Buttery & Flaky Sourdough Biscuits
These Sourdough Biscuits are both fluffy and flaky. Sourdough discard creates biscuits with a light crumb and wonderful flavor. I’ll show you a simple technique which creates a super-flaky texture.
Table of contents
Why these are the best Sourdough Biscuits
- This recipe uses a whole cup of sourdough discard.
- Gentle folding develops layers of dough that bake into lovely, buttery layers in the final biscuit.
- This dough is so tender you don’t need a rolling pin. You can easily pat it into shape using your hands.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Flour – This recipe uses a mixture of 1/2 all purpose and 1/2 cake flour. All purpose flour gives the biscuit dough enough body to create layers, and cake flour has a lower protein content to keep toughening gluten at bay. Pastry flour can be used instead of the flour mixture.
- Sourdough Discard – This recipe was developed using a 100% hydration starter. That means the starter is fed with equal weights of starter, flour and water. You may need to adjust the amount of starter in the recipe based on the moisture level of your starter.
- Buttermilk – Acidic Buttermilk tenderizes the dough and has lightly tangy flavor that is perfect in this recipe.
How to make Sourdough Biscuits:
- Combine the dry ingredients.
- Work the butter until it’s slightly larger than pea-size.
- Combine the buttermilk and the sourdough discard.
- Add the wet ingredients all at once and mix until almost combined.
- Briefly knead the dough to bring it together.
- Pat the dough to 1/2″ thick and fold in half. Pat the dough again to 1/2″ thick and fold in half.
- Pat to 3/4″ thick and cut the biscuits.
- Brush the biscuits with buttermilk.
- Bake in a hot oven until the biscuits are well-risen and golden brown.
- Sourdough Biscuits have a flaky texture a nice open crumb.
Storage
Sourdough Biscuits are best enjoyed warm from the oven or within a few hours of baking. Leftover biscuits can be frozen for up to a month. Defrost and warm in a 200F oven before serving.
Looking for something else to make with your sourdough discard? Here’s a list of my Best Sourdough Discard Recipes.
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Sourdough Biscuit Recipe
Sourdough biscuits that are both fluffy and flaky. A little discard sourdough starter gives these biscuits a wonderful flavor.
biscuits
Ingredients
- 10 oz all purpose flour (2 cups, see note)
- 8 oz cake flour (2 cups)
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 8 oz unsalted butter (cold and cut into 16 pieces)
- 8 oz sourdough discard (1 cup, room temperature)
- 8 oz buttermilk (1 cup, room temperature)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 °F. Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Combine 10 oz all purpose flour, 8 oz cake flour, 4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, and 1 teaspoon table salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk the dry ingredients to combine.
- Mix 8 oz unsalted butter into the flour with your fingers until it's broken down into bits slightly larger than a pea.
- Combine 8 oz sourdough discard and 8 oz buttermilk in a small bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour all at once. Mix until about 2/3 of the dry ingredients are absorbed.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead together just to incorporate the remaining dry flour (this should only take about 6-8 kneads).
- Gently pat dough to a 1/2" thick rectangle, brush off excess flour and fold the dough in 1/2. Pat gently to stick the dough together and and fold again. Pat to 3/4 " thick disc and cut with a 2.5"-3" biscuit cutter. Gather the scraps together, pat to 3/4" thick and continue cutting until all the dough is used up.
- Set the biscuits onto the prepared baking sheet and brush the tops with buttermilk. Bake the biscuits until well rise and golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.
- If the bottoms of the biscuits are browning too fast set another sheet pan under the biscuits after 5 minutes of baking.
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Notes
If measuring the flour by volume use the “dip & sweep” method. That is, dip the measuring cup into the flour bin, overfill it, then sweep away the excess.
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Not bad but I thought they needed a bit more sugar or something, perhaps honey. I’ll try again and roll back a bit on the flour and add a touch of honey. Maybe even a teaspoon of vanilla. I did add a third cup of raisons which helped with the sweetness a little. I like my sweet 🙂
If you want something more towards the sweet side you can try these Sourdough Scones.
Great recipe! Best biscuits I’ve ever made. Thanks…
Wow! Amazing light taste even with regular flour!
The biscuits turned out great! I used white whole wheat flour for all of it. I did reduce the amount and used corn starch to substitute for the cake flour. Going to make these again soon!
I have only AP floor. How much do I use if that’s all I have? I weigh my flour. Thx!
If you have cornstarch available for each cup of cake flour use 3/4 cup of ap flour plus 2 tablespoon of cornstarch. If you don’t have corn starch just use the ap flour. The biscuits might have a little more gluten, but they’ll still be good.