All-Purpose Biscuits Recipe (2024)

No, please don't turn the oven on to 425 degrees as your first step. No need to waste energy while you let the biscuits rest for 30 minutes!

Freeze the butter and then grate it. Use a fork to mix up the dough. Works like a charm and no need to wash the bowl of a food processor!

I'm 78, Southern and these were the best biscuits I've ever made. Probably because I followed the recipe and used 2 tablespoons of baking powder.
Geez and from and a Yankee!

Many of the notes here raise questions or concerns about the amount of baking powder. Everyone should know that baking powder formulations vary from brand to brand. Go to your supermarket and read the ingredients. The products that use aluminum salts in their formulation are likely the ones that result in an unpleasant flavor. Also see Wikipedia article on Baking Powder.

Needed only 3/4 cup milk. Mixed dough before bedtime, wrapped in plastic and refrigerated 8 hours.
Baked for breakfast. They rose to twice their original height, crunchy bottom and top, tender crumb, scrumptious. I think the dough "matured" in the fridge overnight, and so the baked product had less of the raw flour taste that I usually get with my quick breads.

Great recipe that makes for a very light and flaky biscuit, plus is very flexible.
- I did not find 2 Tbsp of baking powder excessive.
- The 30 minute resting period can be skipped if time's short, but it really improves the final texture.
- Works both as rounds and squares -- but squares rise "lopsided" since one or two of the sides won't be cut.
- Buttermilk substitutes nicely for the milk, no baking soda needed.
- Have also swapped a bit of white flour with whole wheat. Also delicious!

Instead of cutting in the butter, I've been using a simple technique I read about for getting the butter worked into the dough. Try melting the butter, either over low heat or low power in the microwave, then pour it into the cup of very cold milk. It will reform in smallish chunks that work into the dough very well.

"European style" here in the US means imported butter that has a higher butterfat content than we ordinarily get with domestic butter. (which means more flavor). European brands I see here include Plugra, Lurpak, Presidente and Kerrygold, if that helps.

I pat that rectangle out on the cookie sheet and then, with a sharp knife, cut square biscuits. I don't saw them to cut, as Sam indicates this will impede their rising. I lay the blade on top and press down through the dough.
This way, no re-rolling scraps of dough.
And since the NYTimes health section has informed us to "stop fearing fat"......., melt some bacon grease, shortening or butter. Make sure it's not hot. Dip each biscuit in the extra fat before baking. Double yum.

I have tried these several times and this recipe hasn't failed me yet! Key point...do not twist the biscuit cutter! I like to place my biscuits in a 8 or 9 inch round cake pan so the sides of the biscuits touch each other...it helps them rise and the sides are soft. Great recipe!

I will never understand the use of a Cuisnart in making a biscuit or pie dough for that matter. However, unless you're putting out the biscuits for the Queen, one can simply gather the left-over pieces together and push them into crooked little mounds and bake. The 2nd best advice I received for biscuits was to never roll the dough out twice.

to take this recipe to a new level of perfection. Take about 4-6 ozs. of sharp cheddar cheese, cut it into 1/4 inch squares (more or less) and mix them into the flour before you add the milk. Do not use the food processor to add the milk, use a spoon or fork to mix. When the biscuits are done, the cheese will have melted throughout and you will swoon with pleasure.

I saw this recipe and and five minutes later I was in the kitchen looking for the ingredients and pre-heating the oven. I think the recipe is forgiving-I used 4 Tsp aluminum free baking powder, no sugar, and just used a fork (no food processor) to cut the butter into the flour. I used 2/3 cup half & half instead of milk (what I had on hand)! I kneaded the dough, pressed it out by hand, and cut into squares with a knife. I am having them with honey and tea right now and they taste delicious!

I was taught how to make Southern style biscuits when I was 13, in home ech class. (I'm now 73.) I can tell you from hundreds and hundreds of nice batches of biscuits, you can use shortening instead of butter, after all you will probably butter your biscuit at dinner anyway. You can make a somewhat different flavor if you use buttermilk but then use baking soda instead of baking powder. You can slice the dough into squares with a bench cutter or straight down with a thin edge spatula.

The key is to minimize handling the dough. Also, I have taken to cutting biscuits into more or less squares so that I don’t have leftover dough trimmings that has to be re-rolled, cut, leaving yet more trimmings. Over handling is the bane of the great biscuit.

Rumford baking powder is the best for this. Also, use whole milk buttermilk.

It’s basically the recipe that I grew up w in Maine. And my mother always said, “don’t mix it too much, don’t handle it too much “. We also added a bit more sugar, which is typical up here versus the less sweetened version down south.

Ohhh, the memories this evoked! My heritage is Southern, and my mother, born and brought up in Norfolk, Virginia, made "baking powder biscuits" regularly. She used a short glass to form them (as in the photo), smooshed the leftover dough together to form a last biscuit, and they all rose to the sky. The only difference (if memory doesn't fail me) is that she used buttermilk. My father ate them like candy. They were a staple in our house. Folks, you haven't lived till you've made and eaten these.

If you rest the dough for half an hour, having just spent a quarter hour preparing the dough, why pre-heat the oven as step one? It does not take 45 minutes to reach 425F, so why waste the energy, gas or electric? Set your timer for 15 minutes during resting, turn on the oven when it dings, and then set timer for an additional 15 minutes.

IMO.....three egregious errors here. First...no sugar. Secondly, if you don't have a proper biscuit cutter use an empty, cleaned, tin can opened at both ends. Third and MOST important...use southern soft wheat flour if you can get it where you live. It is lower in gluten which makes a more tender biscuit.

Is there a reason, other than tradition, to cut these into rounds - with resultant scraps - rather than squares/rectangles?

Making this recipe with soft wheat flour such as Southern Biscuit is a game changer.

`I'm too southern to use this recipe, but i use a similar recipe, white lilly self rising flour (lower protein then AP) and buttermilk. the self rising makes a better biscuit then WL AP four which is still fairly low protein. The fat ratio is the same. Biscuits are a great side dish or a main breakfast with sausage gravy, red eye gravy. or SOS.

Another note, if you use buttermilk or sour cream, need to add a bit of baking soda!

It would be nice to have corrections to the recipe for people who live at higher altitudes. There is a big difference because the the air pressure.

I really wish you'd give ingredient amounts in weight!

Can these be made with whole wheat?

anyone try to do these gluten free?