4 Essential Tips for Picture-Perfect Buttermilk Biscuits

Have you ever eaten a freshly baked biscuit? Those kinds of biscuits that are buttery, flaky and pull apart layer by layer… We may be drooling over here just thinking about it.

I’m here today to give you our four best (and essential) tips for the most perfect biscuits that you and your loved ones are sure to thoroughly enjoy this holiday season!

Tip one: cold, cold, cold!

To ensure your biscuits are baked with the perfect flaky layers of butter– we need to make sure that your butter and milk are ice cold throughout the entire process. A huge bonus tip is to throw your mixing bowl with all your ingredients into the fridge or freezer for 10-15 minutes in between the baking steps to ensure that the fat (butter) doesn’t melt and seep out while baking.

Tip two: stack your dough multiple times

Once you’ve formed your dough into a rectangle, most recipes call for you to cut the dough in half and then stack them onto one another and then repeat that process at least twice. Our recommendation for the utmost of buttery layers– gather your dough, cut it into 4ths, stack them onto one another and repeat this process twice. This way you’re getting 8 layers or more rather than just 4. The results are perfect and in our opinion– so worth it.

Tip three: don’t twist your biscuit cutter!

This is a crucial step as it can “seal off” the layers and squish them into themselves. Twisting prevents the biscuits from being able to rise properly and inhibits the puff that creates height. It’s important to create a smooth cut with no twisting. To cut, press straight down on a metal biscuit cutter or– alternatively, if you don’t own a biscuit cutter, you can also use a sharp knife or bench scraper to cut them into squares.

Tip four: leave your dough thick

This tip is our favorite. Make sure that when it comes time to cut your biscuits, you’re cutting them at 3/4 of an inch tall. Any dough that is thicker than that will result in biscuits that topple over half way through baking– making them wonky and not so picturesque. Thinner dough may result in flat, crunchy biscuits. Throughout our years of biscuit making, 3/4 of an inch has been shown to yield the perfect height in a biscuit.

Now that you have all the knowledge for the perfect biscuits, we hope your baking experience is made easier this year and that it yields the best results possible. Let’s be honest though… flaky or not, biscuits are delicious any way!

About Corinne Quesnel

Corinne is a Vancouver-based writer and home-baker with a passion for the cooking process. She believes that cooking and baking should be an engaging and fulfilling practice, not just another chore. Through writing about healthy and flavorsome meals, Corinne hopes to inspire others to cherish their time in the kitchen as an adventure in creativity and well-being.