft-side biscuits. For higher-rising soft-side biscuits, place biscuits in an 8″ round pan.
Bake the biscuits for 10 to 14 minutes, or until they’re a light golden brown.
Remove them from the oven, and serve hot.
Cool leftovers completely, wrap airtight, and store at room temperature for several days; freeze for longer storage.
To refresh room-temperature biscuits, place on a baking sheet, tent lightly with foil, and bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 10 to 13 minutes, until heated through.
Yield: about 1 dozen 2″ biscuits.
Slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour
Tommy says
I like grated cold butter, freezing it, and then mixing it in with the flour.
Patty Jensen says
Like you, Peabody, I am trying my best to make biscuits. My tip/trick?? Go to your grocery store and buy the frozen kind, but keep on trying. One day you and I will be Masters of the Biscuit World!!!
Tiffany P. says
Like you I have never mastered pie dough. I think I just haven’t practiced enough. Maybe one day…
Amy Mason says
I use my food processor to mix the butter into the flour. Just a couple pulses and it is done!
Anne says
I’m good at pie crust but biscuits are never quite perfect. I like Dorie’s recipe that uses cream. They’re delicious even if not as tall as I like.
Love KAF… Off to poke around their site.
Erika says
I don’t know how it’s possible that I can make delicious, yeasty cinnamon rolls but NOT a biscuit – and I live in the Deep South! it’s not fair 🙂
I do think putting them in a round pan and making sure they touch helps the rising a little bit. And I have better luck with a flour like White Lily (I’m sure KA will love that – lol) than just regular AP flour.
I might try to improve my skills this weekend. Biscuits just seem like something every baker should be able to whip up, but they are tricky for some reason.
oh – I also use a Norpro “Granny Fork” to mix my dough. It really works and is great for mixing quick breads, too.
britt says
I am definitely not a good baker, but I also haven’t found a recipe that promises the ridiculous layers of a grands biscuit which is the style of biscuit I prefer
Erin @ The Spiffy Cookie says
I think I only make biscuits maybe once a year. Maybe. I honestly so rarely have side dishes to my meals in general beyond some veggies that I found in the freezer and threw into the oven as an afterthought. Therefore I cannot say I have any tips for biscuits other than what I’ve heard which is to cut in cold butter and to not handle with your hands more than necessary.
Karen Wood says
It just takes practice. With practice comes observation. When I first started making pies and biscuits I thought it was so hard. Now they seem like very easy things. Heck cleaning up the mess is the hardest part. I would love to win. I’m all out of baking ingredients because of budget restrictions. Not a happy situation.
Dana C says
Not great at biscuits but my mother in law is. I just need to stand close by and take note the next time she makes them. I do remember her saying however that when it comes to bread they are better when you take the time to mix and knead by hand not machine.
Kat V says
I use this Martha Stewart recipe for Buttermilk biscuits. Super good and turns out every time. As for rising biscuits, I’ve yet to try those. http://www.marthastewart.com/337168/buttermilk-biscuits-with-strawberry-butt
Cassie says
I second the food processor – it gets the butter quickly incorporated before it can get warm.
Katie says
I always freeze the butter first and work it in with my fingers. I find it works better than any other tools. The basic biscuit recipe from Dorie greenspan’s “from my home to yours” is my go to.
shaunie says
No, I am not. I really love making good ones from a great recipe even a relative’s or friend.
Julie says
I’ve used the King Arthur cream biscuit recipe that uses whipping cream instead of butter for years and love them! Very easy to put together then freeze for an hour or so before you bake them. Very tasty!
karen says
I find that I get better rise if I knead the dough about 5-8 times. I used to be too delicate with the dough and they rose less.
Lisa S says
Cold, cold butter, cold flour, cold milk or cream! I also do not overwork the dough because you need the beads of cold butter in there to make them flakey. Watched Alton Brown on Cooking Channel “Good Eats”. Learn something new every episode and I consider myself a fairly accomplished cook lol.
Jennifer Essad says
any time I’ve tried to make biscuits they turn out rock hard. I like the ingredients in your recipe, cherries are a favorite-I love KAF their flour/mixes and their new magazine is awesome too
KB says
It’s not that being a hockey player makes you too rough on them. It just makes you want to turn them into hockey pucks. 😀 Kidding. It looks like you’re overcoming that pretty nicely so far. Probably just takes some practice and recipe tweaking!
I love biscuits – making them and eating them. My family makes a batch of my buttermilk biscuits disappear like a magic act. My best results have been with a mix of butter and shortening, but the best tip I’ve learned for making them with butter? Use a metal bowl and metal pastry cutter, put them both in the freezer until you’re ready to cut in the butter, and cut in the refrigerated butter with the frozen pastry cutter in the frozen bowl. I find that if the butter is frozen, it’s too hard to work in while keeping things tender and sometimes it takes too long to work in without getting the butter too soft, but if it’s refrigerated and the utensils/bowl are frozen, the butter is easier to work in but stays cold from the frozen metal.
Peabody says
@KB- I love the idea of freezing the bowl and cutter…makes sense
Erin M. says
I love biscuits and have some homemade self-rising flour in my pantry. I’ve tried several kinds and like biscuits made with butter the best. The tip that I’ve learned is to not overwork the dough and leave little flakes of butter in the dough.
Jaime says
I don’t think they’re as fussy as they’re sometimes made out to be. I mix my dry ingredients, take my butter from the fridge and pastry cutter-it in, stir in my milk, make the shapes, and right into the oven. No extra freezing or refrigerating. Works for us! I think it just takes practice. I make a lot of pies and the crusts taste great, but I still haven’t mastered getting that wonderfully smooth look without overworking the dough. I’ll keep trying!
Jo and Sue says
I love making biscuits! (And eating them, of course) A few things I have found very helpful – 1. Do not overwork your dough. Handle it as little as possible. 2. Pulse frozen butter into the dry ingredients in a blender or food processor. It only takes a few seconds and works like a charm. 3. I like to roll or pat the dough to 1/2 inch thickness then fold it in half (so dough is about 1 inch thick) and then cut it out. This leaves a lovely “split” in the middle when it bakes and rises so you can just pull the biscuit apart – no knife needed. Here is an example – http://joandsue.blogspot.ca/2014/07/blueberry-biscuits.html) 4. Use a sharp edged cutter. Dull edges smoosh the biscuit and it won’t rise as much. 🙂
Anne says
Not that I want to brag, but since you asked, I am kind of a good biscuit baker. My secrets: I don’t overwork the dough and make sure the pieces of butter or shortening are still pretty large (just like when making pie dough), and I always use a biscuit cutter or bench scraper to cut them, because it’s the sharply cut edges that allow the biscuits to rise. I’ve never tried self-rising flour, though.
Katie Rose says
I fully commiserate with your non-biscuit making skills. But I will triumph one day! Perhaps I’d better get a better biscuit cutter before I attempt again, I’ve heard that if it doesn’t slice through cleanly then it compresses the edges and reduces the ability to rise.
Meg L says
I am on the same boat with you on both the biscuit and pie front. Recently my friend suggested grating the butter, then freeze the butter, flour and bowl (similar to what several good folks mentioned above) before proceeding. Here is hoping both of us will master the art of tall and flaky biscuits soon!
jacquie says
i’m not a very good biscuit maker either but I do know that one is not supposed to “overwork” the dough. though i’m not exactly sure what that means. I have also heard of the grated butter method someone mentioned above but I have not attempted it as I would probably end up w/ grated fingers 🙂
Anna says
I crave biscuits a lot. With Jam. I too wish I could make them! Please let us know if you find a great method!
nancy says
my favorite way to make great pie crust is in a food processor. add cold butter flour and salt. pulse 3 or 4 times until you get pea size crumbles then add ice cold water 1 table spoon at a time and pulse dough will just come together . I put it in the fridge to chill and rest then roll out the dough. you can also do the same thing with Crisco. the most important thing is for the water to be ice cold. the Crisco dough can just rest on the counter before rolling
Emily says
Okay, I don’t usually comment on your blog (though I adore it!), but biscuits are my language, so….the biscuit advice I give to everyone I meet (or in reality, everyone who can stand to listen) is to make biscuits as if you were making puff pastry — folds and turns. Yes, chill the ingredients, and yes, use all butter. But by folding the dough (gently!) on to itself, you create wonderful layers that will rise to the tallest biscuits once you put them in the oven. I do this about 4-5 times, eventually creating a rectangle about half an inch to three quarters tall. Also, don’t twist the cutter when you make the biscuits (it inhibits rising), and place the biscuits close enough to each other in the baking pan (I use a cookie sheet) so that they can rely on each other for support when they rise in the oven. This method never fails to give me the tallest, fluffiest biscuits.
Caanan says
I’ve had a couple batches of good biscuits lately. Recipe called for shortening and I used cool water from the tap. Remembering Alton Brown’s tip that his grandmother’s arthritis was one of her secret ingredients, I kneaded 10-12 times like the recipe called for.