Sourdough Biscuit Recipe

A bowl of flaky sourdough biscuits on a kitchen towel.

5 from 18 votes

Soft in the middle with lots of beautiful layers, these flaky sourdough biscuits are tender and delicious. Made with sourdough discard, these biscuits are so quick to whip up and taste incredible warm with a little bit of butter and homemade jam!

Prep Time20

Cook Time15

Total Time35

Course: Breakfast, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Servings: biscuits

Author: Amy Coyne

Equipment

Ingredients

280 grams all-purpose flour about 2 cups
12 grams baking powder about 1 Tablespoon
6 grams salt about 1 teaspoon
60 grams unsalted butter about 1/4 cup
60 grams cream cheese about 2 oz (1/4 cup)
150 grams sourdough discard cold, about 1/2 cup
175 grams heavy cream about 3/4 cup, see recipe note
45 grams unsalted butter, melted about 3 Tablespoons, reserved to brush on top of biscuits

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
Whisk together flour, salt and baking powder in a medium-sized bowl.
Cut the cold butter into about 16 pieces. Cut the cream cheese into pieces and place on top of the flour mixture. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter and cream cheese into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. If there are any little chunks of butter, smoosh them between your fingers to break them up.
Note: You can also grate the butter into the mixture like I do with my sourdough scones if that's an easier method for you to use.
Whisk together the cold sourdough discard and heavy cream. Pour on top of the flour/butter mixture and use a fork and eventually your hands to mix the dough together until almost all of the flour is incorporated. If your discard is very runny you may need to add a little extra flour.
Dump the dough onto a pastry mat and fold a couple times. Pat out into a circle and use a rolling pin to roll into an 7-8 inch circle. The dough will be fairly thick. Cut dough with a biscuit cutter into 8 biscuits. Press down quickly without moving the biscuit cutter. Place the cut biscuit on the parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat until all the biscuits have been cut out. Any extra scraps can be pushed together to make an extra biscuit or two, though it will probably not rise as high as the others. Alternatively you can shape the dough into a square and cut 9 smaller biscuits out of it using a bench scraper.
Put the biscuits in the oven and immediately decrease the heat to 450 degrees F. Bake biscuits for about 15 minutes until tender on the inside and brown on the outside. If you prefer a browner biscuit, let bake for a few extra minutes.
When biscuits are finished, brush the tops with melted butter. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Notes

Sourdough Discard: This recipe is made with 100% hydration sourdough discard. If you feed your starter more or less flour/water, you’ll want to compensate in the recipe by adding a little more or less heavy cream. I prefer using cold sourdough discard for flaky layers, but room temperature should work in a pinch.

Heavy Cream: If your sourdough discard is on the thinner side, or if it's room temperature instead of chilled/cold, you may not need as much heavy cream. Add cream a little at a time until all of the flour is sufficiently moistened and the dough comes together.

Nutrition