Easy Whole Wheat Biscuits

I am on a mission. A mission to find the best, most delicious, easiest, perfect whole wheat biscuit recipe.

My sis recommended this recipe when she and my mom were visiting last month. I think we stuck to the original recipe, except in regards to the flour.  

I had some self-rising flour that we had to use up before the Passover/Days of Unleavened Bread, so we substituted about half self-rising flour, and I’m pretty sure we didn’t decrease the baking powder at all, so they turned out even fluffier than usual.

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They were really amazing, definitely the best biscuits I’ve made—and I love that they were whole wheat but didn’t feel like rocks (or get stuck in your throat on the way down)! They were even good leftover, the true mark of an awesome biscuit.

So without further ado, here’s the best biscuit recipe I’ve found yet…

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk or stir all your dry ingredients together with a fork.

Cut the butter into little pea-sized pieces…this will make it easier to cut into the flour mixture.

Touch the butter as little as possible, though—the heat from your hands will melt it and make it harder to stir in and less fluffy when baking.

Next, mix the pieces into the flour mixture using a pastry blender (you know, the one that looks kind of like brass knuckles) or large fork if you don’t have one. The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs at this point. If you still have some larger chunks of butter, don’t worry about it, it will all be okay.

Finally, pour in the milk and mix it all together (I find a fork works best for this). Don’t try to get it totally combined and smooth, you actually want to stir it as little as possible. Your dough will be really messy and shaggy, but that’s okay—over-stirring is bad!

Turn the messy dough out onto a pastry mat or counter that is heavily floured. Knead the dough with your hands (working a little flour in as needed to prevent sticking) 8 to 10 times.

I’ll say that we didn’t really do much kneading, just enough to make it not-sticky.

Pat it out flat with your hands until it’s around ¾-inch thickness. My sister is kindly hand-modeling for us.

Now, you have all manner of choices on how to cut out biscuits. I have a biscuit cutter, so we used that. You can use an upside-down water glass, heart-shaped cookie cutter, or just cut hunks off with a knife if you prefer.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet (we lined ours with parchment paper).

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 – 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Golden, fluffy,  whole wheat-y gloriousness. You can see that we just threw the little bits of leftover dough onto the sheet instead of mushing them together into a Frankenstein biscuit.

As I said above, these biscuits were pretty dang close to perfection. I don’t know if the self-rising flour helped that a lot, and I’m sure that having that much baking powder also helped. But I’d recommend these any day.

With butter and jelly.

Or butter and honey (which I’m partial to).

On a honey note, I am kind of a honey nut. When I travel overseas, the two souvenirs I always buy myself are cool coffee mugs and honey. So I have Irish honey, German honey, Czech honey, Austrian honey, Italian honey all just sitting around on my counter. I like to think they hold International League of Honey meetings and debate who is better. But I digress…

Other quick breads you’ll love:

• Small-Batch Traditional Wholemeal Irish Soda Bread
• Oat & Maple Scones
• Bourbon Vanilla Banana Bread with Candied Walnuts
• Churro Popovers
• Easy Lemon Poppyseed Food Processor Biscuits

Whole Wheat Biscuits

• 2 cups of whole wheat flour (we used half self-rising flour and half whole wheat)
• 4 teaspoons of baking powder
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 cup of cold unsalted butter (1/2 of a stick, or 4 tablespoons)
• 1 cup of milk

1. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well with a whisk or fork.
2. Cut the 1/4 cup of butter (1/2 of a stick) into little pea-sized pieces and then mix the pieces into the flour mixture using a pastry blender (or fork if you don’t have one). The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs at this point. Pour in the milk and mix it all together (I find a fork works best for this).
3. Knead the dough with your hands 8 to 10 times and then turn out onto a counter or cutting board with a little flour. Pat it out flat with your hands until it’s around ¾-inch thickness.
4. Using a biscuit cutter or upside-down drinking glass, cut out biscuits. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet (we lined ours with parchment paper) and bake at 450 degrees for 10 – 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Original recipe here

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