The Secret to Homemade Flaky Layers Biscuits

A few weeks ago our church put on an event called Homespun University.  Volunteers taught classes on a topic they enjoyed and we could choose from a large variety of things to learn about including organization, home decor, self defense, cake decorating, herbs, essential oils, and scripture study. One of our members is a retired professional baker who owned his own bakery for years. He offered a class on biscuits and I jumped at the chance to learn from him.

Before I got married I baked a lot of biscuits, but they weren’t the best.  Sometimes they were hockey pucks.  It worried my husband so much that he begged his Aunt to have me over for a biscuit baking lesson.  Then I entered the fitness phase of my life and biscuits became a thing of the past.

Recently I started balancing real baked goods, with actual wheat flour into our rotation. Sometimes I’d rather have a tiny bit of a real treat than a full serving of a sugar free, grain free blech. It’s all about portion control and activity level to make it balance out in the end.
I bought the Magnolia Home cookbook (How does Joanna cook like this and stay so thin?) and excitedly tried her biscuit recipe.  It had way tooooooo much butter and they were just ok.

The recipe I’m about to share with you is better.  A lot better.  I tried it first with all-purpose white flour, but I’m going to try it again with my home ground fresh hard white whole wheat flour.

First here are the secrets:

  1. Use COLD butter.  Keep it in the fridge until just before using it.
  2. Don’t overwork your butter.  Cut it in until it’s the size of peas not fine crumbs.
  3. Don’t overwork your dough.  Kneading is for yeast breads, not biscuits. It’s ok to have some flour that isn’t worked in at the first.  As you lightly roll it into layers it will work in.
  4. Don’t roll the biscuits too flat.  There isn’t yeast in these so keep them tall, so don’t’ press out all the air that’s forming from the baking powder reaction.  I leave mine about 3/4 inch thick before cutting.
  5. Don’t twist the cutter.  Twisting the cutter seals the edges and keeps the biscuit from rising into layers.
  6. Brushing the tops with milk before baking, makes sure there won’t be a dry flour dust on your biscuits from the rolling flour.
  7. Use a HOT oven temperature.  This quickly seals the outside crust, trapping air inside and forcing a higher rise.

Flakey Layers Biscuits

3 cups All Purpose Flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

10 Tbs Cold Butter

1 1/3 cups Cultured Buttermilk

2 Tbs Honey

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Makes 12 biscuits.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into slices then add to the flour mixture and use a pastry cutter to work into the flour until the butter is the size of small peas.

In a glass measuring cup, beat together the buttermilk and honey.  Then pour into the flour mixture.  Stir just until it has mostly come together, then dump out onto a lightly floured counter.  Gather dough into a ball.

Dust a rolling pin with flour and with a light touch, roll the dough out about 1/2 inch thick. Fold the dough into thirds, then roll again and fold into thirds again.  Repeat one more time.  Lightly roll the dough about 3/4 inch thick, then cut with a biscuit cutter.  Instead of bunching up the scraps into a new ball to roll out again (which would destroy your layers and overwork the dough) slide them together on the counter and push bath together, keeping your layers intact to cut again.

Brush the tops with milk and bake for 8 minutes or until golden on top.

12 biscuits; 220 calories each, 10g fat, 26g net carbs, and 4g protein

Made with Hard White Whole Wheat Flour 218 calories, 10g fat, 24g net carbs, 5g protein

If you try it, let me know how it goes!  If you want to see it in action, let me know and I can do a facebook live video.

 

Flaky Layers Whole Wheat Pumpkin Biscuits

These slightly sweet, spiced biscuits are perfect for a grab and go breakfast, after school snack, a side dish for hearty stew or as part of a brunch menu.

Flaky Layers Pumpkin Biscuits

3 cups Unbleached Flour (or Hard White Wheat Flour or WW Pastry Flour) The pictures show the White Wheat option.  I ground the flour fresh just before baking for maximum nutrition.

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

2 tsp pumpkin spice

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup cold butter

1/2 cup Buttermilk (If using homemade Buttermilk, reduce by 1 Tbs)

1 cup Pumpkin Puree

1/4 cup Real Maple Syrup or Honey

Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. (This time don’t measure by scooping.)Combine flour, baking powder, baking sods, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a large bowl. Cut butter into small pieces and then use a a pastry blender to work it into the flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse meal. Chill 10 minutes.

3. Combine buttermilk and maple syrup, stirring with a whisk until well blended; beat in  pumpkin. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture; stir lightly just until dough comes together.  Do not over work. Some loose flour is ok.

4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Do not knead and roll dough into a 1/2-inch-thick rectangle; lightly dust top of dough with flour. Fold dough into thirds. Roll again into a ½ inch thick rectangle; dust top of dough with flour. Fold dough into thirds then gently roll to a 3/4-inch thickness.

6. Cut dough with a 2 inch biscuit cutter. Place biscuits, 1 inch apart, on a greased baking sheet.

7. Bake at 450° for 12 minutes or until golden. Remove from pan; cool 2 minutes on wire racks. Serve warm. Yield 12 biscuits.

Slice your cold butter into pats before using the pastry cutter.  It will make the cutting in go much faster.

Here’s what it will look like when you’re done cutting in.  You’ll still want some fairly large pieces of butter–like pea sized.  This will help make the layers.

Your pumpkin/buttermilk mixture will look like this.  At first when you try to stir it in, you won’t think there’s enough liquid, but I promise there is.

This dough is DONE mixing.  Please don’t keep going until all the flour is mixed in.  Your biscuits will be tough.  Start rolling without kneading at all.  In the layer making process the dough will fully come together.  I use a silicone mat which makes the layers easier.

Rol it 1/2 inch thick them lightly dust the top with flour.  

Lift the mat to fold the dough into thirds.  The bottom part of my dough was a bit sticky, so I used a spatula to scrape if up, then dust the mat underneath again.  Roll it out like you did the first time.

Then fold it up again.  Keep it lightly dusted if it’s sticking.

This dough here just needs a light rolling to be ready to cut.  I over did mine.  They still tasted good but weren’t as thick as I like.

I wish I had rolled my dough a little taller.  It’s only about 1/2 inch, but it might have made them tough to start again.  Make yours taller.

The last biscuits on my pan are a little wonky, but I choose not to knead the dough for the second roll out.  I just kind of bunch it together to keep the light and flakey texture.

These are delicious with butter, but pumpkin butter is even better!

This is day 15 of 31 Days of Pumpkin Recipes

1 Pumpkin spice mix

2 Homemade pumpkin puree

3 Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

4 Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

5 Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

6 Pumpkin Bagels

7 Butternut Chicken Stew

8 Healthy Pumpkin Pecan Scones

9 Pumpkin Waffles

10 Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

11 Butternut Squash Chili

12 Pumpkin Jar Mix

13 Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts

14 Pumpkin French Toast Casserole

15 Pumpkin Biscuits

16 Easy Pumpkin Cake

17 Pumpkin Dump Cake

18 Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

19 Pumpkin Mousse

20 Pumpkin Cheesecake

21 Pumpkin Latte

22 Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

23 Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies

24 Maple Pumpkin Butter

25 Stuffed Sugar Baby Pumpkins

26 Pumpkin Pancakes

27 Pumpkin English Muffins

28 Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

29 Pumpkin Biscotti

30 Pumpkin Caramel Monkey Bread

31 Impossible Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin French Toast Casserole

French Toast Casserole reminds me of Christmas morning or a celebration brunch, but it’s easy enough to have any time.  I love that it can serve a crowd without having to stand over a hot griddle cooking a few slices of bread at a time.  The pumpkin flavor and pecan butterscotch topping, makes this dish especially festive.

You can bake it in a 9×13 casserole dish, muffin tins, a Bundt pan, or even a slow cooker.  It makes a great freezer meal, or a prep the night before dish. I’ll give instructions for each variation at the end.

Pumpkin French Toast Casserole

1 loaf, 20 oz of bread.  We like Saralee Artisan Golden Wheat Bread

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Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts, No Special Pan Needed

These sweet and tender Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts are as easy to make as biscuits.  Brandon helped make our first batch at 2 years old.  He’s 10 now–eeek!  When I look back on these old pictures I wish I had taken a lot more.

We like this recipe because it doesn’t take any special pans or a donut maker which makes it accessible to every kitchen.  It’s easily made dairy free. Just sub coconut oil for the butter and almond milk for the dairy milk.  And dust with powdered sugar instead of yogurt glaze. We’re still perfecting a gluten free recipe so you have that to look forward to that later.

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Pumpkin Muffin or Cookies Jar Mix

This mix contains the epitome of autumn flavors with the butterscotch chips, pumpkin spice and pecans.  It has has been a family favorite for years and fits prettily in a quart jar and makes a nice appreciation gift or a welcome to the neighborhood gift.  This is another original recipe you won’t find anywhere else.

Pumpkin Jar Mix

1 1/2 cups All-purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Spice

1/2 cup Rolled Oats

3/4 cup Sugar*

1/2 cup Butterscotch Chips

1/2 cup Chopped Pecans

Layer in a quart jar

*If you are baking right away, brown sugar tastes better.  If it is a mix for storage then white sugar is best.  Brown sugar will dry out next to the flour and get hard and impossible to mix into the recipe.  Sucanat or coconut sugar would work in either situation.

For cookies: Mix 1/2 cup softened butter, 1/2 t maple flavoring, 1 cup of pumpkin puree and 1 egg. Add pumpkin mix, and mix just until combined. Drop by spoonful onto greased cookie sheets.  Optional, decorate before baking by pressing a pecan half into the top. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. Makes 2 dozen cookies.

For muffins:

Mix together 1/4 C butter or yogurt, 2 eggs, 1/2 t maple flavoring, and 1 cup of pumpkin puree. Add pumpkin mix alternating with 1 C milk. Fill greased muffin cups nearly full and bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes. Or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Makes 15-18 muffins.

P.S.  Did you know that parmesan jar lids fit quart jars?

This is day 12 of 31 Days of Pumpkin Recipes

1 Pumpkin spice mix

2 Homemade pumpkin puree

3 Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

4 Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

5 Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

6 Pumpkin Bagels

7 Butternut Chicken Stew

8 Healthy Pumpkin Pecan Scones

9 Pumpkin Waffles

10 Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

11 Butternut Squash Chili

12 Pumpkin Jar Mix

13 Pumpkin French Toast Casserole

14 Easy Pumpkin Cake

15 Pumpkin Dump Cake

16 Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

17 Pumpkin Mousse

18 Pumpkin Cheesecake

19 Pumpkin Latte

20 Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

21 Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies

22 Pumpkin Biscuits

23 Maple Pumpkin Butter

24 Stuffed Sugar Baby Pumpkins

25 Pumpkin Pancakes

26 Pumpkin English Muffins

27 Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

28 Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts

29 Pumpkin Biscotti

30 Pumpkin Caramel Monkey Bread

31 Impossible Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Spice Waffles, Two Ways

Most of you know that I coach a private weight loss group and provide detailed meal plans to help the girls reach their goals.  I’m following the meal plans closely myself and am on my way to a completing a 40lb weight loss.  Not everything is predictable but I’m on track to finish by the end of the year. These scones are part of our plan this week and they are such a treat!  My kids were jealous, so I made a fresh ground whole wheat version for them.

The Fit Mama recipes won’t hurt a young person if they want to eat them once in awhile but the ingredients are more expensive than traditional ingredients and they are too low carb/low calorie for a steady diet for a growing child.  It doesn’t take long for me to make a version for me and one for them and I’m excited to share both the recipes.

Fit Mama Protein Pumpkin Spice Waffles

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Healthy Pumpkin Pecan Scones

Scones and hot tea are one of my favorite autumn breakfasts. I made the first batch of pumpkin scones for the Fit Mama meal plans. They were delicious and just happen to be both gluten free and dairy free.  Then I made a second bath with fresh ground whole wheat flour for the rest of the family and they got thumbs up too.  I’m pleased to share the recipes for both.

Fit Mama Pumpkin Pecan Scones

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Homemade Pumpkin Bagels Video Tutorial

This isn’t a new recipe to this blog, but it’s still one of my favorites. The soft inside and chewy outside make a lovely grab and go breakfast. I originally wrote this post in 2015. Grant is now in 1st grade! I don’t regret spending that last year with him, and even though the kids are all in school now, we decided my time is still best spent at home helping things run smoothly for everyone.

Tee hee.  This video makes me giggle.  When I watch the replay and Grant (4) dumps the pumpkin on the counter, I roll on the floor laughing and then back it up and watch it again.  Maybe because I was there for the original moment, trying to balance a camera and helping Grant with the cooking at the same time.  How the pumpkin on the counter shocked us both and I got the giggles, which I tried to hold in making a weird background noise.  Grant, relieved that I wasn’t upset said, “We better clean that up.”   Which made me giggle all the more.

After we made quite a mess but got most of the stuff in the bowl, I said “What should we do now?”  I thought Grant would say, “Let’s clean up!”  but he said “SMILE.”  Which made me giggle all over again.

This boy is the joy of my days.  The sleepless nights, messes, tantrums, and battles are all worth it.  I had the option to spend this year in a classroom blessing other people’s children, while I earned money that my family needed.  I would have had to let someone else be with Grant during the day, and I just couldn’t.  It’s his last full year at home and I fought for my chance to be the one to clean up his messes and talk him down from the ledge of toddler insanity. It was selfish and selfless at the same time.  He needs me as much as I need him and there’s something priceless about that.

For those who prefer a written recipe here you go:

Pumpkin Bagels

  • 2/3 cup warm water
  • 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast

Put all ingredients in the order listed in your bread machine.  Set for the dough cycle.  When the cycle is ended, divide the dough into 10 balls.  Poke your finger through the center and make a large hole.  Let the bagels rise for an hour or until doubled. Pour 8 cups of water into a stock pot, boil bagels for 1 1/2 minutes, turning once.  Remove to a dish towel to drain.  Place bagels on a greased baking sheet.  Brush with egg white and sprinkle with a little sugar.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden on the top.  Cool on a wire rack.

This is day 6 of 31 Days of Pumpkin Recipes

1 Pumpkin spice mix

2 Homemade pumpkin puree

3 Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

4 Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

5 Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

6 Pumpkin Bagels

7 Butternut Chicken Stew

8 Pumpkin French Toast Casserole

9 Healthy Pumpkin Pecan Scones

10 Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

11 Pumpkin Muffin/Drop Cookie Mix

12 Easy Pumpkin Cake

13 Pumpkin Dump Cake

14 Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

15 Pumpkin Mousse

16 Pumpkin Cheesecake

17 Pumpkin Latte

18 Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

19 Pumpkin Chili

20 Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies

21 Pumpkin Biscuits

22 Maple Pumpkin Butter

23 Stuffed Sugar Baby Pumpkins

24 Pumpkin Pancakes

25 Pumpkin Waffles

26 Pumpkin English Muffins

27 Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

28 Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts

29 Pumpkin Biscotti

30 Pumpkin Caramel Monkey Bread

31 Impossible Pumpkin Pie

 

Caramel Filled Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

These cinnamon rolls start with a pumpkin based yeast dough, filled with cream cheese caramel, for an ooey gooey breakfast treat that triples as a perfect dessert or after school snack.

The dough is the same as our Pumpkin Dinner Roll Dough, but halved so it will fit in your bread machine.  Of course you can mix it up in your mixer if you prefer, or even make the larger batch like I did so there are plenty to share.

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Resurrection Rolls: An Easter Recipe

While I was working on next week’s meal plan, I came across a video I made 5 years ago that was never published.  Brandon who is now 9, was just 4 years old and while I was watching the video today, Grant (5) walked over and said, “Hey, is that me?”   I’m a little envious over my hair and smaller waistline (which is coming back thanks to Fit Mama.)  This video was taken a few months after we moved into our fixer upper and about a year before the illness that would leave me bed bound for months and never quite the same physically or emotionally. It’s a little nostalgic and surreal to watch it.   I’m excited to get back to that healthy place again and each day is closer than the last.

Traditionally this recipe is made with canned crescent dough, and if you are a busy mama and the thought of making homemade dough puts you over the edge, just buy it.  Really….it’s ok.   Making your own isn’t too hard though and the dough can be made in a stand mixer or bread machine on the dough cycle.

In my meal plans, I automatically break the recipes into 4 different sizes.  It’s not that my subscribers couldn’t do the math. but I don’t want them to have to think about that.  Then they can use their energy interacting with family around a table full of good food.

Crescent Rolls

Ingredients

Servings

2 4 8 12
Butter or coconut oil, melted 2 Tbs 4 Tbs 1/2 cup 3/4 cup
Yogurt or applesauce 2 Tbs 4 Tbs 1/2 cup 3/4 cup
Eggs 1 1 2 3
Milk or water 4 Tbs 1/2 cup 1 cup 1 1/2 cups
Sugar 2 Tbs 1/4 cup 1/2 cup 3/4 cup
Salt pinch 1/2 tsp 1 tsp 1 1/2 tsp
Yeast 1 tsp 2 tsp 1 Tbs 4 tsp
Hard White Whole Wheat Flour 1 cup 2 cups 4-5 cups 7-8 cups

Cinnamon Sugar

Ingredients

Servings

2 4 8 12
Cinnamon 1/2 tsp 1 tsp 2 tsp 3 tsp
Sugar or Stevia 2 Tbs ¼ cup 1/2 cup 3/4 cup

If you are gluten free, you can try an all-purpose gluten free flour with xanthan gum in place of the wheat.  I haven’t tried it personally but the butter and egg content will help this dough stick together and it should work well.

  1. Place the ingredients for your crescent rolls in the bread machine overnight (in the order listed, except add the flour before the yeast.) Set a time delay dough cycle so that they will be ready in the morning about 1 hour before breakfast.

2. Turn your oven on to warm (between 100 and 120 degrees)

3.  Roll the dough ¼ inch thick and cut with a 3 inch biscuit cutter. OR break off a ping pong ball sized piece and flatten it into a circle with your fingers. Place a marshmallow in the middle of the dough and wrap it completely sealing the edges. The marshmallows are perfectly white, showing Christ’s purity as he was placed in the tomb. Some recipes I’ve seen have the children roll the marshmallow in butter and cinnamon-sugar showing the embalming of Christ and his anointing with spices.  We skip this step–but you can do it if you like.

4. Spritz the rolls with cooking spray or brush with butter. Roll the balls of dough in cinnamon sugar and place on a greased baking sheet. Sit the rolls in the slightly warm oven for 20-30 minutes or until they have risen slightly.

5. Remove the rising dough and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for about 15 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Before eating, instruct the children to break open their rolls. They will find tomb is empty!


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