Your biscuit’s rise depends entirely on steam. And steam needs little pockets of cold fat to explode in the heat of the oven. If you handled that dough with warm hands, you melted the butter before it even hit the pan.
Here’s the hard truth: those small, pea-sized pieces of butter aren’t just for flavor. They are the tiny steam engines that lift the flour. Mash them into paste, and you’ve basically greased the wheels of a train that never leaves the station.
Next time, freeze your butter for ten minutes. Then grate it into the flour. Trust me, your future biscuits will thank you.
The Kneading Trap (A Fan of Overworking)
You probably think kneading dough makes everything better, like in bread recipes. Stop right there. Biscuits are not bread. They are fragile little snowflakes that hate drama.
Every time you fold and press, you’re developing gluten. Gluten is great for a chewy bagel, but it’s the enemy of a flaky, tall biscuit. Treat the dough like a grumpy toddler—gentle pats, a soft hug, then into the oven before it throws a tantrum.
I once kneaded a batch for a full two minutes because I was on the phone. The result? Floor tiles. Don’t be me.
