Buttery Flaky Sourdough Biscuits From Scratch

The Most Delicious Buttery Sourdough Biscuits

After you try these sourdough 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.

These sourdough biscuits are 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.

The best texture is achieved by baking these biscuits immediately. However, you can also long-ferment them.

If you want to, you can make the recipe, cut out the biscuits, 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 plan to make them weekly with all the starter I don’t use to make my sourdough bagels and boules.

Can You Freeze Sourdough 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 Biscuits with Discard

These biscuits’ delicious flavor comes from sour and tangy sourdough starter. You can use fresh or active sourdough starter. Either way it’s “discarded” into the recipe since the starter is not used for rise.

For the biscuits to 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.

Sourdough Discard

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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.

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• Prep: 30 minutes
• Cook: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 50 minutes

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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

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
2. 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.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Mix with a fork until evenly combined.
5. Grate butter using the large holes of a cheese grater.
6. Add the cold grated butter into the flour mixture.
7. Add the milk, cream, and starter mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a spatula until a soft dough forms.
8. 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.
9. Lightly flour your counter, and using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a thick rectangle.
10. Cut out 8 rounds using a 2-inch biscuit or cookie cutter or the mouth of a mason jar.
11. 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.
12. Serve warm with butter and jam.

Notes

• Active and bubbly starter works best in this recipe, but you can also use discard. (either way it’s considered “discarded” into the recipe because the starter is no used for rise)
• For a long ferment: make the recipe, cut out the biscuits, place them on a baking sheet, and stick them in the fridge for 24-48 hours before baking them.
• when you measure your flour, spoon the flour into the measuring cup; do not pack the cup with flour.

Kaitlynn Fenley Author, Educator, Food Microbiologist

Kaitlynn is a food microbiologist and fermentation expert teaching people how to ferment foods and drinks at home.

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