You can make these from scratch whenever you are craving hot biscuits, or meal-prep and pre-measure your dry ingredients so they're even easier to throw together in an instant. The pre-measured mix makes a great homemade gift, paired with home-canned jams or other preserves.
1 small sifter or wire sieve to sift baking powder and soda
measuring spoons and cups
mason jars or ziploc bags to store premeasured dry ingredients for batch prep
baking pan 8"x8", 9"x9", 7"x11", or 10" cast iron skillet or dutch oven
Ingredients
Dry Mix
2 ½cupsflourcan substitute ½ whole wheat or up to ⅓ cornmeal or rye flour
1tbspbaking powder
2tspsugar
1tspsalt
½tspbaking soda
Wet Ingredients
1stickbuttermelted in baking pan
2cups buttermilkor add 2-3 tsp lemon juice or vinegar to whole milk
Instructions
Dry Mix Instructions:
Get out all of your dry ingredients and jars or bags, if batch-prepping. If you are just making a single batch, start pre-heating the oven.
For batch prep, measure out all of the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl or directly into your storage containers. When measuring the flour, fluff up the flour with the measuring cup and then scoop or spoon the flour into the measuring cup, rather than scooping with the cup directly into the compacted flour.
Sift the baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt over the flour in the bowl or container and mix well with a whisk to incorporate before scooping into the jar or storage container (or put a lid on the jar or seal the baggie, and shake well to mix ingredients thoroughly).
Label and date your containers and store in a cool, dry place. Use mix within one year (sooner if you used whole grain flours in your mix, or store mix in the freezer so the oils in the whole grains don't go rancid). You can store this longer in sealed mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, but longer term storage risks a denser or lower quality product as baking powder loses effectiveness over time.
To Bake:
Place a baking dish (I bake these in an aluminum 7x11 pan, for a yield of 8 thick biscuits, but most people bake these in square 8x8 or 9x9 pans and get 9 biscuits) on a sheet tray in the oven, and add the butter. Preheat oven to 450℉.
Note: The sheet tray is optional, but makes it easier to handle the pan without getting butter on your pot holders or oven towels, and more importantly, protects your oven from any spills for easier cleanup, especially if you are using one of the smaller pan sizes which may bubble over while they bake, so I recommend using one!
Remove the pan from the oven once the butter melts. I set a timer for 5 minutes so I don't forget, but every oven is different, so check yours sooner until you know how long it takes! While the oven is heating and the butter is melting, make your batter.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the biscuit mix with the buttermilk. If you don't have buttermilk, you can acidify fresh "sweet" milk with a few teaspoons lemon or neutral vinegar- mix this first before adding to dry ingredients.
Stir gently but well, folding with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until wet and dry ingredients are incorporated. Do not overmix- you don't want to develop the gluten in the batter, just mix through. A few small lumps are ok (like a very thick pancake batter).
Pour the thick biscuit batter into the prepared pan of melted butter, using a flexible spatula to scrape all the batter into the baking dish. Using the spatula or a butter knife, trace a grid in the batter to portion the biscuits. Don't worry if they're not fully separated, you just want to make a line of melted butter through the batter so they bake evenly and are easier to portion later.
Bake the biscuits for 20-25 minutes (you may need to adjust baking time for your oven and size of pan). Remove from oven when they are golden brown and pass the skewer test (insert a clean bamboo or metal skewer into the center- when they are done, the skewer may be buttery or moist but not coated in batter or sticky dough).
While biscuits are still hot, use a thin metal spatula or butterknife to re-trace the lines you made before baking, to fully separate your biscuits.
Like all biscuits, these are best piping hot out of the oven, but also can be made ahead and gently reheated. Store well-covered in the fridge or freezer.