Simple Steps to Making Biscuits

By Belinda Ellis | September 01, 2013

I am always surprised when people tell me they can't make a good biscuit. Biscuits are the most simple of breads with only three ingredients. Good biscuit-makers rarely measure these ingredients so the quantities don't even really matter all that much.

So what is it that makes biscuit-making so daunting? It is the lack of knowledge regarding how the dough should feel, how wet it should be? How much should you handle the dough? And if you didn't grow up with a mom who made biscuits every morning of your life, or at least on weekends, you might not have seen this first-hand.

I have spent many mornings covered in flour dust trying different ways to make biscuits. I have found a way to make a nice flaky biscuit that rises high, and the secret is all in the folding.

There is also the flour. Soft wheat flour is low-gluten and makes a light biscuit, cake, or pastry, but a really poor yeast bread. That is why White Lily Flour is so famous for biscuits, it is soft wheat, but it is not the only one. In North Carolina, we have some good soft wheat flours. Lindley Mills in Graham makes an organic, unbleached pastry flour that you can pick up in the bins at Whole Foods Market. Other self-rising flour choices include Midstate Mills in Newton and Our Best in Boonville.

Add to that some good local buttermilk, such as Maple View Diary buttermilk, and you will have the ingredients for a perfect biscuit. Now, simply follow the steps. You will love the results.