Butter Dip Biscuits - Retro Recipe Box (2024)

FAQs

How did they make biscuits in the old days? ›

With no leavening agents except the bitter-tasting pearlash available, beaten biscuits were laboriously beaten and folded to incorporate air into the dough which expanded when heated in the oven causing the biscuit to rise.

The butter version rises the highest — look at those flaky layers! The shortening biscuit is slightly shorter and a bit drier, too. Butter contains a bit of water, which helps create steam and gives baked goods a boost.

Increasing the amount of butter definitely makes the biscuit "taste" softer, more crumbly, and more flaky.

A non-fluffy, flat biscuit can be caused by a few things: too much liquid in the dough (resist the urge to add more buttermilk to make the dough come together and use the heat of your hands and a bit more kneading instead). Over-mixing the dough can cause flat biscuits.

That is why you will notice that recipes usually call for a small amount of baking soda, typically ¼ teaspoon per 1 cup of flour. Do not make the mistake of trying to substitute equal parts baking soda for baking powder in recipes. Your baked goods will have no leavening, be quite flat, and have an altered taste.

THE ABERFFRAW BISCUIT (or cake) goes by a number of names, but whatever you call it, with a tradition dating back to the 13th century, it's often held up as the oldest recognised biscuit in Britain.

Heavy Cream.

The heavy cream adds flavor to the biscuit by adding a little more fat and helps hydrate the dough. The extra fat in the heavy cream is helpful because buttermilk in stores is often “low-fat” buttermilk.

*Substitute buttermilk, light cream, or heavy cream for the whole milk, if you prefer; use enough of whatever liquid you choose to bring the dough together readily, without you having to work it too much. The higher-fat liquid you use, the more tender and richer-tasting your biscuits will be.

In terms of flakiness, the best fat for making biscuits is probably lard, and vegetable shortening is the next best. In terms of flavor, however, butter is undoubtedly the best, with lard a close second.

Make sure your butter is at the correct temperature – use unsalted butter softened to room temperature for creaming and cold, unsalted butter for biscuits and pastries that require butter to be rubbed into the flour.

What is the secret to high rising biscuits? ›

Whether you're making round or square biscuits, be sure you're using a knife or biscuit cutter, and that you're not twisting as you cut. It's important to create a clean cut that won't smoosh those outside layers onto one another, as that will bind the layers together and inhibit the puffing that creates height.

You can substitute half and half one for one for buttermilk, but you also need to add a tablespoon per cup of either lemon juice or vinegar to the recipe. This will add the extra tartness that buttermilk brings to a recipe, and will also provide acid to react with the baking powder or baking soda.

Regular milk isn't acidic, which means the reaction won't take place. Your baked goods may not rise properly and can turn out drier, less flavorful, and less tender if you use plain milk where buttermilk is called for.

The Earliest Evidence

The Romans certainly had a form of biscuit, what we'd now call a rusk and, as the name suggests, it was essentially bread which was re-baked to make it crisp. It kept for longer than plain bread, and was useful for travellers and soldiers' rations.

What makes biscuits Southern? Besides being passed down by beloved grandmothers, Southern biscuits are typically made with flour made from soft red winter wheat, such as White Lily.

Substitute 3: Egg Whites

For cakes and muffins, another easy baking soda substitute is egg whites, says Lofts. They can act as a leavener, which is what they do in a classic French Genoise cake. It's best to use this substitute only for cookie recipes or baked goods that do not contain any liquid.

The biscuit making process is elaborate and continuous. The ingredients are combined to form a dough, which is kneaded and rolled to a uniform thickness. It is cut into biscuit shapes and placed in a travelling oven. Some biscuits necessitate special preparation and cooking methods.