favor-“ette”: the secret to perfectly flaky biscuits (and pie dough too!)

I’ve been obsessing over biscuits lately (stay tuned for the best chicken-and-biscuits ever). Something about warm, flaky biscuits, slathered with butter – well, yum.

The thing is, that no matter how gently and quickly I handled the dough my biscuits never came out as tender and flaky as I wanted.

And then I read about a tip that made all the difference:

biscuits

I already knew about the charm of grating too-cold butter on my cheese grater, to quickly bring it to room temperature. What I DIDN’T know was that – by grating the butter and then freezing it  – I would finally get the flaky biscuits of my dreams.

biscuits

Grating and freezing the butter achieves two goals: 1) it gets the butter into otherwise impossibly small pieces, and quickly incorporated into the flour. This prevents overworking the gluten (which results in a tougher dough). And 2) because the butter is worked in quickly, the pieces STAY frozen – which is super important because the steam that’s created when the dough hits the oven is what contributes to those high flaky biscuits you’re after.

Some other things to keep in mind, if you’re so inclined:

Freeze the flour too – seriously, EVERYTHING should be cold.

Resist the urge to roll the dough – again, overworking is the enemy of flakiness. Instead, simply pat the dough on a floured work surface.

Don’t twist the cutter when removing – pull it straight up. Twisting seals the sides and hinders rising.

biscuits

This trick will also work beautifully for pie crusts too – and with fall baking looming I can’t wait to give it a try!

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2 Comments

  1. Carol Papalas on September 24, 2014 at 11:58 am

    Thank you. I bet I’d get good results using this process for scones, too.

    • sherisilver on September 25, 2014 at 8:17 am

      Carol! I’m working on that very post right now – stay tuned! 😉

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Hi! I'm Sheri!

Welcome to my little corner of the web where you’ll find easy, delicious recipes, the best kitchen hacks and simple tips for turning your home into a clean haven that is free of toxins. So glad you’re here!