Angel Biscuits Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to a good 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.

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.

Be sure to keep that oven door closed! Opening your oven door during the baking process will let all that heat out. That rush of cold air that you let in can cause your biscuits to not rise as much. If you really want to keep an eye on your biscuits while they bake, turn the oven light on and peek from the outside.

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.

If you start asking around, any Southern chef, Southern Living Test Kitchen pro, or biscuit-making family member will swear by White Lily flour. Generations of bakers have claimed it as the secret to the perfect, flaky biscuit.

Putting your flour through a sifter will break up any lumps in the flour, which means you can get a more accurate measurement. Sifted flour is also much lighter and airier than unsifted flour and is easier to mix into other ingredients when making batters and doughs.

Generally, self-rising flour also has a lower protein content, so it's often used in recipes that benefit from being lighter and more tender, like biscuits.

Buttermilk can produce better results when baking biscuits than using regular milk or cream. Buttermilk is acidic and when it is combined with baking soda, it creates a chemical reaction that produces carbon dioxide gas, which causes the dough to rise and gives the biscuits a light and flaky texture.

Which is better for biscuits butter or shortening? ›

However, I do like the height and tenderness shortening lends in cookies. That's why I would suggest using 50% butter and 50% shortening – or some similar combination – to get the best of both worlds if you're baking cookies. However, when it comes to pie crust and biscuits, I prefer 100% butter.

Bake them close to each other.

Biscuits are an exception to this rule: Placing them close to one another on your baking sheet actually helps them push each other up, as they impede each other from spreading outward and instead puff up skywards.

Place your biscuits close together on the pan. If they're touching, they rise better. If you like flatter biscuits, spread them out on the pan.

Too Much Flour

Our cookies didn't expand much from the rolled-up balls we put on the baking sheet. They also didn't brown as well as the other cookies. It doesn't take much—in this case, my mom and I added just 3/4 cup extra flour to the dough. The cookies tasted good, but were dry and definitely crumbly.

Bake at 400° for 10-12 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Remove from pan and cool on wire racks. Store biscuits at room temperature for 1-2 days, or for best results, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze leftover biscuits in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

Buttermilk adds a tangy flavor to the biscuits and makes them slightly more tender. Butter: We use salted European butter in this recipe. It will work with unsalted or salted butter. I like the extra saltiness of salted butter, but you can reduce the salt to 3/4 teaspoon if you prefer.

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.

Conclusion: Either butter or shortening is fine; there's no clear advantage of one over the other (except that butter is easier to incorporate into the dough by hand, especially if you grate it like cheese).

For light and fluffy biscuits, steer clear of any flour made from 100% hard red wheat; this style is relatively low in starch and high in protein, readily forming gluten in a high-moisture dough. That's great when it comes to making chewy breads and pasta, but bad news for light and tender biscuits.