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Biscuit Bonanza!

Brian Staffield

We decided to get creative and scientific with this post. Using the same recipe for each of the biscuits and only changing the flour resulted in a range of differing flavors. 


Except there was one problem.

I made a huge mistake. 

Before we go any further I want to be honest with you, beloved follower of this once great food blog. The reasons my biscuits look like hockey pucks is that I read "teaspoon" instead of "Tablespoon" under baking powder in my biscuit recipe. I'm only human, I make mistakes and I'm willingly posting this on the internet; commenters go ahead and have a field day with this one.


Though the "biscuits" turned out more like shortbread, it was still interesting to see how using different flour changed the end results. I give a quick review of each flour below.



Buttermilk Biscuits (half batch) 

(adapted from America Test Kitchen's Buttermilk Biscuit recipe)
  • 1 1/4 cup Flour
  • 1/2 Tablespoon Baking Powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 Tablespoon Shortening
  • 4 Tablespoons Cold Butter
    • 1 Tablespoon Butter melted
  • 5/8 cups Buttermilk
  1. In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  2. Cut the butter into some cubes about 1cm in length. Mix the butter and shortening into the flour mixture with your fingertips and make nickel sized butter/shortening patties. Once all the butter is incorporated with the flour, chill the bowl for 15 minutes in the freezer.
  3. While the mixture is cooling, preheat the oven to 400°. Then add the buttermilk to the chilled flour mixture and stir just enough to get everything wet. Spread some flour out on a clean counter to roll out your dough. Be sure to fold the dough over itself several times to ensure a flaky texture once baked.
  4. Use a glass to cut out your biscuits. Once the biscuit cutouts are in the baking pan, brush the melted butter over the top to create a golden brown color while baking.
  5. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. 

All-Purpose Flour

Resulted in a good ol' fashioned biscuit, just remember to add enough baking powder.


Rice Flour

The end result was a biscuit that sort of tasted like those puffed rice cakes you eat right before swimsuit season to trick yourself into thinking you're losing weight. Definitely needs other flavors to accompany it.


Rye Flour

The rye ryesulted in the most flavorful of all the biscuits of all the flours we tried. Ideally I would top these biscuits with a sage sausage gravy.


Spelt Flour

For those who don't know what spelt is here is wikipedia to save the day, just like it saved all your college essays. These biscuits just seemed like whole wheat biscuits to me.


Barley Flour

These biscuits were barley different than regular biscuits. These would be good served with some blueberry jam and some cream cheese.


Soy Flour

0/10 Would only serve to orphans. The flour itself tasted like fresh green beans and the dough was so sticky that we could only make drop biscuits with it.


Semolina Flour

Semolina flour is usually used in pasta making, because of its high gluten content. The biscuits this flour produced were similar to corn bread, but have enough gluten in them to make your one weird gluten-intolerant cousin get really itchy.


No matter how your biscuits turn out you can still turn them into a delicious breakfast biscuit sandwich. I made this one with a sausage patty, Tillamook white cheddar, green onions, and a fried egg. Just remember in life, sometimes your biscuits don't turn out how you would like them to, but you can still create something delicious with them! Enjoy!


Oh you're wondering about all these amazing biscuit photos? They were taken by the super-talented Katy Weaver