How to Bake Perfect Baking Powder Biscuits

**How to Bake Perfectly Flaky, Baking Powder Biscuits.**

With all the lovely fats, and oils in this world, there is no reason for shortening (Crisco). Likewise, in modern times we understand that shortening is no better for our bodies, than butter, or lard. Run a test for me. Heat up a nice baguette. Cut (3) lovely warm slices. Smear butter on one, lard (or bacon grease) on one, and shortening on the third. Rank the taste 1 to 3. The 3 place loser goes in the trash….

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Background, Credentials, Recommended Tools

I discovered biscuits, and gravy pretty late in life. It was in high school. At my buddy Slim’s house. This fellow we called slim, was a plump kid from Mississippi. His mom would make a simple flour gravy out of the drippings, of what-ever kind of meat we had for breakfast. At the time I thought this was pretty good. When she patted the biscuits out, and cut them. They were nice. (she used an old can with the ends cut out as a biscuit cutter.) Often she would often just make drop biscuits. (boo!) She also used shortening.

My first adult job was at a German Bakery in Olympia WA. I learned how to make OK biscuits there. At the time, we used a fake butter flavored, yellow shortening. The valuable lesson I learned was not to over mix the biscuits. Soon, I was baking biscuits at home. I found a recipe in an old cook book, and replaced the shortening with butter. Soon, I found the bigger chunks of butter made for a flakier biscuit.

Let’s talk about tools. Oven Thermometer; Never rely on your oven’s thermostat. It is most likely off. The temperature set point, and the actual temperature of the oven are probably not the same. Use an oven thermometer. Pans; I like to use the air bake kind with the non-stick coating. Pastry cutter; I have used, and bent many. The only pastry cutter that is worth a damn is the Norpro 3247 Deluxe Pastry Blender. Biscuit cutter; I use an old 14-16oz can with both ends cut out. These days I often make square biscuits, and cut them with a bench scraper. More on this later.

First thing you are going to want to do is preheat the oven to 450°F/232°C.

Ingredients:

this recipe makes ~12 biscuits.

3 cups flour. Use pastry flour if you have it, Otherwise, AP is fine.

1 Tbls+ 1.5 Tsp baking powder.

1.5 Tsp Morton K salt.

11 Tbls unsalted butter. (You can also use lard, or beef suit.)

1 cup of whole milk. (1 cup water + 4 tablespoons of Nestl`e NIDO whole milk powder)

I like to take a big sieve, and place it in a mixing bowl. I add into it the flour, salt, and baking powder. This was done historically in baking to remove the bugs from the flour. These days it is done to remove clumps, and to aerate the flour. You will have some issues getting the salt through the sieve. It will go if you push it through with your hand. Now use your fingers to mix all the dry ingredients together.

Combine

Cut in the butter

Next, cut in the butter. I like to say pea sized pieces, but they are more like 1/8-1/4″ cubes. I have seen a recipe where the fellow cut his butter with a knife into uniform tiny cubes. I am a fan of his OCD, but this is going a bit far for me. If you are feeling lazy. You can freeze your butter, and shred it with a cheese grater.
Add the milk

It is time to add the milk. I like to mix in the milk with just one finger. It helps me to incorporate it without over mixing the dough.
Mix

You are going to get a whole (clean!) hand into the dough to mix it. Lift, turn, and fold just enough to get most of the flour worked in. For the flakiest biscuits, YOU DO NOT WANT TO OVER-MIX THE DOUGH.
Dough ball

Once you have a nice dough ball formed. Rub your hands together over the bowl to get the dough off of them. gently work that dough into the ball. It is now time to pat out the dough into a flat, square shape. I use my hands for this too.

Make it stand out.

Pat out the dough

Place the dough ball on the counter, and push it down until it is about 0.75″ thick. Extra points if you are smart enough to form it into a square.
Cut the Biscuits

You will want to get as many biscuits as possible out of the first cutting.
Re Shape, Lightly

The quality of the biscuit goes down with every cutting.
A Square is Better

The last biscuit is just balled up, and flattened out dough. You get to eat that. These days, I typically cut square biscuits, so I only pat the dough out once.