Take A Bite

They are here! My best flaky layered homemade biscuits. These things are downright delicious and full of layers, just how I like them. Add a swipe of vanilla bean honey butter and you have a very sinful treat or breakfast.

This recipe was developed out of two different conversations. A good friend had polled our big group text asking if anyone had a good biscuit recipe. She had been trying one she found on Google over the past few weekends and they kept coming out flat and tough. We walked through the recipe together and she was doing everything right, so I took this as a sign to come up with my own biscuit recipe.

Then later in the week when a hankering for breakfast sandwiches struck, and the store happened to be out of biscuits, the nudge yet again to create a biscuit recipe came calling.

No fancy tools like a food processor or pastry cutter are needed for this recipe. All you need are a few simple ingredients, a bowl, and your hands! Cold butter is squeezed into the flour creating a very butter speckled dough! This (and baking powder) is what helps the biscuits puff up and rise, while also creating space between the layers from the butter melting into the dough while baking.

You can’t beat a Grand’s Flaky Layers biscuit, so I knew layers were a very important addition to my recipe. By folding the dough over itself, and then over itself again, and then again, multiple layers are created that then flake off perfectly once baked.

Best Biscuits
Yields 6 biscuits

Biscuit Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup whole milk
6 Tbsp. very cold unsalted butter, diced
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Vanilla Bean Honey Butter: (optional)
4 Tbsp. room temperature unsalted butter
1 Tbsp. honey
1/4 tsp. vanilla bean paste (Trader Joe’s sells this at the holidays, but it can also easily be found on Amazon)

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 425°. Add the flour to a medium bowl. Working quickly, squeeze the very cold and diced butter between your fingers until all of the butter is flattened into little flakes and mixed into the flour. Add in your baking powder, sugar, and salt to the bowl and mix with a spatula. Then make a well into the flour mixture and add about 1/2 of your milk. With the spatula gently begin to combine the milk into the flour mixture. Add in the rest of the milk, and then using your hands, work everything together until a dough starts to form. The dough may be sticky in some places and dry in others, just do your best to bring the dough together without overworking it. Turn the mixture onto a floured surface and start to work it into a verticle rectangle (if you have a bench scraper it can be helpful with these next steps). Again it will look dry, but that is okay.

Once flattened into a rectangle fold the dough like a letter. Bring 1/3 of the top to the middle and then the remaining 1/3 from the bottom up and over. See the pictures above for reference. Now you just repeat! Flip your “letter” over so the seam side is down, and with your hands, flatten into that same verticle rectangle shape again, and then fold like a letter. Continue this until you’ve flattened and folded about 4 to 5 times. This is what will create all of those layers. The final time, flip it seam side down again, flatten it into rectangle, and with a knife, cut into 6 equal squares, about 3x3.

Place biscuits on a parchment-lined or greased baking sheet. Brush the tops of the biscuits with 2 tbsp. of melted butter and bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.

While the biscuits are baking prepare your vanilla bean honey butter. In a small bowl, add the room temperature butter, honey, and vanilla bean paste. Whisk vigorously until smooth, creamy, and combined.

Serve the biscuits warm from the oven with vanilla bean honey butter and enjoy!

Note: These biscuits can be made ahead (unbaked) up to 1 month in advance. Make the dough, cut into squares, and freeze, uncovered, on baking sheet until solid, then transfer to a freezer-safe Ziplock or storage container. Do not thaw before baking just add a few minutes to the baking time.