No Milk Biscuit Recipe
Tender, flaky and buttery biscuits without milk nor buttermilk! This easy 5 ingredient recipe comes together in under an hour and uses cold butter and a simple folding technique for beautifully layered biscuits.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter cold
- ¾ cup cold water
Instructions
- Combine 2 cups all purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in the bowl of your food processor. Add 1/2 cup cold, cubed butter to the dry ingredients and pulse 5 - 8 times, until the mixture starts to look coarse and crumbly. (See FAQs in article for directions without food processor)
- Add 3/4 cup cold water to the bowl of the food processor and pulse to combine, another 5-8 times, avoid overmixing at this point.
- Turn the dough onto a floured surface and gently press the dough together. If there are still dry, crumbly bits, fold the dough over itself a few times until it mostly comes together. Don't knead to smooth.
- Press the dough into a rectangle, then into thirds, short edges into the middle.
- Rotate a quarter turn, press the dough into a rectangle and fold again.
- Cut the biscuits as desired.
- Gently transfer the biscuits to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Pop the biscuits in the fridge for 20-30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Once the oven has reached the temperature, remove the biscuits and bake them on the second from the top rack at 425°F for 15-20 minutes, or until golden.Note: I like to bake my biscuits for 15 minutes, then brush with more butter, then bake another 5 or so minutes until the tops are golden brown.
- Serve warm!
Notes
Expert Tips
- Keep it cold. Cold butter is the name of the game in this recipe. As the biscuits bake, the water in the butter turns into steam and helps separate the layers formed in the folding step giving you those little flaky pockets of goodness.
- Ice, ice, baby. We're taking keeping it cool a step further here and using ice cold water to help prevent our warm hands and room temperature tools and counter from melting the butter before the biscuits even make it to the oven. Be cool, give your butter a chance to work its magic.
- Stop, drop, and don't roll. Put the rolling pin down! Pat the dough into a rectangle, fold the short sides toward the center, then repeat. These simple folds help build layers without overworking the dough - they're the secret to biscuits that pull apart instead of crumble.
