Whole wheat flour lends earthy, complex flavor to a classic flaky biscuit recipe. Ready in under an hour with a few fridge and pantry staples!
Whole wheat flour works surprisingly well here: Its rich, nutty flavor helps these biscuits feel hearty without sacrificing their classic buttery, pull-apart texture.
They're delicious served warm with butter and an herb-infused jam (like our strawberry basil jam or blueberry thyme jam) or as a base for breakfast sandwiches and eggs benedict.
Use fresh, high quality whole wheat flour here for best results: it should smell nutty and slightly sweet, but not sour or musty.
Ingredients
Find a full ingredients list with exact quantities in the recipe card below.
- Cold, unsalted butter melts in the oven and leaves small pockets in its wake, giving our biscuits their flaky, pull-apart layers.
- Baking soda and baking powder are our primary leavening agents. Look for aluminum-free versions in order to avoid any metallic taste in your biscuits.
- Cold milk. We like 1% or 2% milk; use whole milk or buttermilk if you like.
- All purpose flour helps control for differences in whole wheat flours, ensuring your biscuits turn out well regardless of the brand you use (see our note below).
Whole Wheat Flour
Use fresh wheat flour here: It should smell slightly sweet and nutty, but not musty or stale. (If the flour smells dusty, that's how your biscuits will taste!)
Whole wheat flour encompasses a range of wheat varieties and processing methods, which means results can vary (whole wheat cookies, in particular, can change a lot depending on the brand of flour). Adding some all purpose flour to this recipe helps control for that variable. As always, we test our recipes with - and highly recommend - King Arthur Flours for best results when baking.
Learn more about baking with whole wheat flour in our Everyday Artisan Bread course!
Use cold ingredients
To ensure biscuits rise properly and develop flaky, pull-apart layers, it's important to keep the dough cold. Use milk and butter straight from the fridge for best results. You can also measure ingredients ahead of time and store in the fridge (30-60 minutes) or freezer (10-15 minutes) before mixing the dough.
Step by step instructions
Make the dough
Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl. Use a pastry cutter to cut cold butter into the dough, until the cold butter has broken into small pieces and the mixture resembles coarse sand.
If you don't have a pastry cutter, use clean hands to work the cold butter into the flour mixture. Work quickly to prevent the butter from melting!
Add cold milk to the dry ingredients. Stir gently until the dough is not quite combined. The mixture should look a bit crumbly and rough at this point!
Shape the biscuits
Dust a cutting board with a little flour, then tip dough onto the lightly floured surface. Use clean hands to pat the dough together, then fold the dough over on itself 6-10 times (this will help build those flaky layers!)
The dough will feel crumbly at first, but it will come together as you fold it. Gently pat it into a square shape, about one inch thick.
Pro Tip: Work quickly and handle the dough as little as possible to help the dough stay cold!
Cut the dough into rounds with a biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter. Your biscuits should have plenty of texture around the cut edges (see Image 14, above): This is a good sign that you've developed flakey layers that will turn into fluffy biscuits!
When you've cut as many biscuits as you can, fold any remaining dough back onto itself to form a new, solid piece. Continue cutting biscuits until you run out of dough.
Equipment note: We used a 3-inch biscuit cutter in these photos, which yields 6-8 biscuits using this recipe. You can make smaller or larger biscuits if you like (you may just need to adjust the bake time).
Bake
Transfer biscuits to an ungreased baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving a few inches of space between each one. Place in a preheated oven and bake until golden brown.
Optional Step: Before baking, place your metal baking sheet - with the biscuit dough already on it! - in the fridge for 20 minutes, or in the freezer for 10 minutes. This lets the dough rest and ensures butter pieces are solid, which helps your biscuits rise higher in the oven. This only works with metal baking sheets: Never put a cold ceramic or glass baking dish into a hot oven, as it can shatter.
Storage
Store cooled biscuits in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Four Tips for Excellent Biscuits
- Keep ingredients cold. Small butter pieces in the dough melt as the biscuits bake, creating pockets of space that become pull-apart layers. Cold ingredients and minimal handling keep the dough cold, ensuring fluffy layers.
- Use a kitchen scale. Measuring ingredients by weight with a kitchen scale is much more reliable than measuring by volume (with cups). For best results, use a kitchen scale and follow the gram measurements in the recipe below.
- Preheat the oven fully. If the oven isn't hot enough, the butter will melt too slowly and the biscuits won't rise properly.
- Remember: The most important ingredient in baking is PRACTICE. Don't worry if your biscuits don't turn out perfectly the first time!
Substitutions and Variations
- Add mix-ins. Add grated cheese (à la our gruyere biscuits) or fresh chopped herbs (see some ideas in our herb biscuits post) for extra flavor.
- For sweeter biscuits, add a few Tablespoons of granulated sugar or honey to the biscuit dough (you may need to adjust the amount of flour to get the right consistency).
- Brush the biscuit tops with a bit of melted butter or heavy cream just before baking for a glossier finish.
FAQs
If your biscuits look more "melted" than flaky, it's usually because 1) the oven wasn't hot enough when they started baking or, more often, 2) the dough was too warm when they went into the oven.
For best results, make sure the ingredients - especially the butter and milk - are very cold when you mix them into the dough. Also, work the dough quickly and handle it as little as possible so the heat from your hands doesn't warm the dough up too much. It's also important to make sure the oven is fully preheated before you put the biscuits in - if the oven isn't hot enough, they won't rise properly.
And don't forget: As with many things, the most important ingredient for great homemade biscuits is practice. If they aren't perfect the first time, make some notes about what went well, read back through this post and the FAQs, and give them another try!
One more thing to keep in mind: The taller your biscuit dough the taller your biscuits will be! Make sure you're patting your dough to ¾" -1" thickness before cutting the biscuits for the tallest final result.
We test all of our recipes with - and highly recommend - King Arthur Flours. They are high quality, have great flavor, and are remarkably consistent from bag to bag.
King Arthur Regular Whole Wheat flour or Organic Whole Wheat Flour will yield the best results in this recipe. Both are milled from hard red wheat and deliver rich, complex flavor without feeling dusty or stale.
We have also tested this recipe with Bob's Red Mill whole wheat flour, as well as store brand flours from Wegmans and Kroger, with good results.
We have not tested this recipe with locally milled whole wheat flours, King Arthur's Golden Wheat flour (which is milled from a hard white spring wheat, as opposed to a hard red wheat), or any whole wheat pastry flour. Whole wheat flours can vary quite a bit: If you use a different brand, it may require small adjustments!
We test our whole wheat recipes with several brands of whole wheat flours at various concentrations: Each brand performs a bit differently. With whole wheat biscuit recipes, this difference is a bit less noticeable than it is with recipes where gluten development is a larger concern (like our whole wheat banana bread or whole wheat Dutch oven bread). Still, we like the addition of a bit of all purpose flour in this recipe, as it softens the taste of the whole wheat so the biscuits still feel rich and decadent.
If you'd like to use 100% whole wheat flour in this recipe, we recommend making this recipe as written the first time, and increasing the amount of whole wheat flour slowly once you're comfortable with the dough.
A metallic taste can occur when leavening agents - like baking powder - contain aluminum.
For best results, look for aluminum-free baking powder. For most people, this simple step is enough to eliminate any metallic taste.
If you're particularly sensitive to the metallic taste of some leavening agents, we recommend adding a teaspoon or two of acid (lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, etc) to your biscuit dough along with the milk: The extra acid helps speed the chemical reaction that makes these biscuits rise, which can help eliminate that metallic taste.
Yes! These biscuits hold up very well in the freezer. Freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months, then defrost for a few hours on the counter when you're ready to use them. Reheat biscuits in a warm oven or toaster oven for a few minutes to bring them back to life and help them feel fresh, even after freezing. If you don't want leftovers, we recommend trying our small batch biscuit recipe.
Did you make this recipe? Leave a comment and star rating below to let us know how it turned out!
📖 Recipe
Whole Wheat Biscuits
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 biscuits 1x
- Category: Baking, Bread, Breakfast
- Cuisine: American
Description
These hearty, flaky biscuits feature whole wheat flour and are ready in less than an hour.
Ingredients
- 210 grams whole wheat flour (about 1 ⅔ cups)
- 90 grams all purpose flour (about ¾ cup), plus extra for dusting
- 14 grams baking powder (4 teaspoons)
- 6 grams baking soda (1 teaspoon)
- 4 grams kosher salt (1 teaspoon)
- 113 grams COLD unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes (½ cup, or 1 stick)
- 240 grams milk (1 cup)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 425° Fahrenheit. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt.
- Use a pastry cutter to cut cold butter pieces into the dry ingredients, until you have a coarse, sandy mixture.
- Add cold milk to flour mixture; stir until not quite combined. The dough will be shaggy and crumbly!
- Lightly flour a cutting board; tip the dough onto the floured surface. Gently pat the dough together until it begins to hold its shape, then fold it over on itself several times and pat it into a 1-inch thick square.
- Cut dough into rounds with a 3" biscuit cutter. Place biscuits on the prepared baking sheet, leaving an inch or two of space between each one.
- Bake at 425° F for 10-15 minutes until biscuits are lightly browned.
Notes
Use a kitchen scale. Measuring ingredients like flour by volume (with a measuring cup) is notoriously unreliable: For best results, use a kitchen scale and measure your ingredients by weight using the gram measurements above.
Keep your dough as cold as possible. Small pieces of cold butter melt away in the oven, leaving flaky, pull-apart layers. Use very cold butter and milk when you mix the biscuit dough, and work quickly to keep the butter from softening too much as you shape the biscuits.
No pastry cutter? Use clean hands to cut the butter into the dry ingredients.
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. Add some fresh chopped herbs (parsley, thyme, chives).
Use aluminum-free baking powder. 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 add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to the biscuit dough along with the milk to cut some of the metallic taste.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 biscuit
- Calories: 325
- Sugar: 2.2 g
- Sodium: 553.9 mg
- Fat: 16.3 g
- Trans Fat:
- Carbohydrates: 39.7 g
- Protein: 7.7 g
- Cholesterol: 41.3 mg
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