I ♥ layered, flakey, buttery biscuits. I mean, I like all kinds of breads (who doesn’t?!), but there will always be a special place in my heart for flakey pastries and biscuits. There is just something special about peeling off layers and popping them in your mouth. If you share my affinity for layered biscuits and are on the hunt for a low sodium recipe, read on!
For starters, do you use “flakey” or “flaky”? I usually use flaky, but I decided to go against my own grain for this post and use flakey. The dictionary doesn’t differentiate between the two, so I never know what to use. I am not sure that I like the extra “e” a whole lot, but c’est la vie.
Okay back to biscuits. We are always on the lookout for quick breads to pair with soups that need something a little extra special. (Hint: they go great with the Roasted Red Pepper Soup.). Because quick bread tend to use salt and high-sodium rising agents (like baking powder and baking soda), they don’t always translate well to a low sodium version. I also got a request on Facebook for a good biscuit recipe. I sure hope this recipe fits the bill. (My 13 year old stepdaughter has given them her stamp of approval, even without the salt. Granted she pours honey over the top, but I still consider it a win.)
I have some tips for making these the best and flakiest biscuits that they can be. Because I like lists , I am going into list mode here. (Intermission – my husband and I periodically send each other little lists along the lines of “why you are awesome” because lists just scream romance, don’t they? We also occasionally use limericks to communicate so maybe I’ll blog a limerick one day.)
Tips, Tips, Tips
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Use cold butter
Cold fat is absolutely essential to creating nice layers. As the biscuits bake, the butter releases steam which separates the layers. If the butter is soft, it will fully incorporate into the dough and you will not get the steam-made layers.
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Do not overwork the dough
You want the butter to be sort of chunky in the dough. If it fully incorporates into the dough, you guessed it – no layers.
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Keep the dough cold
If you are not going to use the dough immediately, keep it refrigerated so that the butter in the dough stays cold. It is okay to refrigerate the dough for a while before you roll it out – just don’t let it get to room temp or you risk losing the layers.
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Roll the dough, fold it in thirds, repeat
To create the layers, you will roll out the dough, fold it over onto itself and repeat several times. I have a series of photos after the recipe showing exactly what I mean by this. It is not difficult, I promise. But it is very important; the folding and rolling is what creates the lamination (lovely, lovely layers).
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Make clean cuts
Do not use a blunt biscuit butter, because this will press the edges down and seal them. If the edges are sealed, your biscuits won’t be able to rise. Likewise, do not twist the biscuit cutter. You want to use a sharp-edged cutter and press it straight down.
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Use a light-colored pan
I use a light colored pan (similar to this pan), or parchment paper to help guard the bottoms from burning. Biscuits rise best in very hot (and pre-heated!) ovens, but I have trouble getting the tops of my biscuits browned before the bottoms get too dark. To solve this, I use a light colored pan or I line a pan with parchment or a silicon baking mat. You will see from my photos that I used parchment paper and a light colored pan, but the parchment paper was not really necessary. If I had used a darker pan, the parchment paper absolutely would have been necessary.
I know that looks like a lot of instructions, but none are too complex and all are essential to good biscuits. If you have other methods or tips that work for you, drop me a comment below! I love learning new things. Also, remember that I put lots of photos after the recipe to give you a visual of the process for making these biscuits. Bake on!
Buttery Flakey Biscuits
SODIUM COUNT: 12 mg per biscuit; 180 mg in the entire recipe
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 15 1x
Ingredients
- 1 1/8 cup milk ((1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons))
- 4 tsp white vinegar
- 3 ½ cups all purpose flour*
- 2 Tbsp sodium-free baking powder
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter ((cut into ½” cubes))
- 2 Tbsp melted unsalted butter ((for brushing on top))
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Combine the milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside.
- Sift the flour and baking powder into a medium bowl.** Add the cold, cubed butter to the flour. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles course crumbs. (You can also cut the butter in using a food processor if you prefer.) I keep my hands out of the mixture as much as possible to keep the butter cold (that’s what makes those beautiful layers!).
- Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the milk mixture. Stir until it just comes together; do not over-mix.
- Press the dough into a ball and place on a floured surface. Roll out into a rectangle, to about ¼” thickness. Fold the dough into thirds by folding the left side into the center and the right side over the top (see photos). Rotate dough, re-flour the surface if necessary, and roll the dough into rectangle, again to about ¼” thickness. Fold into thirds again. Repeat this process another 2-3 times.
- When you are ready to cut your biscuits, roll the dough to ½” thickness. The biscuits should double in height in the oven. Using a sharp biscuit cutter, cut the biscuits, being sure not to twist the cutter.** Place the cut biscuits onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.*** Brush the tops of the biscuits with the melted butter.
- Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until they are browned on top. Serve warm.
Notes
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION – Yield: 15 servings (biscuits)
Sodium: 12.0 mg, Calories: 236.1, Total Fat: 14.3 g, Saturated Fat: 8.9 g, Cholesterol: 37.4 mg, Carbohydrates: 23.2 g, Fiber: 0.8 g, Sugar: 0.1 g, Protein: 3.8 g.
*These will also work great with cake flour. If you do use cake flour, you will need a bit more (perhaps 4 cups total).
**You can re-roll your dough scraps to make more biscuits. You may lose some of the layering from the biscuits in the second roll, but they will still be yummy.
***I used a very light colored pan lined with parchment paper to keep the bottoms from burning. The parchment paper was not necessary using a very light colored pan (like an AirBake pan), but if you use a darker-bottomed pan, you will want to use parchment paper or a silicon mat to prevent the bottoms from getting too dark.
Cold, cubed butted is the first step to nice layers.
See in the photo below how I have worked in the butter, but left nice chunks? That will make little pockets of butter that will steam in the oven and create those layers you’re after. You can even leave your butter chunks a bit bigger than that.
Don’t overwork the dough. See how it is kind of “shaggy”? That’s good; do that.
Then you will form the dough into a ball and place it on a floured surface (aka a table top, like me).
Then you just shape or roll out your dough into a rectangle (ish). The dough might be more like an oval when you start, but will become more and more rectangular as you continue to fold and roll.
Now you are going to fold the dough into thirds. Do this by folding one side of the dough (1/3 of the dough) over onto the center.
Then you fold the other side over what you’ve just folded.
Repeat 3-4 times, until the dough is smooth. (See how it turned into a rectangle?)
You can use whatever cutter you like, but this is why I like using a square cutter (almost no waste!).
Love this recipe. My mother cant have sodium(at least not much) but she loves bisquits. This recipe is easy and they love the flavor. Thank you for sharing.
So glad to hear that you liked the recipe!
Love the biscuits, but have a question. Have you ever added the No Salt Subistute in place of the salt?
Thanks! I have not. We don’t really like the flavor of salt substitutes, so we haven’t tried it. It comes down to personal preference for us.
We have a local restaurant that bakes their biscuits as one sheet, then they cut them into squares after they baked. That keeps the sides moist and doughy, rather than crusty (the tops and bottoms are crusty but not the sides). Is that possible with this recipe?
★★★★★
I haven’t made these ‘Yet’ but will very soon. I am going to try a trick I was taught for making flaky pie crust.
Place cold butter in freezer for about half an hour or until very firm. Instead of cutting it in with a pastry cutter, use a grater and coarsely grate the butter into a bowl.
Cover the bowl and put it back in the freezer while you prep the dry ingredients. Toss the frozen shreds of butter with the dry ingredients until all piece are coated.
Pro Tip: If your kitchen is on the warm side, put the butter and flour mixture back in the freezer or refrigerator to chill it again before adding the liquid.
Proceed with your recipe, making sure that the liquid you add to the butter and flour mixture is also very cold.
PS
I’ll try to update this comment when I try it and see if it works as well for biscuits as it does for pie crust. Bon Appetite. 😋.
My husband is a southern boy thru and thru and biscuits are the thing he misses most on a low sodium diet. I just took a pan full out of the oven, slathered them with unsalted butter and served them up. He said they taste amazing and he loves that they get crunchy on the top and bottom. I’m making your crescent rolls tomorrow. Thank you so much for such an amazing recipe and bringing biscuits back into our house. Oh how they have been missed!
★★★★★
Thanks for the kind comment! So glad your husband liked them.
Your recipe instructions refer to adding the Milk Mixture but there isn’t any Milk indigents listed in the recipe:
I qoute the following”
Ingredients
1 1/8 cup milk (1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons)
4 tsp white vinegar
3 ½ cups all purpose flour*
2 Tbsp sodium-free baking powder
1 cup cold unsalted butter (cut into ½” cubes)
2 Tbsp melted unsalted butter (for brushing on top)
4. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the milk mixture. Stir until it just comes together; do not over-mix.”
Hi there – step #2 is to mix the milk with the vinegar and set aside. Step #4 uses this milk mixture.
Am really excited to try your recipe. Instead of milk and vinegar could I just use buttermilk? Would the substitution be one to one? Thanks!!
Hi Derrick! You could use buttermilk, but the sodium is quite a bit higher in buttermilk than it is in typical milk (~260mg per cup compared with ~110mg per cup). If you are comfortable with the higher sodium, then it would work wonderfully in this recipe. Another alternative would be powdered buttermilk, which would have ~70mg to ~165mg sodium per cup (depending on the brand you use).
If you do use buttermilk, yes, use the same amount.
Thanks for the quick reply. I have not even thought to look at the sodium level in buttermilk, just assumed it was the same as milk. Thanks for the heads up. I happen to have powdered buttermilk so I plan to use that. Would you just use the milk amount and the buttermilk powder added without vinegar?
Sorry about so many questions. BTW, love your website, so informative and great recipes. I’m always surprised how many recipes are online for diabetics, keto, vegans, vegetarians, etc but really so few for low sodium.
I haven’t tested it with the powdered buttermilk, but I would suggest skipping the vinegar.
So glad I could provide a helpful resource! I felt the same way when we had to move my husband to a low sodium diet. I figured I’d find low sodium recipes with the same ease as finding other recipes. I was wrong and had to recreate our old favorites with lots of trial and error. These days there’s much less error, thankfully. 🙂
I love baking these on top of your cowboy bean recipe!
Once I didn’t have any milk so I used heavy cream, and I didn’t have enough of that so I addd water. Worked fine!
I also just use a pizza cutter to cut squares since I don’t have a biscuit cutter and that way there are no scraps
Just found this biscuit recipe by accident and made it this morning for biscuits and gravy. It was fantastic. I later discovered the site itself and found so many lovely recipes. Thank you so much for doing this. As a person who likes to cook I’ve been really frustrated by the no salt options, but things are looking bright with your recipes.
★★★★★
Thanks so much for the kind words! I am glad that you’re enjoying the recipes. 🙂
Tip for making lower sodium cultured buttermilk:
If you ferment cultured buttermilk with a 1:3 ratio buttermilk to milk for 24 hours, then you greatly reduce the sodium content. Once you repeat this fermentation several times the buttermilk will have close to the same mg of sodium as whole milk and closer to the amount of skim or low-fat which both have more sodium than whole milk.
Definitely trying this recipe as soon as I get some sodium-free baking powder. Thank you.
My husband missed the biscuits for his strawberry shortcake. I just added 2T of sugar for a little sweetness. They were perfect. Thank you!
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Can the biscuits be frozen?
Good question. I don’t know because I haven’t tried it. If you try it, let me know how it goes. Good luck!
Do you think this would work with almond flour instead?
Sorry, I don’t know. I have very little experience with almond flour, so I don’t have a good sense for whether it would work here.