Whole Wheat Biscuits
There are so many reasons why I love these homemade biscuits. First of all, they are super easy to make and no special equipment (like a rolling pin or biscuit cutter) is needed. It takes no more than 15 or 20 minutes to make them from mixing the dough to pulling them out of the oven. Then once they are done they are moist and flaky and so tasty (c’mon, look at the picture – you know you want one!). And the best part is that they freeze and reheat beautifully (I just throw the frozen biscuits in the toaster oven on the bake setting). So make a big batch, freeze a bunch in a gallon zip lock freezer bag, and then the next time you want to add a biscuit to your breakfast, lunch or dinner they are ready to go. It honestly couldn’t be easier…so go ahead and throw away that refrigerated tube of dough you bought from the grocery store!
Super Easy Whole Wheat Biscuits
This biscuit recipe is so quick and easy - plus it has only 5 ingredients!
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole-wheat flour, or whole-wheat pastry flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons butter, cold, unsalted
- 1 cup milk, any kind
Instructions
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In a medium sized bowl combine the dry ingredients. Mix well with whisk or fork.
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Cut the ½ stick butter into little pea sized pieces and then mix the pieces into the flour mixture.
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Using a fork or pastry blender, try to mash the butter pieces as you mix it together with the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. It is okay if the outcome just looks like the same pea sized pieces of butter covered with flour
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Then pour in the milk and mix it all together. Knead the dough with your hands 8 to 10 times and then turn out onto a floured surface (like a counter or cutting board).
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Pat it out flat with your hands until the dough is a somewhat even ¾-inch thickness (sprinkle with a little flour if necessary).
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Turn a drinking glass upside down and cut out biscuit rounds. I have also used shaped cookie cutters (like a heart or star) if you have little ones helping you!
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Then place biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet or in a cast iron skillet and bake at 450 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
If you like buttermilk biscuits, use buttermilk in place of regular milk.
I was surprised how awesome these turned out! I used buttermilk for the milk. I thought they would turn out dense, but these were fluffy and light. Well, I don’t knead my biscuit dough though. I stir the milk in with a fork, then when a dough forms, I fold it over itself very lightly only 3 or 4 times. I divide the biscuits into equal pieces with a bench scraper, then I hand shape them very gently into rounds. I think that’s the key to any good biscuit….handle them as little as possible so the gluten does not get over worked.
I really enjoyed these. :)
Freeze the butter then grate it. Makes it much easier to mix. Also, can you freeze the raw biscuits, or do you have to bake them first? Just curious. Thanks =)
Hi Wanda. We cook them before freezing.
We can’t do butter. Would an oil work instead?
Hi. Other readers have used coconut oil.
Hi Is whole wheat flour full of gluten like white flour? We’re trying to stay away from gluten because of indigestion problems. Thanks for any advice. jax
Hi Jackie. It is. Here is a post that includes options for gluten free grains: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/06/28/food-allergies/.
This recipe has a very inaccurate measurement of milk. One cup of liquid in a biscuit recipe with 2 cups flour is a disaster. The dough was completely sticky and destroyed.
Thank you Al!! Just made it and holy cow it looks like malt o meal. I’m gonna have a blast trying to fix this mess. Thanks a lot.
Try, it!! The recipe works great!!
I have to agree with this assessment. The dough wasn’t dough at all with those ratios, more like a rather thick batter. There is no possible way to cut biscuits out of something like that. I had to add quite a bit of flour to get it to turn out like a dough, and by that point the butter ratio was way off. What baked up was tasteless discs of disgustingness.
Just to be sure I wasn’t crazy (I bake bread and other stuff regularly but homemade biscuits are a new thing for me) I looked up several other biscuit recipes (whole wheat versions) as well as normal biscuit recipes and the proper ratios of flour/liquid/fat for a biscuit. I was able to confirm that the amount of liquid called for in this recipe is indeed way too much for the amount of flour and butter.
I will give this another shot, using less milk.
The dough was way too gooey, so I kept adding flour until I could knead it, and then had to add some more. They were pretty good. But had to increase to 16 minutes as we live in the mountains with higher altitude.
I usually make drop biscuits because I hate messing with dough and cutters, and the amount of milk called for in this recipe has been perfect for that. Today I used cutters for the first time, so I reduced the milk to 3/4 cup, which worked well.