How to measure flour. Measuring flour by volume (with cups) is notoriously unreliable: if you have a kitchen scale, please use it here to measure your flour in grams for best results! If you don’t have a kitchen scale, use a 1-cup measuring cup and measure your flour by scooping and leveling. Your biscuit dough should just come together when mixed and feel slightly crumbly - it won’t quite hold together until you pat it into shape. The dough shouldn’t be wet, but if it is too sticky when you go to shape your biscuits, you can always add more flour!

No biscuit cutter? Turn a drinking glass or small bowl upside down and use it to cut out your biscuit rounds, or pat the biscuit dough into a large square and cut it into thirds top-to-bottom and then left-to-right to form 9 evenly-sized square biscuits.

Additions and Substitutions. Use cold coconut oil in place of butter if you like. Swap the milk for buttermilk or coconut milk. Add a few turns of fresh ground black pepper, a handful of shredded cheese (parmesan, sharp cheddar, gruyere), or a Tablespoon of lemon zest to the dry ingredients for an extra flavor boost. Swap whole wheat flour for up to 1/2 cup (60 grams) of all purpose flour if you like. 

Which herbs should I use? For the biscuits in these photos, we used a mix of equal parts thyme, chives, and parsley. Chop up a small handful of whatever you have on hand and combine the chopped fresh herbs until you have approximately 1/3 cup in total. You can definitely eyeball the herbs in this recipe – it’s fine if you don’t have quite 1/3 cup of fresh herbs, and it’s fine if you want to pump up the flavor and add even more! See the post above for our favorite herb combinations to use in this recipe.

To use dried herbs instead of fresh, reduce the amount of herbs called for by 2/3. We call for 1/3 cup fresh herbs here: if you’re using dried herbs instead, use about 2 1/2 Tablespoons. We recommend using rosemary and/or thyme as the star of any dried herb mixture since their flavor stays pretty consistent from fresh to dry!

The key to great biscuits is to work quickly and keep the ingredients as cold as you can. Touch the dough as little as possible and don’t let it sit out – you don’t want the butter to melt until the dough is IN the oven (that’s what gives you those amazing flaky layers!)

Make sure you use an aluminum-free baking powder here. Bob’s Red Mill and Rumford both make good ones! If you’re using a baking powder with added aluminum, you may notice a slightly bitter or metallic taste in your baked goods. If you’re sensitive to the flavor of baking powder even with an aluminum-free brand, you can reduce the amount of baking powder in this recipe by 25-50% - just know that your biscuits won’t be as tall and the layers won’t be quite as flakey or pronounced. With reduced baking powder, it’s extra important to work quickly and fold the dough over on itself in a few light layers as you form your biscuits to keep as much of that flakiness as possible. Biscuits with less baking powder are much less forgiving, so technique becomes much more important - it will likely take some practice!