Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder (see notes)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar or honey
- 4 tablespoons butter (chilled)
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk (or milk, half & half, etc.)
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (for shaping biscuits)
- 2 tablespoons butter (melted (for brushing prior to baking))
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 475F.
- Get two 8-inch cake pans. Grease one with butter. Fill the other one with 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour for shaping the biscuits.
- In a mixing bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar (if you’re using honey, see the notes). Mix together lightly with a fork.
- Cut the butter into 8-10 pieces. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the cold butter into the flour. Don’t over mix. When it’s ready it should look a little pebbly with no butter pieces bigger than a big pea.
- Add the buttermilk, folding it in gently until the flour mixture is wet. Again, you don’t want to over mix.
- Don’t panic! This is a very wet dough—that’s how you can make a really soft biscuit using 100% whole wheat flour. The trick is, you don’t roll out this biscuit dough. Instead, take two tablespoons of dough and place it in the cake pan that has flour in it for shaping the biscuits. Drizzle some of the flour on top of the dough, and then gently shape it and place it in the greased pan. Repeat this process until you’ve shaped all the dough and filled the greased pan with 8-10 biscuits. Using a pastry brush, lightly coat the uncooked biscuits with melted butter.
- Place the pan in the oven (just above the center) and bake at 475F for 15-20 minutes. Biscuits are done when golden brown on top.
- Cool the biscuits in the pan for about 2 minutes, then dump out or serve with a small serving spatula.
- Enjoy!
Notes
We recommend using organic ingredients when possible.
I make my own baking powder since so many making baking powders have aluminum in them (in the form of sodium aluminum phosphate and/or aluminum sulfate). It’s very easy to make: two parts cream of tartar and one part baking soda.
If you’re a stickler about using no processed sugar, you can opt for honey instead. I suggest adding it to room temperature buttermilk, then chilling the buttermilk before making the biscuits.
If you’re interested in a nuttier, more flavorful biscuit, I find using ¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour and ¾ cup whole wheat flour works well for the base. Make sure you use whole wheat pastry flour for shaping the biscuits.
If you want an even creamier biscuit, use ¾ cups buttermilk and ½ cup cream or half and half.
Finally, these biscuits freeze well, so feel free to make a double batch. Wrap the extra biscuits individually in foil, and seal in a freezer bag. Then remove a biscuit whenever you need one!
- Category: Bread
