If you like high rising biscuits with a little whole wheat flour and a touch of sweetness, try Sky-High Biscuits. The recipe is from a card I found in my mother's old book of recipe clippings. It calls for 4 ½ teaspoons of baking powder plus ¾ teaspoon of cream of tartar to give the biscuits some real lift! In addition to those leavening agents, there's an egg. The results are soft, high-rising biscuits with extra flavor from the wheat.
Jump to Recipe
Can You Taste The Baking Powder?
I've always been able to taste baking powder in recipes. Sometimes it bothered me, sometimes it didn't. Now that I'm older, I don't taste the bitterness as much, but one thing I learned when I was more sensitive was that Rumford non-aluminum has less of a metallic flavor. It's what I used in these biscuits. Recently, I've been using a lot of cream of tartar in recipes and maybe it's my imagination but it seems to help neutralize baking powder flavor even more. I'll have to put it in a recipe with a different brand of baking powder to really see if that's true.
Sky-High Biscuit Dough
This dough is quite easy to work with, though on the softer side so you'll need to flour your mat well. The recipe makes a lot of dough. If you want half the amount, just halve everything and use 2 tablespoons of egg. You can make the biscuits as small as 1-inch or up to 3-inches wide. I've only tested these as 1 and 2-inch biscuits, but next time I'll make them giant and report back. It's berry season, so I'll probably use these for Sky-High Biscuit Strawberry Shortcake.
Sideways Biscuits
"Sideways Biscuit" sounds like a Reddit screen name, but it's what happens if you don't put your Sky-High Biscuit dough pieces close enough in the skillet. Arrange the dough rounds so that they just barely touch so that they'll rise high and support each other. The one in the photo is an example of what not to do. I think the fact that they are whole wheat biscuits is what caused this one to lean so much. They need help from their friends to stand tall.
Recipe
Sky-High Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for the board (260 grams)
- 1 cup cup whole wheat flour (130 grams)
- 4 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 2 tablespoons sugar (25 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon salt (reduce to ½ if using salted butter)
- 1 stick unsalted butter, cold plus more for buttering your pan. (114 grams)
- 1 large egg (60 grams)
- 1 cup milk (not buttermilk) (70 grams)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Have ready a greased 10-inch cast iron skillet or a 9-inch square pan. If making a half batch, you can use a 6-inch skillet.
- Whisk together both flours, baking powder, sugar, salt and cream of tartar.
- Add the butter by cutting it in with a pastry cutter or cutting in to small chunks and using your fingers to work it into a coarse meal.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. Add gradually (though you'll probably use it all) stirring until you have a soft dough.
- Turn the dough onto a floured work surface. Pat it down and fold it over on itself a few times, then shape into a 1 inch thick slab. Cut into 2 inch rounds (or any size in between) and arrange rounds in your prepared pan.
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until tops are brown. If you want the tops to be more brown, you can brush them with cream or melted butter.
Sue says
Those are great looking biscuits! I totally agree about Rumford baking powder. It’s the only baking powder I use because I can taste the others.
Now to come up with a reason to make these!