Too often, homemade biscuits turn out tough, dry, or flat as pancakes. Even if you’re following a recipe to a tee, there are so many factors at play that can prevent you from achieving the Platonic ideal — buttery, tender, and flaky.
“A biscuit should have texture on top, but feel like a soft down pillow that melts in your mouth when you bite into it,” says Carrie Morey, founder of Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit in Charleston. On Nov. 13, Morey will share her expert biscuit-making tips during a hands-on seminar at the Food & Wine Classic in Charleston. If you can’t make it, here are five easy ways chefs take their biscuits to the next level.
Keep everything cold
“When I make biscuits, I want everything cold. Not just cold, but freezer-cold — dry ingredients and all,” says Justin Chapple, Food & Wine’s culinary director-at-large. Chapple freezes his sticks of butter until they’re almost solid, then grates them directly into the flour. Not only does this make the dough easier to mix, but the cold shards of butter also expand with air in the oven, leading to fluffier biscuits. “Cold dough plus a hot oven is what you need to get your biscuits to rise.”
Add some citric acid
“The move we use over and over again at our restaurants is to up the tanginess of our biscuits with a pinch of citric acid,” says New Orleans-based restaurateur Mason Hereford. Citric acid is a secret weapon for many chefs, adding a touch of brightness to both sweet and savory dishes. Hereford whisks it into the dry ingredients before incorporating the fat.
Related: 6 Surprising Ways to Use Biscuit Dough, According to a Pro Baker
At Hereford’s breakfast restaurant, Molly’s Rise and Shine, these extra-tangy biscuits are used for sandwiches, smothered with gravy, or served simply with a side of butter and jam.
Use lard
Chef Elliott Moss has been making biscuits his whole life and only recently started using rendered whole pork lard instead of butter — and he’s never going back. It was an easy swap for him, since he has plenty of leftover lard from his restaurant, Elliott’s BBQ Lounge in Florence, South Carolina.
“The biscuits seem to be a little fluffier,” he says. As with an all-lard piecrust, biscuits made with lard are typically easier to mix and extra flaky.
Swap in sour cream
Buttermilk is a ubiquitous biscuit ingredient, but John Lewis, chef-owner of Lewis Barbecue, suggests switching things up. When selecting a biscuit recipe, he recommends choosing one that calls for buttermilk. “But instead of the buttermilk, substitute it with the same amount of sour cream.”
Related: 6 Surprising Ways to Use Biscuit Dough, According to a Pro Baker
In addition to providing a buttermilk-like tang, sour cream’s thickness gives the dough a softer, moister texture.
Make them by hand
Set the mixer, spatula, and fork aside. According to Morey, the key to excellent biscuits is making them by hand. “It keeps the dough tender, which carries through to the end result,” she says. Mixing and shaping the biscuits by hand also helps prevent you from overworking your dough. The fluffy results are well worth getting your hands a little dirty.
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