{"id":3454,"date":"2014-05-12T08:05:57","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T12:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bakeschool.com\/?p=3454"},"modified":"2024-04-16T12:50:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T16:50:01","slug":"homemade-biscuits-its-as-easy-as-1-2-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bakeschool.com\/homemade-biscuits-its-as-easy-as-1-2-3\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make homemade butter biscuits: it's as easy as 1-2-3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A basic homemade butter biscuits recipe is as easy as 1-2-3 and that's the ratio you need to remember when baking biscuits. Here's what the ratio means and how to use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Flaky<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

North American biscuits versus European biscuits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Biscuits in North America<\/strong> refer to baking powder leavened, flaky bun of sorts, served as a side for lunch or dinner. The dough for biscuits is most often rolled and cut into squares or rounds before baking, served with meals, in the same way that you'd serve bread buns as a side. They are also used to make breakfast sandwiches and shortcake desserts (like raspberry shortcake<\/a> or even an ice cream strawberry shortcake<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These North American biscuits are not to be confused with British and European biscuits<\/strong>, where the term refers to cookies, often shortbread<\/a> or sabl\u00e9 cookies<\/a>. Remember that \"biscuit\" is the French term<\/a> for cookie. Here, we are most definitely talking about North American biscuits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ingredients<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The biscuit ratio<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Actually, American biscuits resemble scones<\/a> quite a bit. My favourite scone recipes happen to fall pretty close to a 1:2:3 recipe of 1 part fat, 2 parts liquid, and 3 parts flour, by weight. And this same ratio apparently works for biscuits, according to Michael Ruhlman (in his book Ratio<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turns out homemade biscuits are as easy as 1-2-3 and to make a basic biscuit recipe, that's all you have to remember: a biscuit ratio is 1 part fat, 2 parts liquid, 3 parts flour, by weight<\/strong>. It's probably the easiest biscuit recipe to remember!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to work with a ratio<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Knowing that biscuits have a ratio of 1:2:3, that is 1 part fat, 2 parts liquid, and 3 parts flour, by weight, you can use this to make a batch of biscuits, big or small. You can make a batch of biscuits with 100 grams of fat, 200 grams of liquid, and 300 grams of flour. You'll end up with about 8 biscuits this way (if you cut them with a 2.5 \" round biscuit cutter).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want more biscuits? Double all the amounts, so make a batch with 200 grams of fat, 400 grams of liquid, and 600 grams of flour. You should be able to make about 16 biscuits this way, more or less depending on how you cut them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to make fewer biscuits, then cut the ingredients in half: combine 50 grams of fat, 100 grams of liquid, and 150 grams of flour to make as little as 4 or 5 biscuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beauty of working with a ratio is that you can easily scale up and down a recipe to make more or less. Just don't forget the leavening agents<\/a>, obviously. Biscuits are often referred to as baking powder biscuits for a reason: they need baking powder too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Basic biscuit ingredients<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fat<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The fat of choice for many bakers is butter, but feel free to deviate from this and explore other solid-fat options for biscuits, like duck fat and bacon fat! Note that with butter, you are adding 80 % fat (up to 84 %) and some moisture, whereas, with bacon fat and duck fat, these solid fats are 100 % fat, no water added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like to use butter as my fat of choice when I make biscuits, so these are all-butter biscuits. Like with pie dough, you can also consider using a combination of two different fats, like butter and lard, to achieve more tenderness, better layering, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Homemade<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Liquid<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The liquid of choice for the basic biscuit is either milk or buttermilk. If you want to bake biscuits with buttermilk, you will need to add some baking soda to your dry mix to ensure they rise properly as they bake. For every cup of flour, add 1.25 mL (\u00bc tsp) of baking soda to ensure a proper rise. You could also use a liquid with a higher fat content, such as half-and-half, or a mixture of milk and 35 % whipping cream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I prefer to use a liquid with some fat in it or a combination of milk and cream because that fat makes for a more tender biscuit that stays fresh longer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flour<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Most of us bake biscuits with all-purpose flour though some culinary professionals may use a mixture of bread flour and cake flour. The bread flour provides more protein and a lot of structure to the biscuit dough, which helps it keeps its shape as the biscuits bake. Cake flour is lower in protein and higher in starch, so cake flour will contribute tenderness to biscuits so they aren't so tough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I bake biscuits and scones with all-purpose flour because that's what I have in my kitchen. To achieve the layers that many biscuits have, visible, especially from the side of the biscuits, the dough for biscuits is rolled out (or pressed out with your fingertips), then cut into equal pieces which are stacked before rolling out the dough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process is similar to the rolling and folding that creates the layers you see in homemade croissants<\/a> or homemade puff pastry<\/a>. With biscuits, instead of folding the dough, you cut it and stack it to create the layers, but the idea remains the same: to create lots of distinct sheets of dough to create a layered effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most biscuits are made with chemical leaveners<\/a>, either baking powder<\/a> or baking soda<\/a>, either of which (or sometimes both) get whisked in with the flour and salt. Whether you use baking powder or baking soda<\/a> is entirely dependent on the liquid you use, whether milk or buttermilk:<\/p>\n\n\n\n