The best Sour Cream Biscuits

The best sour cream biscuits are sky high with buttery layers and a tender crumb that comes from sour cream.

I started thinking about making a sour cream biscuits recipe because it’s not always easy to find good quality buttermilk. That being said, it’s SO easy to find good sour cream. While the cultures used to make sour cream and the viscosity is a little different, sour cream still functions to tenderize the biscuits.

You can make these with 100% unbleached all-purpose flour or a combo of whole wheat pastry flour (or fresh milled soft wheat) and all-purpose. I personally love the fresh-milled sour cream biscuits the best as you get a little extra flavor from the wheat. The softness of the wheat also makes for a light biscuit that is so stinking good with jam.

this …

Sour Cream Biscuits

Why sour cream just might beat buttermilk in a biscuits showdown

1. Sour cream is easier to buy: I’ve taken to culturing my own buttermilk because I’ve noticed that far too many commercial buttermilks have thickening additives or other additives. In contrast, commercial sour creams are all generally good and consistently so. Daisy sour cream has listed ingredients of: cultured cream.
2. Added fat is more flavor: It’s virtually impossible to find whole milk buttermilk unless you culture buttermilk at home. With sour cream, you get the full fat cultured cream, giving you a richer biscuit.
3. I can ALWAYS use sour cream: Maybe you’re like me and that quart of buttermilk you bought for a cake lingers a little too long in the fridge. By the time you get to it after using 1/2 cup, it’s well past its prime and into the trash she goes. My kids will eat sour cream straight. I actually have to HIDE sour cream so that I have enough for my recipes.

Skip the box grater for a food processor for making biscuits

I know a lot of people use a box grater to grate frozen butter for their biscuits. Me? I’m both lazy and hate grating frozen butter. By the time the butter is grated, my hands are cold, greasy, and the butter is far too warm from the effort of me trying to force it through the grater.

Instead I use the cheese grater attachment for my food processor. I use this attachment probably more than I use the food processor I love it so much. Not only does it grate cheese way faster than by hand, it makes easy work of cold cold butter.

Speed matters when you make biscuits: the butter in biscuits needs to be cold and remain so to help create the layers (see the next section) that make flaky puffy biscuits. The food processor makes quick work of this!

Laminating the dough is the secret to sky high biscuits

I used to make FLAT sad biscuits. Nothing I tried really helped me out until I learned how to make puff pastry.

With puff pastry, you create layers by folding butter encased in dough back on itself in opposite directions multiple times. As it bakes, the butter melts, creating steam that “puffs” the dough.

With a pretty high butter content of cold butter, a biscuit is not that different that puff pastry; biscuits are just made quickly without the additional chilling you do for puff pastry.

To make the best biscuits, first roll or pat out the dough into a rectangle. After that, fold the dough back onto itself like a letter. Turn the dough 90 degrees and repeat patting out the dough and folding it, then repeat again (3 “turns” total). When you do this, you’ll distribute that butter into more layers, making a biscuit that will raise no matter how thinly you cut them.

How to make fresh-milled biscuits

Traditionally in the American South, softer wheat varieties have been used for biscuits. This gives you a super soft, tender biscuit. You can mimic this at home by freshly milling soft wheat berries (learn how to mill your own flour) and mixing that with all-purpose flour. The lower gluten content in the mix will help you get that soft, tender biscuit with the added nutrition of whole wheat.

Extra tips for the best biscuits

1. Cut them square: I know a lot of people love round biscuits. If you do, make sure you press straight down to cut through the dough. If you twist the cutter at all, it will seal the edges, so the biscuits will not rise as high in the oven. I prefer square biscuits as you won’t have to reroll anything.
2. Brush the tops with milk: A little milk brushed on top helps with browning and makes a nice simple glaze. It won’t be shiny like an egg glaze, but it’ll still make a pretty biscuit.
3. Cut as many as you’d like: The recipe is for 6 extra large biscuits you could use for sandwiches, but feel free to roll them a little thinner or cut them smaller for a side bread to go with soup. I often make 9 from this recipe by patting them just a hair thinner.

What to serve with your sour cream biscuits

• Raspberry jam
• Homemade blueberry jam
• Apple butter
• Easy plum jam
• Vanilla cashew butter (or pistachio butter)

Print