Fresh Milled Whole Wheat Biscuits

These biscuits are super easy to make and nutritious! They take me 20 minutes from start to finish–making them a perfect addition to a quick from scratch dinner, or a delicious and quickly made breakfast.

The process:

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture. (I like to use a cheese grater.) You can even grate the butter beforehand, and allow it to chill again in the fridge to ensure it is extra cold. Although, I have had good success just grating it straight into the bowl. Add your milk to the flour and butter mixture and mix by hand until it becomes a shaggy dough. 

Next, ensure that all the ingredients are fully incorporated, and then turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and gently press the dough to spread it out evenly. It should be about ½ inch thick. Use a cookie cutter (or the equivalent; I use the top of a plastic cup), to cut circles out of the dough. DO NOT twist the cutter as this will create a seal around the edges of the biscuit and prevent a good rise in the oven.  

Place biscuits onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for about 10-12 minutes. Then remove from the oven, cool, and enjoy! 

It’s as easy as it sounds!

For the Visual Learner:

Troubleshooting:

The trick with biscuits is to handle them as little as possible. The dough does not have to be kneaded. Just mix by hand until everything is fully incorporated. When preparing to cut out the biscuits, don’t roll the dough flat, but instead gently press it flat on a well-floured surface. Handling the dough too much will prevent a good rise, and cause the biscuits to come out dense. 

Secondly, keep the dough pretty thick when you press it flat. About a ½ to 1 inch thick seems to work well for me, this will help your biscuits to come out taller and fluffier after baking. If they are thinner than this, then even with a decent rise in the oven, they likely won’t be as thick as most people like. 

The Flour:

This recipe is specifically for fresh milled whole wheat flour. I most often use hard red wheat which traditionally is not commonly used for biscuits, but they have come out delicious and hearty every time for me! (Except for the time I forgot to add the baking powder…but we won’t talk about that!) If using a different type of flour, you may find that you want to adjust the ratios of the flour to the liquid slightly. However, I have followed this exact recipe with store bought hard red whole wheat flour, Spelt flour, and hard white flour, and they each have come out great!

I measure with measuring cups because it is quick, and it is what I have accessible. However, if you want to be sure that you are getting consistent results, I included weight measurements. For fresh milled recipes, you may find that weighing your ingredients produces better results, since the consistency at which you mill your flour may not be the same as the recipe you are following. Don’t let this scare you! I baked with fresh-milled flour for months before using a scale, and I got great results that my family loved!

The Recipe:

If you tried this recipe let me know how it turned out and follow along for more whole wheat and fresh milled flour friendly recipes!