My Flakiest, Butteriest Biscuit Yet

If you read THE Pie Crust recipe, the start to My Flakiest, Butteriest Biscuit Yet will look very familiar. You would be right. I have made some form of all-butter biscuits a million different ways over the years, but ever since I came across this method of leaving the butter in big shingles my biscuits have never been better. For me, a biscuit is flaky, tender, buttery, massive but mostly delicious. Whether you are making them sweet for my Strawberry Shortcake or savory to serve with a bowl of stew these biscuits will not disappoint.

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It all starts with really cold butter that is shaved on the slicing side of a box grater. You want long shingles of butter. If at any time your butter starts to feel soft, greasy or starting to melt, pop it all in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes.

Gently toss the butter shingles with the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt to coat. Make a well in the middle of the flour and butter and add in your wet ingredients. Gently incorporate the flour and butter into the wet ingredients bringing the flour up from the bottom. Your dough will seem really dry and look shaggy. Don’t panic, it will all come together during the kneading process.

Turn the shaggy mess out onto your countertop, no extra flour needed, as you work, continue to gather any bits of dry flour and butter that fall out of the mound and place them back on top. It’s time to start folding and laminating.

Gently pat out your shaggy dough, and lift up one side and fold the dough in half. Pat out into a square and turn 90 degrees. Continue folding, patting, and turning 3-4 times until you have a more hydrated dough that is mostly holding together, but still lots of layers of butter shingles. You may still have some dry bits of flour, now you will discard those. Pat your dough out into a rectangle about 6″ x 8″ and 1 1/2″ high.

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You can cut these out with a round or square biscuit cutter, but I like to use a knife and cut them into squares. There is a bit less waste and you don’t have to rework your dough. I do cut the edges off each side, if you decide not to do this your biscuits will be just as delicious and flaky but will rise unevenly because they are “sealed” on one side. Cutting the edge off opens up the layers and allows more even rising. Whether you are using a cutter or a knife you do not want to twist or saw. The movement should be straight down and straight back up. If you ever had a biscuit that twisted while baking or toppled over this is why. Don’t throw those scraps away, bake them off with a little brushing of heavy cream and a sprinkle of turbinado sugar, yummy little chef’s treat!

Brush the tops with some heavy cream. If you are making these for Strawberry Shortcake sprinkle with a generous amount of turbinado sugar. Bake in a 425-degree oven for 22-25 minutes, rotating halfway until the tops are golden brown. Some of the butter will melt out of them, don’t panic, when you take them out of the oven to rest that butter soaks back up into the bottom of the biscuit and creates a shatteringly delicious bottom crust.