I love these whole wheat, tender, and flaky biscuits. Really. But you’d never know that looking at our menus because when I serve them my family -especially Brian- always manages to make a comment like, “they’re fine…they’re just not a real, yeast bread, you know?” Sigh.
Arrggg- silly family. These are amazing, I love them, and they’re SUPER easy.
So they’ll keep making appearances every now and then – oh yeah.
And with sausage gravy over them? My favorite “guilty pleasure” breakfast. Ever.
If you’ve never made biscuits before, they are quick and easy, but there are a few tricks to getting those flaky layers. Here are the steps I take to make Amazing Whole Wheat Flaky Biscuits:
1. Start in a food processor -it’s a lot easier to cut the butter into the dry ingredients than by hand (but of course, you can- use a pastry cutter in a medium bowl). The machine takes less than a minute.
2. Cut the butter into pieces and add to the dry ingredients. Pulse until the the butter is incorporated, resembling coarse cornmeal but with a few larger pieces of butter (that’s what we want for the flakiness we’re after).
4. Mix together a cup of buttermilk and an egg in a glass measuring cup and add it all at once to the dry ingredients. Mix just until most of the flour is incorporated. There should still be dry bits.
This is important- I always used to mix until it looked like regular dough, but that was “overworking” the dough I came to find out (they always just throw these terms around like you automatically know what they mean…) and my biscuits were not tender or flaky.
5. Flour your hands well and start gently bringing all the pieces together into a sort of ball shape, then continue kneading a couple more times, adding more flour as the pieces of butter stick to the board, until it holds together. If you have a bench scraper, this is a good time to put it to use.
6. Now fold it on itself 3 to 4 times to help create some of those great layers.
7. Roll out the dough using a rolling pin (or your hands) into a rectangular shape that’s about 1-inch to 1-1/4 inches thick and cut with a biscuit cutter or use a knife and cut into squares.
There’s no law that says biscuits have to be circles and in fact, sometimes I like squares if I’m going to be using them for sandwiches or breakfast sandwiches.
8. Brush the tops with buttermilk (or milk) to create a nice brown, shiny top, though this is purely optional. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the pan if needed, until evenly browned. Cool a little on a wire rack and serve warm.
Oh my. Look at those flaky layers. That’s what we’re talking about!
- 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or a combination of whole wheat and all-purpose)
- 1 tsp. honey or sugar
- 4 tsp. baking powder
- 3/4 tsp. cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 c. cold butter
- 1 egg
- 1 c. buttermilk (add 1 Tb. vinegar to 1 c. milk unless you have access to true buttermilk- what they sell in the stores as buttermilk is full of additives)
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In the bowl of a food processor or regular bowl, combine the first six ingredients (if using honey, combine it with the liquid ingredients). Pulse (or mix) to combine.
- Cut up the butter into eight pieces and add to the dry ingredients. Pulse (or use a pastry blender) until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal with a few pea-sized pieces of butter remaining. If using a processor, transfer to a medium bowl.
- Combine the egg and buttermilk (and honey, if using) in a glass measure; add to the dry ingredients all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon just until mixture starts to come together (it will not be completely mixed). Don’t over mix.
- Turn out onto a floured surface and knead 10 – 15 times until dough holds together, folding a couple of times at the end like a letter. Pat or roll into a 1 to 1-1/4 inch rectangle. Cut with a biscuit cutter or knife into about a dozen biscuits depending on the size.
- Place on a lined or greased cookie sheet, and brush the tops with milk, if desired, for a shiny, browned top.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
Adapted from a post I originally published in July 2010.
This is linked to PennywisePlatter, Homemaking Hints, and Saturday Nite Special.
I believe a cottage can be anywhere or anything (condo, ranch, farmhouse) as long as you have a "cottage mentality" which puts people above things, celebrates imperfections, embraces simplicity, and finds joy in everyday life. Thanks for joining me!
Yum! I’m pinning these!
If you cut them round, can you gently pat the dough back together and cut into more biscuits?
Yes – those won’t be quite as tender, but I always use all of it, no matter how I cut them!
awesome! I am so making these!!
These look amazing! Trying to figure out if the substitutes would work for my dairy allergic dd. I am thinking that fake margarine and rice milk won’t make them near as tasty as the ones you made.
Try substituting lard for the butter. Yes I mean lard, that’s what Granny used all those decades ago.
Would you be able to freeze these for baking later? I’m preparing for baby and want some biscuits on hand!
Congratulations, Caroline! I haven’t personally tried it, but I know of many others who freeze biscuits to bake later all the time, so they should work fine. I don’t know why, but I tend to bake them all and freeze them after – I know they do this well, but then again, no fresh-from-the-oven biscuit, either.
I have never been completely happy with my whole wheat biscuit recipe. I have loved so many of your recipes – that I’m printing this off now!
Gina
Jami, I tried to click on a link in Pinterest to get here for your yummy looking biscuits but for whatever reason Pinterest has blocked that page. I’m glad I persevered and googled your site. You have amazing recipes here and I’ve just spent the last hour browsing, copying and pinning. Thank you for your site. I just wanted to let you know about the Pinterest thing in case you didn’t know.
Thanks so much for continuing your search and finding your way here, Maureen! It’s so nice to know you’re enjoying looking around.
Yes, the Pinterest thing can be frustrating. If a picture is pinned from Google Images, for example, it won’t be linked to my site. I try to make sure to pin things from the original site and to make sure the pin is from the original site before I repin. Sometimes a pain, but I want to be able to get to the recipe, idea, or whatever and also to give credit where due.
Appreciate your taking the time to comment and let me know!