Frozen Butter Biscuits
These are my gold-standard biscuits. My secret? Frozen butter! It’s an old pastry chef’s trick that has served me well. Butter tastes great and when it’s frozen it becomes very easy to shred into the dough. After you try these a few times you’ll be able to bake them in under twenty minutes – and clean up the mess too!
Ingredients
4 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup (2 sticks) frozen butter
1 1/2 cups milk
sprinkle or two Salt and Pepper
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup (2 sticks) frozen butter
1 1/2 cups milk
sprinkle or two Salt and Pepper
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together until they’re evenly mixed. Grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients. Shred it through the large holes of a box grater or potato grater directly into the flour. Toss gently with your fingers until the butter shards are spread evenly throughout the flour.
Pour the milk into the flour mixture and stir with an upside down wooden spoon to form a dough mass. The handle of the spoon is gentler on the dough. Fold the dough over a few times with your hands until all the ingredients come together. If necessary add a few spoonfuls more milk to help gather up any stray flour. This kneading will strengthen the dough a bit but not enough to toughen the biscuits. It will also help them form a crisp crust when they bake.
Pat the dough out on a lightly floured cutting board forming a loose round shape. Cut into wedges – like a pie - or any other shape you’re in the mood for. Position on a baking sheet; sprinkle on a bit of coarse salt and coarsely ground pepper. Bake for fifteen minutes or so. You’ll know they’re done when they turn golden brown. Enjoy at once with lots of brown butter!
Pour the milk into the flour mixture and stir with an upside down wooden spoon to form a dough mass. The handle of the spoon is gentler on the dough. Fold the dough over a few times with your hands until all the ingredients come together. If necessary add a few spoonfuls more milk to help gather up any stray flour. This kneading will strengthen the dough a bit but not enough to toughen the biscuits. It will also help them form a crisp crust when they bake.
Pat the dough out on a lightly floured cutting board forming a loose round shape. Cut into wedges – like a pie - or any other shape you’re in the mood for. Position on a baking sheet; sprinkle on a bit of coarse salt and coarsely ground pepper. Bake for fifteen minutes or so. You’ll know they’re done when they turn golden brown. Enjoy at once with lots of brown butter!
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Recipe Submitted by
Chef Michael
I’m a FoodTV host, cookbook author and official food ambassador for Prince Edward Island, more importantly I’m a Dad and passionate home cook!
Variation
Biscuits are easily scented with herbs and spices. A spoonful or so adds lots of flavour. I tend to use aromatics that reflect the rest of the meal but, really, anything goes. Add caraway seeds to biscuits for beef stew or add a touch of nutmeg to breakfast biscuits. Rosemary, thyme and even curry powder all taste great too.
I made these last night for dinner and they turned out delicious! However, I ended up having to run to the store last minute to buy butter, so the butter I used was not frozen (just refrigerated). To anyone else who may not have frozen butter on hand – these still turned out quite good (although I will have to make them with frozen butter to compare!). I was able to grate about half of the butter before it got too melt-y to go further. After that I just sliced it with a knife and tore it into small chunks – I found dipping my hands and the butter in the flour mixture helped it melt less. Obviously this was not an ideal way to make these and took more time, but it still worked out and they were really super tasty! :)
These are the easiest, best biscuits ever. They are absolutely no fail. I love Chef Michael’s no muss & fuss down home recipes!
Chef Michael ROCKS!!
Thank you for this recipe,this came very well I add some cheddar cheese too.wow what a hit.I really enjoing your receipes.Thank you Michael!
Can anyone tell me approx how Many slices of bread make a pound
Best biscuits ever!
I made these for the second time and they are simple and yummy! I used the recipe from Food Network for Whole Wheat Biscuits with the oil/honey mixture on top. Absolutely fabulous. I always wanted to make biscuits but was scared. The frozen butter eased my fears.
I just tried these, and they came out AMAZING. The frozen butter trick is so smart, it just makes sense. Thanks for this recipe!
Best damn biscuits ever. Genius idea freezing and grating the butter. They’re a must have at my chili cook off. Nothing beats pulling them out of the oven and slathering butter on them.
Hi there – I tried making these last night and they didn’t not turn out right at all – they were rock hard and crumbling. Anyone know what I did wrong? I followed the instructions and used the right amount of ingredients – even added a bit more milk to get the dough to come together but it was still really dry.
3 things come to mind…1. your baking powder was too old, it won’t react with the salt to act as the secondary levening agent or 2. flour was too old … if you’ve had the flour for more than a few months it will have absorbed moisture and other environmental particulates or 3. you overworked the dough. You only need to stir long enough to combine the wet and dry ingredients and then kneed a few seconds to shape the dough. Your dough is supposed to be lumpy looking not smooth.
Hopefully this was helpful…try again…nothing better than fresh hot biscuits and this recipe has never failed me before
Just watch the program today: you had a sour cream biscuit. I did not bother writing the recipe thinking it wwould be on the site. Can I have the the recipe?
I do remember 2cup of flour, 2tsp of baking powder,salt,1/2tsp of nutmeg; mix the dry ingredients…
Add a heaping cup of sour cream with the “stick” of a wooden spoon then with your hands. Shape,cook at 425
F(how many minutes?)
Thank you so much
Lynda
For the Shortcake Biscuits
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
Milk
White Sugar
For Brenda!
Here is something you might want to watch :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfm8zhw4HVo
Hi!
Great recipe!
To make it even better, I took a page from your book as they say and I replaced half of the flour by corn flour. They taste amazing.
Hi! Thanks for the recipe! I didn’t have puff pastry and decided to use a biscuit on top of my chicken pot pie! It was actually good – and I was worried that it would be too dry! :) Thanks for the recipe!
Hubby wanted me to make biscuits like the ones he had in a fast food chain Popeyes to go with beef stew. I remembered from one of your episodes that you made biscuits..searched for it and found the recipe. It was easy except for the grating bit..hehe. Hubby said it tasted better than Popeyes!
I have been using the frozen butter for my pastries since I saw you use it on your show. There is nothing easier and more uniform than using frozen butter. There is always a stick of frozen butter in my freezer.