Sourdough Biscuits

All butter, homemade buttermilk biscuits with an incredibly tender center. These biscuits are made with sourdough (fed or unfed) which adds wonderful flavor.

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Chill Time 1

Servings large biscuits (or more)

Ingredients

Double Batch (~10 medium sized or ~16 small biscuits)

500 g all purpose flour preferably a low protein content flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
50 g or ¼ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp fine sea salt
226 or 2 sticks unsalted butter slightly softened (at cool room temperature)
100 g sourdough discard unfed starter, no more than 6 days old
300 g buttermilk

Small batch (~5 medium sized biscuits)

250 g all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ tsp fine sea salt
113 g unsalted butter
50 g sourdough discard
150 g buttermilk

Instructions

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl (the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar).
Add the butter in slices and using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour by pressing it between your forefingers and thumbs (see video for reference). You can also use a pastry cutter for this; the idea is to get the butter into small-ish pieces (bean sized) and coat the flour with it.
Add the discard or starter and the buttermilk and stir with a rubber spatula until you can’t see any ‘wet’ bits. Use your hands to bring the dough together, folding it over itself and pressing it with your hands, until it comes together in a rough ball shape.
Line a greased cookie sheet with parchment paper (use a standard size for the full batch, a small size for the small batch).
Set the dough on a floured countertop and press it into a rectangle that’s about 12 x 10 inches. Fold it over itself in half, and then again (this creates layers). You can repeat this step once more, if you like.
Press the dough into a rectangle that’s about 1” thick. Use a bench scraper to slice it into squares that are about 3x3” (or use a round biscuit/cookie cutter). Place the biscuits on the prepared tray, leaving no more than an inch of space between them.
Set the tray in the freezer for about 30 minutes. If you want to keep them for longer storage, transfer to an airtight container (they’ll keep for a month in the freezer).
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Right before you bake the biscuits, brush them with milk, heavy cream or buttermilk. Add a sprinkle of granulated sugar or flaked sea salt if you like (work quickly if you are adding a topping, the frozen biscuits will freeze the milk soon after you brush them, so brush on the milk then do a topping, then move to the next biscuit).
Bake the biscuits for about 20 minutes, until the edges are deep golden and there’s no ‘wet’ looking parts in the center.

Video

Notes

Note: this recipe no longer contains baking soda - over the past year I've found we don't need it!