Cast Iron Biscuits

Bak­ing your bis­cuits in cast iron—it’s the ONLY way to bis­cuit! Mouth-water­ing, deli­cious, handmade—if your grand­moth­er or moth­er nev­er made these you don’t know what you’re missing!

  • Ingre­di­ents!
  • 2 cups all-pur­pose flour
  • 5 tsp. bak­ing powder
  • 1⁄4 tsp. bak­ing soda
  • 1 tbsp. sugar
  • 1 tsp. fine sea salt
  • 6 tbsp. cold but­ter, cubed
  • 3⁄4 cup + 2 tbsp. whole milk or but­ter­milk
  • Tools!
  • Bis­cuit cutter
  • 10- to 12-inch cast-iron skil­let: option­al but high­ly rec­om­mend­ed. A cook­ie sheet or casse­role dish will work too
  • Large food proces­sor: also not required; just makes it easier

Directions

The secret to the best bis­cuits, along with pie dough or oth­er pas­try doughs is this: cold but­ter. Sssh—it’s a secret, just between us. 

Pre­heat oven to 425° F. In a large bowl or food proces­sor, com­bine flour, bak­ing pow­der, bak­ing soda, sug­ar, and salt. Whisk or pulse three to four times until it’s thor­ough­ly mixed.

Cut the cold but­ter into cubes or thin slices, then scat­ter it over the flour in the food proces­sor. Pulse 5 to 7 times or until the but­ter turns into tiny bits. Trans­fer to a large bowl.

Option:

If you’re not using a food proces­sor whisk the dry ingre­di­ents in a large bowl, then use your hands or a pas­try cut­ter to cut the but­ter into the flour until crumbly. If your but­ter is soft­en­ing too much or your kitchen is warm, place the bowl with flour and but­ter into the fridge for 5 to 10 minutes.

Once your but­ter is added and bro­ken up, or you’ve done it with the food proces­sor, and added it to the large bowl ake a well in the mid­dle, and then pour in the milk (or but­ter­milk). Stir until a shag­gy dough forms.

Trans­fer the dough onto a light­ly floured work sur­face. Sprin­kle a lit­tle flour on top, and then bring the dough togeth­er with your hands. It might be a bit sticky, so add flour as needed.

With­out work­ing the dough too much, pat it down into a rec­tan­gle about 3⁄4 inch thick. Fold the dough into thirds, like a let­ter. Rotate the rec­tan­gle 90 degrees, then repeat this process two more times. Work the dough as lit­tle as pos­si­ble; if you work it too much the bis­cuits will be tough instead of ten­der and flaky.

With a bis­cuit cut­ter, cut out 2 1⁄2 to 3 inch bis­cuits. Don’t rotate the cut­ter or what­ev­er you’re using; that will seal the edges and the bis­cuits won’t rise.

Put your bis­cuits in a cast iron skil­let or casse­role dish. You want the bis­cuits to touch each other.

Form anoth­er bis­cuit or two by rolling the left­over pieces togeth­er; again, work the dough as lit­tle as possible.

Bake at 425° F. for 10–15 min­utes, or until the bis­cuits have risen and are gold­en brown on top. 

Yields 6–8 biscuits.