Why were my biscuits crumbly?

[1GirlTwinBoys]

DD and I made biscuits from scratch today.  The flavor was delicious but they had a crumbly texture.  What do we need to do differently next time? :)

 

 

[Rachel]

What kind of biscuits were you making? Maybe too much flour. Maybe your butter wasn't cold (but I don't think that would make them crumbly). Maybe you worked the dough too much.

[fairfarmhand]

Did you excatly measure the buttermilk? Some recipes don't incorporate enough, IMHO.

 

Because I never measure it. I just pour in a little at at time and add the buttermilk till it's the texture of a slightly sticky playdough before rolling it out.

 

Overworking it will make it tough.

 

What fat did you use? Butter? shortening? Lard? Butter makes the best biscuits.

[zoobie]

What kind of flour? A soft wheat like White Lily is best for biscuits. Regular hard wheat flour makes crumblier biscuits. Could also be not enough moisture--did you work a lot of flour into the dough when you rolled them out? Did you overwork it?

[KungFuPanda]

Did you knead them like bread? Or did you touch them as little as possible and keep everything cold?

[1GirlTwinBoys]

Did you excatly measure the buttermilk? Some recipes don't incorporate enough, IMHO.

 

 

I think it was 2 cups of flour and 3/4 cup of whole milk.

What kind of flour?

King Arthur All Purpose

 

Did you overwork it? 

 

I tried to not do that because I read not to

 

Edited June 15, 2017 by 1GirlTwinBoys

[Ellie]

Overworking the dough.

 

Did the recipe call for whole milk?

[1GirlTwinBoys]

Did the recipe call for whole milk?

 

 

No, just said 3/4 cup milk.

Edited June 15, 2017 by 1GirlTwinBoys

[ErinE]

King Arthur All Purpose, while an excellent flour, has a high-protein content which can lead to tougher biscuits. I lower the protein in my flour by using half AP and half cake flour. You can also use White Lily. I don't use it because I dont make biscuits enough to purchase a flour solely dedicated to their making.

 

The milk is likely a tad low. For two cups flour, I use 7/8 cup whole milk.

 

Southern Biscuit Recipe

 

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, intact and frozen or very cold

7/8 cup whole milk

 

1. Heat oven to 500 degrees. Whisk together flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt in large bowl.

2. Using a box grater, grate the butter into the flour mixture, crumbling the last bit into the flour. Use a fork to toss and mash the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like small peas and the butter is well-distributed.

3. Add milk and mix until just combined. Streaks of flour will remain.

4A. TRADITIONAL: Scrape dough into well-floured surface. Flour your hands and gently knead dough just until it's a well-formed mass that holds together. Don't over knead! Pat out to 1/2 to 3/4 inch thickness. I like it slightly shorter than my biscuit cutter. Dip the cutter into flour after each use and cut out biscuits. Place in 8-inch round pan. Any scraps can be combined and gently patted out again to cut out new biscuits, but they will be slightly tougher.

4B LAYERED: Scrape dough onto well floured surface. Flour your hands and pat the dough into a rectangle 8.5" by 11". It will be a wet, sticky mass so a bench scraper is handy, but not necessary. Make a business letter fold, folding one short side down 1/3 then folding the other shorter side down 1/3. This makes three layers. Pat out the folded dough into a rectangle; do a business fold again. Continue making business folds until the dough is smooth and well formed, usually 4-5 folds. Pat out into 1/2 to 3/4 inch thickness and cut out biscuits with well-floured cutter, avoiding the folded edges, pushing straight down, and not twisting the cutter. Place biscuits in 8-inch round cake pan. Gently combine scraps into rectangle keeping layers oriented towards each other and make a business fold again, patting out to proper thickness. Cut out two or three more. Makes 7 or 8 biscuits.

5. Put biscuits in heated oven and lower oven temperature to 425. Bake for 11-13 minutes until golden brown. Serve immediately.

 

This can also make buttermilk biscuits by reducing the baking powder to 2 teaspoons, adding 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and switching the whole milk out for buttermilk.

 

You can brush melted butter on the biscuits before they go into the oven and after they come out, but I always forget and the biscuits are delicious without it.

 

The more you bake biscuits, the better you get. It's hard to explain the difference between over-mixed and just right doughs without baking many batches yourself.

Edited June 15, 2017 by ErinE

[SparklyUnicorn]

yeah my vote is overworked dough

 

 

[lllll]

nm

Edited July 11, 2017 by tentwelve

[Bluegoat]

Well, I use milk (not buttermilk) and roll out the dough, and mine turn out nice and flaky most of the time.

 

Usually when I have this problem, it is an issue with my flour, or the humidity.

 

But I'd also say overworked is a possibility.  If you want flaky, you don't want the fat to be worked right in, it needs to stay in little clumps.

Edited June 15, 2017 by Bluegoat

[kiana]

If you can, use a biscuit recipe that gives flour by weight instead of volume. It's very easy to have a bit too much or too little flour if you're measuring by volume, and if you are an experienced baker you can easily compensate, but if you are inexperienced it's very nice to have the certainty.

 

If this isn't a possibility, find some videos with what biscuit dough is supposed to look like at various stages and try to make yours handle like that. That's how I handled properly whipped egg whites the first time I wanted to make an angel food cake. 

[Bambam]

I vote slightly too much flour too. When I make biscuits, I'm not that careful with my measurements so sometimes I add more milk (if the dough looks too dry/not sticky enough) or more flour (if it is too sticky). 

[gardenmom5]

I only ever make biscuits from scratch - it sounds like too much flour  OR the fat you used wasn't adequately cut into the flour.

 

did you use a pastry cutter?   - I cut mine until it is the consistency of fine meal and it will automatically start to clump together.

 

keep your hands off the dough as much as possible.  very light hand when you lightly knead it so it holds together well when you roll it.

 

incidentally - I never use buttermilk.  we use a mixture of 2 parts milk to 1part sour cream.  that was a substitute for buttermilk once, and we never went back.  and sour cream keeps longer in the fridge . . .

 

eta: clarify - you have to cut your fat into all of your dry ingredients prior to adding your liquid.  that can take several minutes. 

Edited June 15, 2017 by gardenmom5

[Rachel]

That doesn't sound like enough milk for that much flour.

 

It could be the recipe, have the biscuits turned out right in the past with that recipe? My original biscuit recipe was my MIL's and they never came out right for me. I switched to baking powder biscuits and they come it pretty good every time.

[Baseball mom]

Walmart sells bags of great value frozen biscuits. Take them of it bag and put on a cookie sheet and bake.

They are GOOD.

 

I can't make a decent biscuit. I have tried and tried. My fami!y likes the frozen ones and I like the ease

[ktgrok]

There is a fun, easy biscuit recipe that is just self rising flour and heavy cream (I think that's it) that I use now :)

 

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/never-fail-biscuits-recipe

 

or you can dough down directly onto the baking sheet, then use a pizza cutter to cut/score into squares, then bake. Break apart on the lines you made when they are done. 

SaveSave

Edited June 15, 2017 by ktgrok

[Bluegoat]

If the recipe has worked in the past and you measured properly, what is the weather like?  If it's very dry, that could affect things.

[mellifera33]

Huh. I thought that biscuits were supposed to be crumbly. I thought that was why you leave little bits of butter in the dough, to make them have a crumbly texture. 

[Rachel]

Huh. I thought that biscuits were supposed to be crumbly. I thought that was why you leave little bits of butter in the dough, to make them have a crumbly texture.

I prefer mine flaky,but if you like crumbly biscuits there is nothing wrong with it, especially if you are eating them with gravy.

[Bluegoat]

Huh. I thought that biscuits were supposed to be crumbly. I thought that was why you leave little bits of butter in the dough, to make them have a crumbly texture. 

 

That makes them flaky.

 

I think the OP means like a short-crust, almost cracker-like.  I think of it as sandy.

[mellifera33]

I think I must not understand baking terms. I think of flaky as having thin layers that peel off, like puff pastry dough. Or the canned rolls I use if I make chicken ala king for elderly relatives.  :laugh:  Maybe what I call biscuits are actually scones? 

[Bluegoat]

I think I must not understand baking terms. I think of flaky as having thin layers that peel off, like puff pastry dough. Or the canned rolls I use if I make chicken ala king for elderly relatives.  :laugh:  Maybe what I call biscuits are actually scones? 

 

Yup, that is flaky!

 

If you make drop biscuits, though, they are a lot more like scones - maybe even pretty much the same.

[fairfarmhand]

I've never used milk to make biscuits. Or rolled them out. Here's the recipe I've always used:

 

Whisk:

2 c. all purpose flour (I use King Arthur.)

1 T. baking powder

salt (shake salt shaker around once or twice, assuming yours doesn't pour very fast)

 

(Sometimes I add spices or herbs here. Garlic powder or onion powder, etc.)

 

Work into flour mixture with fingers until crumbly:

1/3 c. Crisco (Don't skimp here. Pack it down and sometimes I don't even scrape it very level.)

 

(At this point, I sometimes make cheese biscuits by adding about 8 oz. of grated cheese, gently 'stirring' it with my fingers to distribute it evenly.)

 

 

Stir in with fork until all flour is wet.

1 c. buttermilk (I usually fill this a little over because I scoop my flour out with a measuring cup and never sift - so flour is heavy.)

 

Then, I scrape all of the wet dough to the center with a spatula to make a rough ball.

 

This mixture should come out a little wet. If it's too dry, I add a tiny bit more buttermilk.

 

If it's too wet to handle, I sprinkle just enough flour over the dough (and on my hands) so that I can pinch off pieces to roll into balls. Put ball on greased pan and press slightly to flatten. Bake in hot oven - this varies depending on ingredients and the oven. Usually around 400 degrees, but you might have to experiment with it. It usually takes about 10-15 minutes, depending on your oven. I watch them closely and touch them to test them.

 

Remove when done like you like them and butter the tops. Sometimes I put butter inside them, too.

 

Note about the buttermilk. Down South I only used the full-fat version buttermilk. Never saw or heard of a "Fat-free Buttermilk". Up North all I can find (in 2 states, btw) is this watery "Fat-free" stuff. I've had to almost relearn to make biscuits, it's SO different. I've about got it down, but I much prefer the thick, Southern buttermilk.

 

The only time I've had them come out crumbly was when I had too much flour. So I try to err on the side of too wet vs too dry in the dough stage.[/quotidvyou can't find full fat buttermilk, sour cream with enough milk stirred in to make it pourable works perfectly too.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[1GirlTwinBoys]

did you use a pastry cutter?   - I cut mine until it is the consistency of fine meal and it will automatically start to clump together.

 

 

I threw all the dry ingredients in a food processor and blended.  Then I added the COLD stick of butter and processed that into the flour.  It left little chunks all in the flour.  I then put the flour mixture in a stainless steel bowl and made a well for the milk and mixed together as little as possible.  It just seemed more shredded instead of a dough ball if that makes sense.  I wondered if it wasn't enough milk at the time.

 

This was the first time I made this recipe.  It was good and my kids gobbled them up but I guess I'm just wanting to get the perfect biscuit.   :)

 

My kids LOVE Cracker Barrel biscuits so I think I'm trying to get that texture.  I know the perfect biscuit is very subjective...

Edited June 15, 2017 by 1GirlTwinBoys

[solascriptura]

Crumbly means too much flour. Use a bit less.

[fairfarmhand]

I threw all the dry ingredients in a food processor and blended.  Then I added the COLD stick of butter and processed that into the flour.  It left little chunks all in the flour.  I then put the flour mixture in a stainless steel bowl and made a well for the milk and mixed together as little as possible.  It just seemed more shredded instead of a dough ball if that makes sense.  I wondered if it wasn't enough milk at the time.

 

This was the first time I made this recipe.  It was good and my kids gobbled them up but I guess I'm just wanting to get the perfect biscuit.   :)

 

My kids LOVE Cracker Barrel biscuits so I think I'm trying to get that texture.  I know the perfect biscuit is very subjective...

 

Sounds like it wasn't enough milk. For cracker barrel biscuits , use the buttermilk. Add it till its a sticky dough.

 

Biscuits take a bit of a knack to develop. Every batch will probably be better than the last.

[AmandaVT]

I threw all the dry ingredients in a food processor and blended.  Then I added the COLD stick of butter and processed that into the flour.  It left little chunks all in the flour.  I then put the flour mixture in a stainless steel bowl and made a well for the milk and mixed together as little as possible.  It just seemed more shredded instead of a dough ball if that makes sense.  I wondered if it wasn't enough milk at the time.

 

This was the first time I made this recipe.  It was good and my kids gobbled them up but I guess I'm just wanting to get the perfect biscuit.   :)

 

My kids LOVE Cracker Barrel biscuits so I think I'm trying to get that texture.  I know the perfect biscuit is very subjective...

 

My biscuits come out great when I make them with a pastry cutter and terrible when I do them in a food processor. Every time. The recipe I use, calls for 2 c flour and 1 c milk.

[Rachel]

Biscuits take a bit of a knack to develop. Every batch will probably be better than the last.

Yes! The more you practice, the better you are. Then if you go several months without making them, you realize you need more practice again.

[Tanaqui]

Baking is frustrating, because the right amount of flour - especially if you're measuring by volume and not by weight - is so variable, even with one recipe.

[Bluegoat]

Sounds like it wasn't enough milk. For cracker barrel biscuits , use the buttermilk. Add it till its a sticky dough.

 

Biscuits take a bit of a knack to develop. Every batch will probably be better than the last.

 

It's important to remember that substituting buttermilk for milk will mean you need to change your levaning agent.