I had butter that was about to expire a while ago and came up with a great idea:  freezing ingredients for quick biscuits!  Since I wanted to use up entire sticks of butter, I made a bigger batch than I would for normal baking.  As I want biscuits often, it’s simple enough to scoop out a cup for 4 biscuits and you have the bonus of having super cold flour and butter to enjoy an even fluffier biscuit.

In a plastic gallon sized bag, I mix up all the dry ingredients by sealing it and giving it a toss.  Cube up sticks of cold butter.  Try to get 1/2 – 1/4″ pieces.  Toss them in the bag and shake to coat in flour.  Now all you have to do is squeeze the bag a little, shaking every few moments.  Do this for about 30 seconds to a minute and you’ll get some varying sizes of butter.  Some will be a bit smaller than a pea, some will be bread crumbs.  You want a variation for nice fluffy biscuits.  The best part of this process is you don’t have messy hands, the butter stays cold and you have enough to make a large batch or just a few.

On the bag, I’ll write how much milk to add to each cup of the flour mixture along with baking time. I store this mixture in the freezer for up to 3 months.  After that, the baking powder seems to lose a bit of strength.  If I have any leftover, I just freshen it up by adding a new batch.

Now that you have biscuit dough on hand, let’s make some nice fluffy biscuits.  I like to make the first part in a small bowl to contain the milk and not stir as much.  The less you handle the mixture, the better the biscuits will be.

Before, I was making hockey pucks. But why?  Surprisingly, it’s much you handle the dough.  The more you fuss with it, the worse and tougher the biscuits become.  That’s why I like to pre-make the flour and butter and freeze it.

Preheat the oven to 450F.  Let it come to temperature before you start the dough as you want these biscuits to be as cold as possible when entering the oven.

After freezing ingredients for quick biscuits, it’s as simple as adding liquid and briefly mixing.  Add cold buttermilk (milk will work in a pinch) to the mixture, give it about 20 seconds to start absorbing and mix with the handle of a mixing spoon until it just starts to come together.

Now just gather the mixture together and squish and squeeze gently.  Flatten it out into a rough rectangle about 1/2″ tall and fold over.  Do this about 4 – 6 times.  This creates layers.  You’ll see the various chunks of butter.  This is desired.  But don’t overwork the dough so stop after 6 turns.

Then gently flatten dough until it’s about 1/2″ tall again and either cut with a biscuit cutter, a cup floured to help it release, or shape a rough circle by hand.  I did all three of these methods for you left to right. Generally, the less you handle or squash the dough, the better height and flakier layers you’ll have. 

You now have the option to brush the tops with the leftover buttermilk in the measuring cup, melted butter or an egg wash.  Generally, I just dip my fingers in the leftover buttermilk and use that.  It gives a gentle golden mottled coloring and looks more homemade to me.  Place on a non-stick surface such as silicone, non stick pan or parchment if it’s rated high enough for the heat.

Bake for 15 – 18 minutes until tops are golden brown.  Check the bottom after 15 to avoid over browning.  Congratulations, you just made biscuits!  Enjoy!