How To Make Sourdough Biscuits

I mentioned yesterday this was going to be my first cross-blog post. Anne made me an offer and I took her up on it. She would make the fish chowder, I would make the biscuits.

Anne has posted the fish chowder, and it looks amazing. I think I could even do it without screwing it up. I plan to find out soon.

I have to apologize to Anne for making a last-minute substitution. I ran out of buttermilk, so I did sourdough biscuits instead. The flavor should actually be really similar. The texture wasn’t quite what I was planning, but I suspect that’s as much because of my rolling technique as the ingredients. I’ll make it up to Anne for the change by doing the buttermilk biscuits real soon. Until then, here are the sourdough.

Ingredients

2 cups sourdough starter
2¾ cups flour
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ cup (½ stick) butter
½ cup milk

Directions

Before mixing the ingredients, place a large pan of water on medium-high heat so that it starts boiling. You’ll be using this to quick-rise the biscuits before they go in the oven.

If your sourdough starter has settled, give it a quick stir.

Add the flour to a sieve over a large bowl.

Add the sugar, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.

Tap the sieve with the heel of your hand until all the the dry ingredients are sifted together.

Cut the butter into cubes, add to the dry ingredients, and cut in using a butter knife or a pastry cutter.

Add the milk to the sourdough starter. I was a little short on the starter, so I added more milk to make up the difference.

Mix the milk and starter. If you have a round-handled whisk like mine, try rolling it back-and-forth between your palms.

Add the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix until it forms a rough dough.

You want the dough to be moist but not sticky. If it’s sticking to the bowl, add more flour and keep mixing.

Turn the dough out onto a clean, well-floured surface.

Hold the dough with one hand, and push the top away from you with the other hand.

Fold the end back toward you and repeat, kneading for about five minutes, until the dough is even and the flour is incorporated.

With a floured rolling pin, roll out to about an inch thick.

Fold in half and roll to an inch thick again.

Double over and roll out four or five times. Add more flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking. The multiple layers are what makes the biscuits flaky.

If you don’t have a round cookie cutter that’s a good size, cut the biscuits out with a drinking glass. Dip the end of the glass in flour to keep it from sticking.

When you’ve cut as many biscuits as you can, pull up the excess.

Roll the excess out to an inch thick, but don’t double over. At this point you’ve already worked the dough as much as you want to. If you over-work it, the finished biscuits can get chewy.

The last bit of dough was too small to roll out, so I just formed it into a biscuit shape by hand.

Put the biscuits on a greased baking sheet, as far apart as you can.

Put a clean towel over the biscuits and set the baking sheet on top of the pan of steaming water.

Turn the heat off and let the biscuits rise for about 30 minutes.

Obligatory low-angle shot of the dough.

Brush the top and sides with melted butter.

Bake at 400° for 15 minutes, until the biscuits are puffy and lightly browned.

Immediately transfer biscuits to a bread basket.

Hold one up close to your nose as you break it open. That fresh bread smell is worth all the work you’ve put in.

Serve with butter, as a side to any hearty meal. Like fish chowder.

And that’s it.

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Come back tomorrow to see what I served these with. Sign up using the form at the right to get it as soon as it’s posted.

BUT FIRST: Go check out Anne’s authentic Maine-style fish chowder, made in a Central American jungle for Pete’s sake, and show her some love in the comments.