Use up some of that sourdough starter discard in these buttery, flaky, delicious sourdough biscuits! Packed with flavor from your tangy sourdough starter, these ultimate flaky buttermilk biscuits are the best you’ll ever have.
The Most Delicious Buttery Biscuit
After you try these sourdough discard biscuits, they’re the only biscuits you’ll ever want! I love eating them as little breakfast sandwiches with eggs, prosciutto, sauerkraut, and baby kale.
They’re also excellent served with cheese grits, braised chickpeas, or soup.
Easy Sourdough Biscuits
These biscuits are simple to make, and you only need about 30 minutes of prep time while your oven preheats to make them.
This is a sourdough starter discard recipe, so there is no long rise time or stretch and folds. You mix the dough, cut, and immediately bake.
You get the best texture if you bake these biscuits immediately. You do have the option of long fermenting the biscuits, though.
If you want to, you can make the recipe, cut out the biscuits then place them on a baking sheet and stick them in the fridge for 24-48 hours before baking them. The long fermentation in the fridge develops the flavor and makes them easier to digest.
Jon loved these biscuits so much, so I’m planning to make them weekly with all the starter I don’t use to make my sourdough bagels and boules.
Can You Freeze Biscuit Dough?
Yes! You can make them the night before and freeze the raw biscuits.
In the morning, preheat your oven, and they can go right into the oven still frozen. I like to make a double batch of this recipe so I can have homemade biscuits always ready to serve.
Ultimate Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
Buttermilk biscuits are usually made with, well, buttermilk. Since we are using sourdough starter in this recipe, the starter provides enough acidity for the biscuits to rise and cook properly.
I wanted a flakier buttery biscuit, so I used cream and milk instead of buttermilk. In the recipe, you’ll whisk the cream, milk, and sourdough starter together and let it sit for a bit, so it essentially has the sour flavor of buttermilk while being thicker and creamier.
How to Make Sourdough Discard Biscuits
These biscuits’ delicious flavor comes from butter and tangy sourdough starter. Make sure the discard you are using is fresh and not too old. You’re supposed to feed your starter every 24 hours, so your discard should never be older than 24 hours.
For the biscuits to rise and be perfectly flaky, you must follow all the ingredients and instructions exactly. Please make sure you use fresh baking soda, too; it’s essential for the texture.
I also want to note the importance of using frozen real butter, and my favorite butter is Maple Hill Organic 100% grass-fed butter.
You can use a biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits, but I use a mason jar or juice glass to cut them out, and it worked great.
Another option is to cut the dough into square biscuits so you won’t have any of those not-so-perfect, re-rolled from scraps biscuits.
Buttery Flaky Sourdough Biscuits From Scratch
Use up some of that sourdough starter discard in these buttery, flaky, delicious sourdough biscuits! Packed with flavor from your tangy sourdough starter, these ultimate flaky buttermilk biscuits are the best you’ll ever have.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 biscuits
- Category: Sourdough
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, frozen overnight
- 1 cup active bubbly sourdough starter
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together sourdough starter, cream, and milk until just combined. Let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes while you prepare everything else.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Mix with a fork until evenly combined.
- Grate butter using the large holes of a cheese grater.
- Add the cold grated butter into the flour mixture.
- Add the milk, cream, and starter mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a spatula until a soft dough forms.
- In the bowl, knead the dough 2-3 times until it comes together. Don’t knead it too much, but make sure there are no really dry areas and the dough is all stuck together in one piece.
- Lightly flour your counter, and using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a thick rectangle.
- Cut out 8 rounds using a 2-inch biscuit or cookie cutter or the mouth of a mason jar.
- Place biscuits onto the prepared baking sheet. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. I rotate the pan halfway through for even color.
- Serve warm with butter and jam.
Notes
- your starter should be wet (100% hydration), active and bubbly
- when you measure your flour, spoon the flour into the measuring cup; do not pack the cup with flour.
Keywords: sourdough, biscuits, discard
18 comments
I decided to make these on a whim last Sunday afternoon. It was so easy, fast, and delicious! Usually sourdough recipes take a while to rise but this was not like that. I slathered them with honey and butter and devoured 3 immediately 😅 The recipe says to use “discard” but I just use my regularly fed starter. I also used salted butter but I love bread with a little extra salt.
Thanks again!
★★★★★
This recipe made all my Sourdough biscuit dreams come true ha ha! Prepared them the night before, stored them in the fridge overnight, then popped them in the oven for breakfast. They were delicious and so so easy!
★★★★★
So good!! I made these to have with chili for dinner the other night, they were fantastic. Really an easy recipe to follow, and such great flavor. Definitely will be a staple recipe for me going forward.
★★★★★
My house loves breakfast food, seriously LOVES. So I have tried a lot of biscuit recipes. This is easily my favorite. It’s my new go to for biscuits.
★★★★★
I’ve tried lots of biscuit recipes over the past few years trying to find my go to. This is it!!! They’re perfect. Thanks for the amazing recipe!
★★★★★
Hi! New to sourdough and I have a recipe question! The description of this recipe says to use the discard, but on the ingredients it says to use active, bubbly sourdough starter. Are they interchangeable in this recipe? Thanks!
You can use an active starter or starter from the fridge. “Discard” just means that the starter isn’t necessary for the dough to rise, so you can “discard” some starter into the dough.
These biscuits were perfect in every way – flaky, moist, perfect sourdough flavour. So easy and turned out perfectly. Will be making these over and over! (Note: I used my “older” discard that I store in the fridge and these still turned out wonderfully.)
★★★★★
I’m so glad you enjoyed the biscuits!
I am not able to have dairy, do you think it will go terribly awry if I try to use vegan butter? The butter has held up well in many other recipes, although it is a bit sticky, but I haven’t tried freezing it before!
I haven’t tested the recipe with vegan butter, so I can’t say for sure. I think something like Miyoko’s brand vegan butter might work!
Back to report that I made these with the Natural Grocer’s brand buttery vegan sticks, and they are FANTASTIC! I will be making these regularly!
But I do have a troubleshooting question (or two!) – I did a fridge ferment for about 17 hours (we have gluten sensitivities in the home so I opt to long ferment), but they didn’t rise at all, and they didn’t have the typical sour tang to them at all. 🤔
I used a healthy, strong starter that had been fed about 18 hours prior. I did fold the dough over 2x because we love to pull the layers apart, but maybe that contributed to them not rising?
I refrigerated them immediately after cutting. Should I maybe let them ferment on the counter for a time before refrigerating? Or longer time in the fridge? Any other tips? They really are absolutely delicious but since we try to keep gluten as low as possible, I want to make sure they’re actually fermented…maybe they were and just didn’t taste like it for some reason…I’d love your to hear your thoughts!
Thank you for your time!
★★★★★
The flavors aren’t going to develop much in the fridge, and I’m assuming you mean they didn’t rise while fermenting in the fridge? Dough of any kind won’t rise at refrigeration temperatures. Biscuit dough is not supposed to rise with yeast anyways; biscuits rise when baking, from the baking powder and baking soda. You shouldn’t ferment them at room temperature. if you do the baking soda and baking powder will become inactive and they will not rise in the oven at all.
Yes, I meant that they didn’t rise while doing the long ferment in the fridge. I’ve never made anything that didn’t develop the sour flavor while fermenting, so in my mind I was equating rising with fermenting – and when it didn’t rise AND then also didn’t have the typical flavor, I wondered if it somehow didn’t ferment.
I’ve made fermented biscuits before, but used a recipe where the dough was mixed up first, fermented overnight on the counter, and then added the baking soda, baking powder, and salt the next day.
Thank you for taking the time to reply and explain! 💚
I wanted to send a tip for your butter substitution: lard. I buy lard from my local butcher. It makes wonderful biscuits and even cookies.
Thank you! That’s a great idea. Appreciate the tip! 💚
Made these biscuits, and placed them on top of Shepherd’s Pie instead of mashed potatoes. Fantastic!
I love this recipe! Follow it exactly how it’s written and you will get the most delicious, flaky, perfect sourdough biscuits. But I also love that it’s a pretty forgiving recipe as well. Forgot to freeze your butter overnight? Shred it, pop it in the freezer while you prep everything else and you’ll still have delicious biscuits. Looking to use this morning’s discard rather than freshly fed starter? Again, still delicious biscuits. Definitely follow the recipe as written as much as possible but if you need to make a couple little tweaks, give it a try. These biscuits are amazing!
★★★★★