- 6 cups self-rising biscuit flour (OR 6 cups flour, plus 3 tablespoons baking powder & 1 Tablespoon salt)
- 1 cup shortening
- 2 cups buttermilk OR sour milk OR yogurt thinned with a little milk or water
This recipe is inspired from a very dear friend named Paula. It involves preparing biscuits from scratch and then freezing the unbaked biscuits. Paula created the idea because her family always wanted her good biscuits for supper, and she needed a way to make them hot, and fresh, even on days when she didn’t feel like baking. The results are divinely inspired.
First get out a large mixing bowl. Measure in the self rising biscuit flour (or flour, baking powder and salt). Add the firmly packed shortening and mash it into the flour with your fingers or a fork. DO Not Overmix. The shortening should be casually combined with the flour, and small chunks the size of dried beans should remain. This is what makes the biscuits flakey. Now stir in the buttermilk or sour milk or thinned out yogurt. Stir it up until you have a nice soft dough. Knead the dough about 10 or 12 times. NO more, No less. This activates the gluten in the flour just enough to make good biscuits. Roll the dough out into a nice thick slab. I use a rolling pin, but any sturdy jar or glass will do. Cut the dough into biscuit shapes. Use a clean can or glass rim, if you don’t have a biscuit cutter. Tuna cans are just the right size for big breakfast biscuits. Continue rolling and cutting until all the dough is used up.
Lay waxed paper on a plate or large pan. Arrange the shaped biscuit dough on the waxed paper. Freeze overnight. The next morning the biscuits can be gathered up and stashed in plastic freezer bag.
When you want to cook them, just take out the specific number you want and place them on a lightly oiled cookie sheet or pizza pan. Bake in a preheated 425 to 450° oven for about 10 minutes. The biscuits will rise up beautifully and will be a nice golden brown when done.
These biscuits are better tasting, and much cheaper than canned whack-’em-on-the-counter-biscuits. The whole recipe makes between 30 and 35 medium sized biscuits, or about 20 big breakfast size biscuits (grand-sized).
If you enjoyed this simple bread recipe, try making orange juice muffins next. They are delicious.
Thanks for the recipe! The biscuits are quite good — “better tasting…than canned” is an understatement! It’s taking me quite a bit of experimentation, but I finally got a good temperature/time combination for making these in my toaster oven. Since it’s very shallow, the biscuits are very close to the heating elements and they would burn before they would thoroughly cook. So 325 for 20 mins finally did it this morning.
Could you please say about how thick you roll the dough out? You said to roll it out into a thick slab, but since I have never made biscuits I have no idea how thick.
Thank you!
I can’t wait to try these.
I cant wait to try these, but when rolling them out, im not sure how thick you mean when you say “thick slab”…one inch? 3 inches?
Also, do you thaw them after you take them out of the freezer? Or just throw them in the oven?
Thanks!
Daisy, I have made them before and I would say 3/4 to 1 inch is a good size for the thickness. Also, yes, you can use them right out of the freezer. I have also defrosted them before for recipes where I needed biscuit dough (pigs in the blanket, dumplings, etc.) and they work great in that capacity as well.
Daisy, what is the difference in “biscuit flour” and other flour? I can’t wait to try these. I have been looking for a good frozen biscuit recipe because I love the ones you buy in the stores (for their taste and convenience), but they are SO expensive and for a family that LOVES biscuits, it can really add up! Thanks!
By “Biscuit Flour”, she mean self-rising flour. If you don’t have self-rising flour, you can use 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus 3 tablespoons baking powder & 1 Tablespoon salt.
Actually…there is something that is “biscuit” flour. “White Lily” and another brand – “Martha White” are brands here in North Ga. These brands are lower in protein than “regular” All Purpose (which is lower in protein than Bread Flour). The reason you want the lower protein is that it’s the protein than makes bread-stuffs tough. Good if you’re making bread, BAD if you’re making quick breads/biscuits/pie crusts, etc. You CAN make biscuits out of AP flour, but you have to watch how much you handle it because the more it’s handled the more you activate the gluten – the protein that makes bread tough.
Furthermore, you can find unbleached and All Purpose flours as well as “biscuit” flours that are self-rising or not. Self-rising is more convenient, but is a problem if you then want to make a yeast dough. The Baking powder and salt are what makes “self-rising” rise, but it also interferes with the yeast. (Unless you’re making a recipe especially designed to use both yeast AND baking powder) The other down side is that for some people who don’t use a lot of salt, self-rising tastes “salty” to them. (Have both regular and self-rising in look-alike containers and can’t remember which one is which? Taste it, with self-rising you can taste the salt in it.) If you add your own baking powder and salt, I think you’ll find that you use less of both the baking powder and the salt.
Look on the label of the flours in your local store for the protein content. For yeast bread items you want the highest protein level, for cakes, muffins/quick breads/biscuits, and pies you want the lowest protein level you can find. Especially if you’re a “newbie” to making bread-stuffs. It will help you have a better product until you can learn to not over-mix your ingredients. (Though I do have to admit, if it’s hot from the oven, you’ll eat it even if it IS a little tougher than it should be! lol)
HTH
Greatly helpful on the differences in flours, Darlene!
Hey guys! So….I have tried making biscuits before. We were very broke and didn’t have any bread. So I made some biscuits. Out of a mix no less. And they turned out horrible. Dry and hard on the outside and dry and powdery on the inside.
Horrible. Anywho, I tried this recipe. They were much better than my first attempt. Like 900% better. 
But they still didn’t taste like the “whack on the counter” type. I didn’t have any self rising flour, so I used the other recipe where you add baking powder and salt. Question. Could you add a little sugar to it? What about a little more salt? And mine still seemed a little dry. Maybe just a touch more shortening? (It was my fist time using shortening btw) Anywho…they still tasted pretty good, but I’d like to see if there’s a way to change it up just a touch. Thank you!
my biscuits won’t rise! I’m so disappointed, I don’t know what we did wrong. My son & husband won’t eat them. The flavor is not bad, though…or at least I think it’s ok.
Hello,
I wanted to clarify something, do I put the frozen biscuits in the oven for 10 minutes or am I supposed to thaw them first before putting them in the oven for that long? Or, am I supposed to bake them, then freeze them, then when I take them out of the freezer I put them in the oven for 10 minutes? In your reply to someone earlier it made me question if I understood it or not so I just wanted to make sure I was writing the correct directions on the bag. Thank you for your help and the great recipe!
You put the frozen biscuits straight into the preheated oven, no thawing. And you don’t bake the biscuits before freezing them.
My mom used to make homemade biscuits frequently. She made pop-open biscuits. She would roll out the dough a little thinner…….brush melted butter on the top of the dough. Then, she would fold the dough in 1/2. Press down lightly on the dough…..then, cut out the biscuits. When they were baked, there was a distinctive separation between the top/bottom of the biscuit. You just had to take your hands and open the biscuits…..no need for knives to cut them. Pretty and Yummy! Enjoy!
NOTE: You may want to increase the recipe or make smaller biscuits.