You know what’s amazing: butter. There really isn’t anything that a nice helping of butter can’t make better. Slather it onto some dry toast, add a bit to some pasta or mac and cheese, or even spread a bit onto pancakes or a muffin, and the flavor is something you just won’t regret. These Honey Butter Biscuits are a celebration of butter. Rubbed into the dough and distributed in between the layers, these biscuits are so buttery that they essentially melt as you eat them.
Stick a basket of these on the table for breakfast, and you’ve really just upped your standard fare of bacon and eggs. I made a batch to photograph the other day and had to keep telling my family “no” when they would ask if they could have one because I needed more than one biscuit for the pictures. One batch of these makes eight biscuits, and trust me, they will go fast!
These biscuits have been folded to create layers that essentially peel away from one another. I wasn’t able to grab photos of the process, but if you want to see a bit more of a step-by-step, you can check out these the post for these Earl Grey & Honey Blueberry Scones where I actually show the rolling and folding stages. The main difference with the process here is that at two points of folding, I added in extra butter! Just cut it into small pieces and press it into the dough then fold, rotate, and roll.
I’m sure that my obsession with all of this folding and rolling and layering of things stems from my love of making things such as puff pastry (okay, rough puff, I’m still too lazy and impatient for the real stuff), but look at these layers!
How can you resist those? And in all honesty, it really doesn’t take that much time to roll and fold. Most of the time spent with these biscuits is spent waiting for the butter to chill back up. You want to keep the butter cold so that it doesn’t melt out of the biscuits. Instead, it creates these layers and seeps into the biscuits as they bake rather than out of them. That’s how you get such a soft, buttery flavor.
I brush these with a mixture of honey and butter prior to placing them in the freezer to chill up to add just a hint of sweetness to these biscuits. There’s the one breakfast place my family will occasionally go to and they serve a biscuit that is just slightly sweet on top and I can’t get enough of them! I think they put a sprinkling of sugar on their biscuits which seemed just a step too far for these. Instead, the honey adds that slight hint of sweetness that keeps these from venturing into scone territory and makes them distinctly biscuits.
Right before these are ready to go into the oven, I like to brush an egg wash on top to get that nice golden brown color. You can do without it, but just note that your biscuits will come out a bit pale. Don’t worry though, they’ll still be delicious!
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 20-25 minutes |
| Passive Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings |
biscuits
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- 1 cup bread flour
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter cold, cut into cubes (1 stick + 4 Tbsp)
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter melted (to brush on top)
- 1 Tbsp honey (to brush on top)
- 1 egg for egg wash
Ingredients
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- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the bread flour*, all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Add in 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick) that has been cut into cubes. Using your fingers, rub the butter in until it is fully coated in flour and you are left with small, pea-sized pieces.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the large bowl where you've mixed your butter into the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold until the dough is just combined. It will be a little dry and shaggy in appearance.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead about 4-6 times by folding the dough in half and turning 90 degrees until the flour is fully incorporated. Flatten into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the freezer and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out to a 12" x 6" rectangle. Take 2 Tbsp of butter and cut it into small pieces. Distribute the pieces of butter over the top of the dough.
- Fold the bottom 1/3 of the dough up toward the middle. Then fold the top 1/3 toward the middle so that the all thirds overlap--similar to an envelope or folding a piece of paper into thirds. Rotate the dough 90°, roll it out to a 12" x 6" rectangle and fold into thirds again. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and return to the freezer to chill for another 10 minutes.
- Once again, roll the dough out to a 12" x 6" rectangle. Cut the remaining 2 Tbsp of butter into small pieces and distribute it over the top of the dough. Fold into thirds, rotate 90°, and roll it out until about 12" by 6". Fold into thirds one more time, then wrap in plastic wrap and return to the freezer to chill for another 10 minutes.
- Return the dough to your lightly floured surface so that one of the open ends is facing you. Roll to a 12" x 6" rectangle, and using a knife or a bench scraper, cut the ends from the dough so that you are left with an even rectangle. Cut the rectangle in half and then cut each half into quarters so that you have 8 square biscuits.
- Arrange the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet. Whisk together 3 Tbsp of melted butter and 1 Tbsp honey. Generously brush the butter and honey on top of the biscuits. Place the tray in the freezer and allow to chill for 10-15 minutes.
- Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400°F. Whisk one egg with 1 Tbsp of water for an egg wash. Remove the tray of biscuits from the freezer, brush over the top with the egg wash.
- Bake for 5 minutes then lower the temperature of the oven to 350°F. Allow to bake for an additional 15-20 minutes until the tops have firmed and are a golden brown. The biscuits should peel off the parchment paper easily when baked, and the bottoms should be golden brown as well.
- Allow to cool a bit and then enjoy!
* If you don't have bread flour, you can just use 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour.
These are best when fresh and still warm or the next day reheated in an oven.