The Biscuit Method

Cold butter is "cut in" to flour, resulting in a light, flaky baked good. This method is used for biscuits and pie crusts.

Steps

  1. Whisk together dry ingredients into a large bowl.

  2. Cut butter into small cubes. The fat should be cold. Alternatively, the butter can be frozen and grated into the flour.

  3. Toss the cold butter into the dry ingredients.

  4. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour, making sure the fat pieces are all smaller than pea sized. Keep the mixture cold. A good tip is to imagine you're rubbing the ear of a puppy as you mix the flour and butter.

  5. Add in liquid.

  6. Mix dough until just combined.

  7. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and roll to desired thickness.

    Tips

    Keep everything cold. If your hands are warm when mxing in the fat, place bowl into the refrigerator until fat is firm.

    Use cold liquid.

    If you have a food processor, you can make this dough using the food processer. Add cold butter chunks to flour in food process, and pulse until butter is broken up into the flour. Drizzle in cold liquid with the processor is running to form the dough.