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My family loves when I make these easy homemade biscuits – and the secret ingredient in this recipe is… 7Up!
Homemade Biscuits Recipe
I found these super delicious homemade biscuits while scrolling through Pinterest years ago, and knew my little crew would love them. I was right – they sure did!
My husband took one bite and was hooked . . . but when I asked him what the secret ingredient he replied “ummmm . . . butter?”
Well yes… definitely some butter went into these 😉 But you'd never guess that the secret ingredient is 7-Up! (It's also a cool science experiment to let your kiddos watch as the 7-Up gets all foamy while you mix!)
How to Make Homemade Biscuits from Scratch using 7 up
There are loads and loads of great biscuit recipes out there that will yield more traditional biscuits. One of my all time favorites is Margaret Anne's Biscuits (which are the type you'll eat with sausage gravy… YUM!)
These 7 up biscuits are a little different but still SO good. I've found these to be some of the easiest homemade biscuits I've ever made – which makes them great for beginner chefs!
Not to mention only 3 ingredients go into the dough.
They come out incredibly soft and fluffy every time – and you can make a huge batch in a jiffy. Serve these biscuits up with some slow cooker chicken noodle soup or a super yummy slow cooker pot roast!
When the biscuit bakes, the butter will melt, releasing steam and creating pockets of air. This makes the biscuits airy and flaky on the inside. We default to our Land O Lakes® Salted Butter when baking biscuits.
The principal ingredients of biscuit dough are soft wheat flour, sugar, fat, and water. They are mixed with other minor ingredients (such as baking powder, skimmed milk, emulsifier, and sodium metabisulphite) to form dough containing a well- developed gluten network.
The basic formula is as follows: 2 cups AP flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 6 tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup milk—and the add-in(s) of your choice. I'm giving you two savory options. The red is a sun-dried tomato and cheddar biscuit with paprika and a touch of cayenne.
As it turns out, adding hard-boiled egg yolks to your biscuit dough is a way to ward off an overworked, tough dough that can be the downfall of a butter-based pastry. When the trick is employed, the pastry shatters and then dissolves in your mouth quickly, tasting like a knob of flaky butter.
As the biscuits rise, the carbon dioxide gas expands, creating pressure on the dough. This pressure can cause the dough to collapse without proper support. Cream of Tartar helps stabilize the dough structure, ensuring the biscuits maintain their shape and rise uniformly.
Just as important as the fat is the liquid used to make your biscuits. Our Buttermilk Biscuit recipe offers the choice of using milk or buttermilk. Buttermilk is known for making biscuits tender and adding a zippy tang, so we used that for this test.
Fat is essential for the lightest and fluffiest biscuits! Butter adds more flavor, but shortening makes the biscuits more tender because it doesn't contain water or milk solids. The fat must be cold.
Butter that's straight from the fridge doesn't get fully incorporated into a batter; instead it gets broken down into small pieces throughout your dough. Since butter is about 18 percent water, steam is released in those pockets during baking, which helps create flaky layers.
Your cakes and biscuits will have a slightly finer texture when using caster sugar while if you use granulated sugar, your cakes will have a slightly coarser texture and your biscuits will be more crunchy.
Because biscuit recipes call for so few ingredients, it's important that every one is high quality—you'll really taste the difference. Catherine recommends splurging a bit on a grass-fed butter or European-style butter (now's the time to reach for Kerrygold!).
Sugar gives sweetness, but it is also important in developing the texture of the biscuit. Dissolved sugar tends to inhibit starch gelatinisation and gluten formation and creates a biscuit with a more tender texture. Undissolved sugar crystals give a crunchy, crisp texture.
The secret to excellent biscuits is COLD BUTTER. Really cold. Many times the biscuit dough gets worked so much that the butter softens before the biscuits even go in the oven. Try cutting the butter into small pieces and stick back in the fridge pulling out only when ready to incorporate into the dough.
Heavy cream provides rich butterfat that gives the biscuits tenderness and flavor, as well as moisture from its water content. The formula requires minimal mixing, reducing the risk of too much gluten development.
Because biscuit recipes call for so few ingredients, it's important that every one is high quality—you'll really taste the difference. Catherine recommends splurging a bit on a grass-fed butter or European-style butter (now's the time to reach for Kerrygold!).
But if you chill your pan of biscuits in the fridge before baking, not only will the gluten relax (yielding more tender biscuits), the butter will harden up. And the longer it takes the butter to melt as the biscuits bake, the more chance they have to rise high and maintain their shape. So, chill... and chill.
While biscuits receive some leavening power from chemical sources — baking powder and baking soda — the difference between serviceable and greatness comes from the extra rise that steam provides. In order to generate steam, the oven must be set at a minimum of 425 degrees for at least 10 minutes prior to baking.
When baking buttery treats like biscuits, the key is to bake them at a temperature where the water in the butter turns quickly to steam. This steam is a big part of how the biscuits achieve their height, as it evaporates up and out.
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