Sourdough Biscuits

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Tender and Fluffy Sourdough Biscuits are so easy and a great way to use up extra starter!

Sourdough Biscuits are a great way to put your sourdough starter to use when you’re not quite up for baking bread! The tang that we know and love from our sourdough bread is a perfect fit for biscuits. It’s very similar in both taste and function to buttermilk and makes beautiful, tender biscuits. These biscuits are awesome for everything from sausage gravy to strawberry shortcakes and are so easy to throw together.

Biscuits really became popular when commercial leavening (baking soda and baking powder) became available. They were a carb that complemented any meal and did not require long rising times. Furthermore, just like today, in certain regions of the country wheat was soft and lacked the necessary protein to make good bread. Gladly, this low protein wheat could be milled into the perfect flour for tender, flaky biscuits.

Having a good biscuit recipe in your repertoire is so important when you’re cooking for your family. Sourdough biscuits can turn the simplest soup into a full meal that will satisfy even the hungriest. They can help to stretch a meal helping you to stay on budget. Cover them with strawberries and cream, and around here we call that dinner. They quickly elevate any breakfast and can cause children to scarf up beef stew. But most importantly, these sourdough biscuits will make people love you.

Gathering your Ingredients

The ingredient list for sourdough biscuits is so simple. We’ll be using all-purpose flour, whatever milk you have on hand, salt, baking powder, butter, and sourdough starter. Feel free to throw in a little whole wheat flour for a heartier biscuit that pairs nicely with stews (I recommend keeping the wheat flour to less than 50% of the total flour amount).

As for the sourdough starter, it does not have to be “active” starter, meaning you do not have to have fed it recently to use it in this recipe. As long as your starter is not too sour smelling, it will work well for this recipe. For me, this means that as long as I have been keeping my starter in the refrigerator and have fed it in the last week, I can use it for sourdough biscuits. After about a week of sitting in the fridge I find my starter a bit too sour for our tastes.

In this sourdough biscuit recipe, the sourdough starter is acting to ferment the grains making them easier for our bellies to digest and adding a pleasant flavor. However, the baking powder is what will give our biscuits a nice lift. Because we are not relying on our sourdough starter to help our biscuits rise, it does not have to be freshly fed.

Sourdough Biscuits Step One

Sourdough biscuits come together in two simple steps. In the first step, we are going to combine our starter with the full amount of flour that we will be using as well as the milk. After that, we will cover and let these three ingredients sit in the refrigerator for 8 hours or up to 24 hours. During this time, the flour will be hydrating and fermenting. I like to throw my ingredients together before I go to bed, let them sit in the fridge overnight, and be ready to finish the biscuits for breakfast the next morning.

During the fermentation process, the flour is broken down in a way that makes it gentler on our bellies. Sometimes people with gluten sensitivity are better able to tolerate flour after it has been fermented. Why is sourdough baking awesome even if we don’t have a sensitivity to gluten? Fermenting grains can make many nutrients more readily available for our bodies to absorb, making the baked goods more nutrient dense. Also, because the flour is “pre-digested” by the sourdough, it is easier for our bodies to process and may cause less inflammation.

Sourdough Biscuits Step Two

After the flour has been sitting for 8 hours, pull the mixture out of the fridge and sprinkle on the baking powder and salt. Take a stick of cold butter and cut it in to 1/4-inch cubes. You want the butter to be in very small pieces so that you can easily and quickly incorporate it into your dough.

Use a pastry cutter or a fork to cut the butter into your dough while simultaneously mixing in the baking powder and salt. It may feel a little odd cutting butter into a wet dough, but just keep going and it will come together nicely! Work quickly because overmixing your dough at this point can lead to tough biscuits. You want the butter to be evenly distributed and in small pieces, no larger than a pea.

When you have incorporated the butter, dump your dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough a couple of times just to make sure it holds together nicely. Pat your sourdough biscuit dough out into a flat disk until it’s about 3/4-inch thick. At this point, use a biscuit cutter or a small mouth canning ring to cut out your biscuits. You will get 7-8 biscuits.

Bake in a 425 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. I always lift the top off of the center biscuit to make sure they are done. You’ll be able to tell when they no longer look doughy inside. Serve sourdough biscuits when they’re piping hot and make sure to set out a jar of strawberry freezer jam. There is not much more satisfying than watching my children eat biscuits fresh out of the oven. Try it for yourself and let me know how it goes!

Great Recipe Ideas to go with Sourdough Biscuits:

Sausage Gravy

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Blackberry Compote

Handy Tools

My Favorite Mixing Bowl

Pastry Cutter

Kitchen Scale

Biscuit Cutters