Fresh Milled Buttermilk Biscuits
Fresh milled buttermilk biscuits use cold butter, cold buttermilk, and a fold-and-stack technique to create flaky whole-grain biscuits with proper layered rise.
Key Takeaways
- Everything cold: butter frozen and grated, buttermilk straight from the fridge.
- Mill on the finest setting and don\u2019t overwork the dough.
- Use the fold-and-stack technique three times for visible layers.
- Cut straight down with a sharp cutter — twisting seals the edges and stops the rise.
About this recipe
Flaky, fresh-milled buttermilk biscuits with crisp tops and tender layers. Yields 9 biscuits. Prep 15 min, bake 15 min, ready in 30 min.
Prep: 15 min
Bake: 15 min
Ingredients
- freshly milled hard white wheat flour300 g (about 2 1/2 cups)
- baking powder12 g (1 Tbsp)
- baking soda3 g (1/2 tsp)
- granulated sugar12 g (1 Tbsp)
- fine sea salt5 g (3/4 tsp)
- unsalted butter, frozen115 g (1 stick)
- cold buttermilk240 g (1 cup)
- melted butter for tops15 g (1 Tbsp)
Instructions
- 1
Heat oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a sheet pan with parchment.
- 2
Mill the wheat on the finest setting. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt.
- 3
Grate the frozen butter into the flour on the large holes of a box grater. Toss to coat. Don’t rub it in.
- 4
Pour in the cold buttermilk and stir with a fork until just combined — the dough should look shaggy, not smooth.
- 5
Turn out onto a lightly floured counter. Pat into a rough 8-inch rectangle. Fold in thirds like a letter, rotate 90°, and pat out again. Repeat the fold and pat two more times (3 folds total).
- 6
Pat to about 1-inch thick. Cut 9 biscuits with a sharp 2 1/2-inch cutter — press straight down, do not twist.
- 7
Place close together on the sheet so the sides touch — they’ll push each other up. Brush tops with melted butter.
- 8
Bake 14–16 minutes until tops are deep golden and biscuits read 200°F internal. Cool 5 minutes. Best the day they’re baked; freeze unbaked biscuits and bake straight from frozen, adding 4 minutes.
new to fresh-milled flour? start here — hydration, gluten development, and grain choice tips that make this recipe work.
Related Content
Recommended Grains
Related Techniques
How to Sift Fresh Milled Flour
Pass freshly milled flour through a 50 or 60 mesh sieve. Reserve the bran for porridge or rebake it in.
How to Increase Hydration Successfully
Raise water in 5% increments, autolyse longer, and lean on stretch and folds instead of kneading.
Related Troubleshooting
Why is my fresh milled bread dense?
Loaves baked with fresh milled flour come out heavy, tight, and barely risen instead of light and airy.
Why is my crumb too tight and dense?
Bread with a uniformly tight, small-holed crumb rather than the open, airy structure you wanted.
How much water do I add to fresh milled flour?
Bakers new to fresh milled flour struggle to translate commercial-flour hydration to whole-grain dough.