Easy 3 Ingredient Biscuits (2024)

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It’s quick and easy to have the best flakey 3 ingredient biscuits on the table in 20 minutes This simple rolled biscuit recipe and our tips for success will give you the best results, every time!

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What You Need for 3 Ingredient Biscuits

  1. Self rising flour (for all purpose flour, see below)
  2. Heavy cream
  3. Salt

That’s it! If you don’t have self rising flour in your pantry, see our post to learn how to make self rising flour.

Before you know it, you’ll pull these delicious, flaky rolled biscuits out of the oven.

No heavy cream on hand? Make one of these recipes instead!

Tender buttermilk drop biscuits include buttermilk instead of cream. Or, make these drop biscuits that use milk and butter. For a little spicy kick, try our cheddar jalapeno drop biscuits.

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Tips for Success

Read on to discover my 3 simple tips for creating the perfect from-scratch biscuits in only 20 minutes using these 3 basic – but must have – ingredients.

Easy Baking Tip #1: The Flour

Initially, I thought self-rising flour was the secret ingredient for making the perfect biscuit. Then I began using organic flour, and I couldn’t find an organic self-rising flour. So, I did what anyone would do and turned to Google.

Through a little research, I found that soft winter wheat is an ideal flour for making biscuit recipes. It’s low in protein and has a lower gluten.

A search for organic soft winter wheat brought me to organic 00 flour. I already use that for pizza dough. But, after testing it out on the 3 ingredient biscuits recipe, it’s now one of my favorite types of flour to use.

🎯 TFN Pro Tip

Make a batch of self rising flour from scratch. It’s less expensive than buying it premade, and you’ll have it on hand whenver you need it.

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Easy Baking Tip #2: The Fat

Heavy cream is high in fat and is easy to use. You could use a combination of butter and buttermilk or milk to get that amount of fat. But, it requires more mixing.

Pouring in cold cream is just easier.

Trust me. You don’t want to try substituting whole or low-fat milk for heavy cream in this simple biscuit recipe! Heavy cream makes all the difference in the world for the best moist and flaky biscuits.

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Here’s a quick comparison: heavy cream contains 36-40% milk fat, while whole milk has 3.5-4% milk fat. When making biscuits with just 3 ingredients, the right amount of fat is essential for the flakiest texture!

Or, you can even add a pat in the middle before baking to give them that buttery taste.

Easy Baking Tip #3: The Techniques

There are two simple techniques to achieve fluffy, flaky homemade 3 ingredient biscuits.

The first important technique is folding.

The dough is patted out flat and folded like a letter several times over to create those beautiful layers.

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The second technique to perfection is properly cutting the dough.

Press down and come straight up when you are cutting out the biscuits from the dough. Do not twist the cutter! Moving the cutter side to side seals up the edges and prevents them from rising.

So, it’s straight down and up for the highest rise!

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Additional Recipe Tips for the Best Biscuits

  • Consider using a food processor to mix the ingredients, especially if your kitchen is warm. On the other hand, keeping the dough as cool as possible is essential during preparation. So, the less you handle the dough, the better.
  • Heavy cream is an essential ingredient. It has a high-fat content (36%-40%). Compare that to milk’s fat content of 3-4% for whole milk and 2% for low-fat.
  • Use a cast-iron skillet for baking instead of a sheet pan to create “cathead” style pull-apart biscuits.
  • A hot oven is essential for the best rise possible. Wait until your oven is to temperature before adding the pan of 3 Ingredient biscuits.
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Now that you know the easy baking tips for making the perfect 3 ingredient biscuits let’s make a batch – or two!

Other Easy Recipes with Self Rising Flour
These baked treats are both easy to make and delicious for breakfast or an afternoon snack.
Cranberry Almond Scones
Self Rising Flour Banana Bread

Biscuit Recipe FAQ

How do you make biscuits rise evenly?

Space the unbaked dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. This allows air to circulate around and between the dough, creating more rise!

How do you make biscuits taste better?

If you want the most luscious results ever, brush the tops with melted butter after they come out of the oven. It will melt into the bread, resulting in a buttery flavor in every bite.

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3 Ingredient Biscuits

Renae

4.84 from 54 votes

Use our pro tips to make flaky, delicious 3 ingredient biscuits for breakfast in just 20 minutes. Top them with homemade sausage gravy!

PrintPin

Course: Bread

Cuisine: American, Southern

Servings: 8

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes minutes

Total Time: 17 minutes minutes

Calories: 267

Equipment

  • Baking Sheet

Ingredients

  • 2 cups self-rising flour (see notes for all-purpose flour)
  • 1 ½ cups heavy cream (don't substitute milk, heavy cream is a must!)
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

  • Keep cream in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

  • Add flour and salt to a medium bowl. Pour in cold cream and stir with a heavy wooden spoon until mixed. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

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  • Dump bowl onto a counter and scrape out any remaining dough or flour. Pat into a rectangle about 2" thick. Fold in thirds, turn 1/4 and fold again, continuing 3 times.

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  • Cut biscuits with a 3" biscuit cutter. Press down and bring straight up. Do not twist biscuit cutter. Pat excess dough out, cut, and repeat process again.

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  • Place biscuits on a cookie sheet about 2" apart. Bake for 12 minutes, until golden. Brush with butter. Serve warm.

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Video

Notes

You can use all-purpose flour in place of self-rising flour, with these additions:

2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp fine salt. Mix well.

Nutrition

Serving: 1biscuit | Calories: 267kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 61mg | Sodium: 308mg | Potassium: 65mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 656IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 34mg | Iron: 1mg

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Easy 3 Ingredient Biscuits (2024)

FAQs

Which liquid makes the best biscuits? ›

Selecting the liquid for your biscuits

Just as important as the fat is the liquid used to make your biscuits. Our Buttermilk Biscuit recipe offers the choice of using milk or buttermilk. Buttermilk is known for making biscuits tender and adding a zippy tang, so we used that for this test.

Can you make biscuits out of flour and water? ›

QUICK NO MILK, NO BUTTER BISCUITS

Add flour and salt into a container and mix well. Add water and oil. Mix with a fork until the dough come together. Don't need to overdo it.

Is it better to use butter or crisco for biscuits? ›

Crisco may be beneficial for other baking applications, but for biscuit making, butter is the ultimate champion!

What is the secret to a good biscuit? ›

It's super simple and makes tall, fluffy biscuits ready for breakfast, sandwiches, and more! The secret to the best biscuits is using very cold butter and baking powder. We've made a lot of biscuits, but this easy biscuits recipe is the one we turn to the most (they are so fluffy!).

Is it better to use milk or buttermilk in biscuits? ›

While the quantity of acid could be fine-tuned, the consistency of milk-based substitutions will be unavoidably thin. Compared to cultured buttermilk, plain milk is watery, making the dough so heavy and wet that it oozes into a puddle, turning the biscuits flat and dense.

Can I use heavy cream instead of buttermilk for biscuits? ›

Yes, you can swap them in a recipe, but it's not as simple as switching buttermilk for heavy cream/heavy cream for buttermilk. For example, if you're replacing buttermilk with heavy cream you'll probably need to switch out your baking soda for baking powder.

What should you not do to biscuit dough? ›

11 Ways You're Ruining Your Biscuits
  1. 01 of 12. Cutting the Butter into Chunks. ...
  2. 02 of 12. Choosing the Wrong Flour. ...
  3. 03 of 12. Forgetting To Chill the Butter and Flour. ...
  4. 04 of 12. Skipping the Buttermilk. ...
  5. 05 of 12. Overworking (or Underworking) the Dough. ...
  6. 06 of 12. Using Your Hands To Shape the Dough. ...
  7. 07 of 12. ...
  8. 08 of 12.
Oct 4, 2022

What makes homemade biscuits rise? ›

While biscuits receive some leavening power from chemical sources — baking powder and baking soda — the difference between serviceable and greatness comes from the extra rise that steam provides. In order to generate steam, the oven must be set at a minimum of 425 degrees for at least 10 minutes prior to baking.

Does sifting flour make biscuits better? ›

The solution: Use half cake flour and half all-purpose flour. This combination will give you a biscuit with light and airy interior with a pleasant, satisfying bite on the outside. Also, sifting the flour and other dry ingredients will give you a smoother, airier dough.

Do biscuits need to be refrigerated after baking? ›

Refrigerate biscuits up to 1 week if they have perishable ingredients. Any biscuit can be stored in the refrigerator, but biscuits with ingredients like cheese or cream cheese always need to be stored there. Make sure the biscuits are well-sealed so they stay at the proper consistency until you use them.

What does milk do in biscuits? ›

Milk is used in many baking recipes, including custards, cookies, cakes and breads. Milk encourages the browning reactions characteristic of baked goods like pastry crusts, cookies and biscuits. Milk contributes to the keeping quality of bread and gives it a soft crust.

Why is shortening not used in baking anymore? ›

However, shortening has fallen out of favor in the past few decades because of its high trans fat content. Now that trans fats are banned in the United States, however, shortenings have been reformulated to be free of these fats ( 1 ).

What does adding an egg to biscuits do? ›

As it turns out, adding hard-boiled egg yolks to your biscuit dough is a way to ward off an overworked, tough dough that can be the downfall of a butter-based pastry. When the trick is employed, the pastry shatters and then dissolves in your mouth quickly, tasting like a knob of flaky butter.

What kind of flour do southerners use for biscuits? ›

If you start asking around, any Southern chef, Southern Living Test Kitchen pro, or biscuit-making family member will swear by White Lily flour.

What are the two most important steps in biscuit making? ›

The two keys to success in making the best biscuits are handling the dough as little as possible as well as using very cold solid fat (butter, shortening, or lard) and cold liquid. When the biscuits hit the oven, the cold liquid will start to evaporate creating steam which will help our biscuits get very tall.

What is the best emulsifier for biscuits? ›

DMG- Finamul 90. Distilled Monoglyceride is an important and essential emulsifier for biscuits which helps in dough strengthening and aids in the easy mixing of all the ingredients.

Which milk is best for biscuits? ›

If you are going to substitute a non-cultured liquid into your biscuits, I'd strongly recommend using low-fat milk, or even whole milk, instead of cream. Both will give you a more pleasant biscuit, with just the right amount of fat that you'll still want to slather the inside with butter.

What fat makes the best biscuits? ›

High-fat butter, such as Kerrygold Butter, is best. The rich fat from the butter releases water when the biscuits are baking which is what contributes to the beautiful layers and flakiness that we love about biscuits.

What makes biscuits rise better baking powder or baking soda? ›

But to get the rise you want without killing the tang (which would be the result of too much baking soda), you'll need to incorporate baking powder as well, taking advantage of the delayed double-action to add even more levity. Combining the two leavening agents produces a biscuit that is both light and tangy.

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