Baking Powder Biscuits Recipe

Below is my recipe for making some light and flaky baking powder biscuits that are simply made with flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter and milk.  The trick to making light and flaky biscuits is to handle the dough as little as possible and to use cold ingredients.  That means cold butter and yes even your other ingredients such as your milk and flour should be cold.

Ingredients:

2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
6 tablespoons of cold butter, diced
1 cup of cold milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon of water

Instructions:

You will want to begin this recipe by taking a food processor and then place your flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into the food processor and pulsing your ingredients together a few times.  Then add in your diced cold butter and pulse your food processor until your mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  The reason I do this with a food processor instead of b hand is to keep the butter cold and using your warm hands could melt the butter.

You should now place your mixture into a large mixing bowl.  I found that if I mix the milk into the ingredients in a food processor it will over mix the dough and create tough biscuits, so I add in the milk into the bowl and mix the ingredients together with a large spoon.  Stop mixing when your dough just comes together.

You now want to create an egg wash to brush on the tops of the biscuits before they go into the oven.  To make your egg wash you will want to take a small bowl and quickly mix together your egg and 1 teaspoon of water.  

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.

Now, take your dough and turn it onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead the dough a few times until it becomes a mostly a cohesive ball.  Now take a wooden rolling pin and roll out your dough evenly to about 3/4 of an inch thick.  Then take a biscuit cutter or the rim of a small glass and press down to create your biscuit rounds.  You will have scraps left over after you do this, so gather your dough scraps and kneed a few times to create a circle.  Be careful not to overwork the dough since overworking it makes tough biscuits.  Now roll our your dough to 3/4 of an inch thick and then stamp out the remaining biscuits.   You will want to brush the top of your biscuit rounds with your egg wash and then place them on an ungreased baking sheet about 2 inches apart.

Now place the baking sheet with your baking powder biscuits into your preheated oven and bake at 450 degrees F. until your baking powder biscuits are golden brown.  This should take between 12 to 15 minutes.