The Perfect Flaky Biscuit: Gluten-Free or Traditional
As any southerner will tell you (I am a native of Oklahoma), there is nothing quite as good as a warm, fresh buttermilk biscuit. It’s even better if it filled with delicious flaky layers of butter for that salty, buttery taste. I am excited to share with you my almost 20 years of experience making biscuits, as well as my more recent discovery of how easy it is to make them gluten-free with the right flour blend!
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 12 biscuits 1x
- Category: Breads
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
Gluten-Free Flour
2 3/4 cups (425 g) DIY Gluten-Free Flour Blend (I strongly recommend this blend over any others for the best flavor)
OR
Traditional Flour
3/4 cup (94 g) cake flour (not self-rising)
2 cups (250 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
Other Ingredients are the same
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
12 TBS/ 1 1/2 sticks (170 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Plus 2 TBS unsalted butter melted for brushing the tops
1 cup (227 g) buttermilk OR 1 cup (227 g) whole milk + 1 TBS vinegar
Flaky sea salt for sprinkling on top (optional)
Instructions
- Position a rack in the middle of the oven and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. If you do not have buttermilk, mix the whole milk and vinegar together and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour (either gluten-free or 2 wheat based types, depending upon your dietary needs), salt, baking powder, sugar, and baking soda. Add the cold butter cubes and toss to coat. Working quickly, cut in the butter with a pastry blender, smearing them into the flour. You should have various sized pieces of butter ranging from course sandy patches to flat shaggy shards to pea sized chunks. This mix of sizes helps you get those nice layers and the flavor of butter. Give the bowl a good shake/toss to make sure all the pieces of butter are coated.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour in the milk, and use a wooden spoon or sturdy rubber spatula to mix the dry ingredients into the milk until you have a shaggy dough. You may also need to use your hands to get it fully mixed, but move quickly so your warm hands don’t melt the butter.
- If making gluten-free biscuits, STOP HERE. You need to chill the dough for AT LEAST 30 minutes. If you have an hour, your dough will be better for it. Remember, gluten-free flours need time to hydrate to prevent that gritty texture.
- Before you begin working the dough out of the bowl and cutting, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. For traditional wheat biscuits, I encourage flouring your counter with cake flour. For gluten-free biscuits, flour the counter with starch (corn, tapioca, or arrowroot). Don’t feel like you need skimp on the flour (either gluten free or traditional). If making traditional biscuits, your dough might look a little shaggy. Fear not! We are going to smear it all together now.
- Prepare to get messy! If you are wearing rings, now would be a good time to take them off and set them aside. Using the heel of your hand, smear the butter into the flour – that is how you build those flaky layers. Bring the dough together by smearing, folding, and turning it, then repeat until there are no more dry bits of flour remaining and the dough comes together in a mass. Gluten-free bakers – You probably won’t need to do this step. Your time in the fridge will help you with this!
- Flour a rolling pin and roll the dough into a roughly 12 by 14 inch rectangle. The exact measurement doesn’t matter all that much, but you are looking for a good sized rectangle that is about ½ inch thick or less. Have the long side of the rectangle toward you. Let’s get to laminating and making those layers! Begin by doing a tri-fold, starting from the right: Fold the right side of the dough over the center and then fold the left side over the first fold, lining up the edges and pressing the layers down. Ever folded up a towel into a tri-fold? It will look the same! Rotate the dough 90 degrees and roll it out again into a rectangle, then do the trifold again. Roll out into a rectangle, rotate 90 degrees, and roll into a trifold. You then want to roll it out one last time, cut it in half, and stack the two pieces together. Gently roll it out at this point to preserve those layers you have worked so hard to make! You want to roll it to about 1 inch thick.
- Dip the edges of a 2 ¼ inch biscuit cutter in flour/starch and punch out the biscuits. Do not twist the cutter, or you will seal the layers you just worked to create. It also causes the biscuits not to rise as high. Make sure to dip your cutter in the flour/starch after every cut. Arrange the cut biscuits on the prepared cookie sheet about an inch apart. Carefully gather up your scaps, press them together into a cohesive mass, roll them out again, and cut more biscuits. These ones won’t be as perfectly even on top, but they will still be delicious!
Should you wish to freeze the dough to use in the future, spread the cut biscuits out on a plate or sheet (depending on how many you are saving) and freeze them in a single layer. Once fully frozen, you can pile the frozen biscuits into a bag or storage container. You will bake them from frozen just like normal biscuits but they might a little extra time (3-5 minutes extra depending on your oven).
- Brush the tops with the melted butter or a little milk and sprinkle some of the flaky sea salt on top. The sea salt is optional but it is oh so good!
- Bake at 375 degrees F for about 25 minutes or so, turning the baking sheet halfway through. We are looking for a nice golden brown color on top, and when you life the biscuits up, there should be golden brown all the way across. If you see a circle in the middle of the bottom that is still dough colored and not golden, the biscuits need more time.
- Biscuits are best served hot from the oven! Enjoy!