biscuit-making 101: lesson two
ingredients. what exactly goes into a biscuit?
biscuit-making 101: the ingredients
Welcome back!
next up, we’re going to go through the standard ingredients used to make a batch of delicious and buttery soft biscuits.
dry ingredients:
flour - the main ingredient in most baked goods, the gluten in flour is used to add structure and help your biscuits hold their shape. try your best to measure exactly, but biscuits are forgiving. don't stress yourself out over non-sifted vs. sifted flour or whether or not you leveled the measuring spoons. a little less or extra flour won't ruin your biscuits.
TIP: If you’re ever preparing a batch of biscuits and the dough is too wet, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time to the dough until it comes together into a scraggly dough you can fold and form into individually biscuits.
sugar - a small amount of sugar is added to biscuits to slightly sweeten the dough. It’s barely detectable, but can be doubled or tripled for biscuits that you want to be noticeably sweet like sweet potato or blueberry glazed biscuits.
baking powder - a mixture of an acid (such as cream of tartar) and a base (such as baking soda). when it comes into contact with moisture (like the water in butter or milk) and heat, it produces carbon dioxide gas, which causes the dough or batter to rise.
when baking biscuits, baking powder serves two purposes:
it helps the dough rise, resulting in light and fluffy biscuits.
it acts as a neutralizer, counteracting the acidity of other ingredients like buttermilk or yogurt, enhancing the flavor and texture of the biscuits.
salt - like in any dish, sweet or savory, a little salt goes a long way in enhancing the flavor of all the other ingredients.
wet Ingredients:
buttermilk - the preferred milk for biscuits because of the added acidity that (1) makes biscuits tender and flavorful and (2) gives the baking powder even more rising power.
to make vegan “buttermilk”, combine 1 cup of the plant-based milk of your choice and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. let the mixture sit for a few minutes and it will thicken up similarly to dairy buttermilk.
butter:
it's not really wet or dry, and it is one of the most important ingredients in your biscuits. butter gives the biscuits a great flavor, of course, but it also helps the biscuits rise. recipes recommend keeping butter cold (as close to frozen as possible). Working very cold butter into your biscuit dough helps them rise.
how? the quick version is - once the biscuits start baking, the butter melts, and the water in the butter evaporates, creating air pockets that are then trapped by the flour and helping the biscuit rise.
for more about the science of food and baking in particular, I recommend reading How Baking Works by Paula Figoni. that link will take you to a PDF copy, but here is a link of you want to hold the it in your hands: amazon | booksrun
what's next?
next up is the biscuit-making process broken down into 5 simple steps.