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Does Anyone Have Any Tips For Baking Biscuits?

Mine comes out a little too hard. I use two cups of self rising flour, 5 tablespoons of butter, 2/3 cup of milk and I preheat the oven 400 degrees farenheit. The recipe that I got from a website does not mention melting the butter but I do. I don't know how the batter can be mixed without melting the butter first. Is there a better way for making nice soft fluffy biscuits?
I bake them for about 15 minutes.

Here's a great recipe for classic buttermilk biscuits:
Ingredients
* 5 cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour (measured after sifting)
* 1 Tbsp. plus 1 1/2 tsp. Homemade Baking Powder (recipe follows)
* 1 Tbsp. kosher salt
* 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. packed lard or butter, chilled
* 2 cups chilled buttermilk
* 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Directions

1. Heat oven to 500°F. In large bowl whisk together flour, homemade baking powder, and kosher salt. Add lard, coating in flour. Working quickly, rub lard between fingertips until roughly half the lard is coarsely blended and half remains in large pieces, about 3/4 inch.

2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. Add buttermilk all at once. With a large spoon stir mixture quickly, just until it is blended and begins to mass and form a sticky dough. (If dough appears dry, add 1 to 2 tablespoons additional buttermilk.)

3. Immediately turn dough onto generously floured surface. Using floured hands, knead briskly 8 to 10 times until cohesive ball of dough forms. Gently flatten dough with hands to even thickness. Using floured rolling pin, lightly roll dough to a 3/4-inch thickness.

4. Using a dinner fork dipped in flour, pierce dough completely through at 1/2-inch intervals. Flour a 2 1/2- or 3-inch biscuit cutter. Stamp out rounds and arrange on heavy baking sheet. Add dough pieces, as-is, to baking sheet.

5. Place on rack in upper third of oven. Bake 8 to 12 minutes until crusty and golden brown. Remove. Brush with melted butter. Serve hot.

6. Homemade Baking Powder: Sift together three times the following: 1/4 cup cream of tartar and 2 tablespoons baking soda. Store in a clean, dry, tight-sealing jar at room temperature, away from direct sunlight, up to 4 weeks. Use in any recipe calling for purchased baking powder.

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Categories: Baking Tips
Tom ツ
The trick to light and tender biscuits is to MOVE!MOVE!MOVE! Don’t dilly dally. After you’ve formed the dough into balls, quickly coat them in flour and get them in the pans. Make sure your oven is preheated too.

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups cold buttermilk
melted butter

Method
Preheat oven to 500°

Mix all the dry ingredients together with a fork. Cut in the butter. Fold the buttermilk into the flour mixture just until blended. Divide the dough into 11 balls; coating each with flour. Place floured dough balls in greased cake tin, 8 around and 3 in the middle. Drizzle some melted butter over the top

Bake for 5 minutes at 500°. Turn the oven temperature down to 450°; bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven; let rest for 5 minutes before serving
References :
2 March 10 at 03:45
marian
Here’s a great recipe for classic buttermilk biscuits:
Ingredients
* 5 cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour (measured after sifting)
* 1 Tbsp. plus 1 1/2 tsp. Homemade Baking Powder (recipe follows)
* 1 Tbsp. kosher salt
* 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. packed lard or butter, chilled
* 2 cups chilled buttermilk
* 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Directions

1. Heat oven to 500°F. In large bowl whisk together flour, homemade baking powder, and kosher salt. Add lard, coating in flour. Working quickly, rub lard between fingertips until roughly half the lard is coarsely blended and half remains in large pieces, about 3/4 inch.

2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. Add buttermilk all at once. With a large spoon stir mixture quickly, just until it is blended and begins to mass and form a sticky dough. (If dough appears dry, add 1 to 2 tablespoons additional buttermilk.)

3. Immediately turn dough onto generously floured surface. Using floured hands, knead briskly 8 to 10 times until cohesive ball of dough forms. Gently flatten dough with hands to even thickness. Using floured rolling pin, lightly roll dough to a 3/4-inch thickness.

4. Using a dinner fork dipped in flour, pierce dough completely through at 1/2-inch intervals. Flour a 2 1/2- or 3-inch biscuit cutter. Stamp out rounds and arrange on heavy baking sheet. Add dough pieces, as-is, to baking sheet.

5. Place on rack in upper third of oven. Bake 8 to 12 minutes until crusty and golden brown. Remove. Brush with melted butter. Serve hot.

6. Homemade Baking Powder: Sift together three times the following: 1/4 cup cream of tartar and 2 tablespoons baking soda. Store in a clean, dry, tight-sealing jar at room temperature, away from direct sunlight, up to 4 weeks. Use in any recipe calling for purchased baking powder.
References :
2 March 10 at 04:32
Kristin {RA}
Go with Marian’s recipe for sure but when my mom makes them she just gets a spoon and puts them right on the baking sheet without forming them into anything and they always come out awesome!! Very moist and so good.
References :
2 March 10 at 04:44
Sugar Pie
Do not melt the butter! You "cut" it into the flour, using a pastry blender or a fork, breaking the cold butter into small bits that are coated in flour. The flour should then resemble coarse corn meal, not fine flour. Then add cold milk (or buttermilk! mmm!) which keeps the butter hard but moistens the flour to hold it all together. When baking in a preheated oven, the heat hits the butter, melts it, and steam is released which helps them rise. It also makes flaky layers.

You can also use a food processor to cut in the butter (shortening also works). Liquid oils (or melted butter) just give you greasy hard little pucks, as you found out.
References :
2 March 10 at 05:00
Judy T
Biscuits
•3 cups all-purpose flour
•2 tablespoons sugar
•2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
•1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•1/2 cup vegetable shortening
•1 cups buttermilk
•1/4 cup melted unsalted butter

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in the shortening with a fork until it looks like cornmeal. Add the milk, a little at a time, stirring constantly until well mixed.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead lightly two or three times. Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin to 12-inch thickness. Cut with a 2-inch cutter.
Place the biscuits in a greased iron skillet. Gently press down top of biscuits. Brush the biscuits with half the melted butter. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown. Brush the hot biscuits with the remaining butter.
References :
Paula Deen
2 March 10 at 05:35
David H
first your problem is melting the butter. you need to keep the butter very cold and work it into the dough before adding wet ingredients. break up the butter into little pieces throughout the flour mixture until the flour and butter pieces are smaller than peas. then mix in the milk with the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened and still lumpy. the key is not to over work the dough. pat the dough to 1/2" to 3/4" thick and cut into rounds and place the biscuits on a cookie sheet just barely touching each other. carefully squeeze the cut scraps together to form more biscuits until the dough is used up. then bake.
if you over work the dough your biscuits will be hard and you need to work quickly so the baking soda does not give up its leavening power before the biscuits bake in the oven
References :
retired chef
cook book author
2 March 10 at 05:46