Flakey buttery biscuits packed with savory herbs, parmesan cheese, and a secret ingredient that is perfect alongside your Thanksgiving dinner or to use up some of the herbs in your refrigerator. Makes 8 large or 12 medium biscuits.

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JUMP TO RECIPE

I have been dreaming of this recipe ever since I saw it on an article that had a list of Thanksgiving Dishes you may not have heard before. I remember the recipe was behind a paywall, and so I decided to give it a whirl with the biscuit recipe I already developed modeled after the Wild Mushroom Stuffing I make every year from What’s Gaby Cooking.

The result was an extremely savory biscuit perfect for having alongside Thanksgiving Dinner or to eat with your leftovers. If you’re new to making scones and biscuits, check out my blog post: Scone and Biscuit Troubleshooting where I do a deep dive on making the perfect biscuit.

Materials Needed

Large bowl: To mix the dough

Kitchen scale: To accurately measure the flour

Medium bowl: To chill the cream

Small bowl: For egg wash and melted butter

Whisk or fork for mixing: To mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients

Measuring cups and spoons: To measure ingredients

Rubber spatula: To mix the dough

Bench scraper: To help mix the dough, and cut it

Cutting board & knife: To prepare the herbs and aromatics

Cheese grater: To grate the parmesan (pregrated is fine too)

Pastry brush: To brush on egg wash and melted butter after baking

Parchment paper: To help the biscuits bake evenly

Two baking sheets: To bake the biscuits

Ingredients

4 cups (550gr) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 sticks (12 tbl) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk
2 tsp umami mushroom seasoning (omit if you don't have it)
1 tbl sea salt (reduce by 1/2 tsp if using salted butter)
3/4 cup flat leaf parsley (or 1/4 cup dried)
2 tablespoons fresh sage (or 1 tbl dried)
2 tablespoons fresh thyme (or 1 tbl dried)
2 tablespoons fresh oregano (or 1 tbl dried)
4 cloves garlic (or 1 tsp garlic powder)
3/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan (about 3/4 oz)
3-4 scallions/green onions Green parts only
1 egg white for egg wash
4 tablespoons salted butter for brushing after baking
Flakey sea salt, optional garnish

Step-by-Step Instructions

Prepare the cream and butter. The goal when you make biscuits is to have the butter as cold as possible. This can be done by freezing the butter for 15 minutes and then grating it. Alternatively, I came across a method where you chill the cream (or whatever liquid you’re adding to the dough), and melt and cool the butter to add to the cream. I fine I prefer this method because I don’t like grating butter, but either method will work for you for this recipe. Measure out cream and milk into a medium bowl and place in the freezer for fifteen minutes. Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl and set aside to cool.

Combine dry ingredients. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, Parmesan cheese, umami seasoning (you can omit if you don’t have this), in a large bowl. A fork does the job just fine for this.

Prepare the herbs and aromatics. Finely chop the green onions, garlic, and herbs and add to the flour mixture. If you don’t have the fresh herbs, you can use dried, and reduce volume by half for the sage, thyme, and oregano. Use 1/4 cup dried parsley to substitute for 3/4 cup parsley. You can also sub 1 tsp garlic powder for the fresh garlic.

Combine wet ingredients. Once the cream is chilled, add melted butter to the cream and stir to combine.

Combine everything together. Add milk and butter mixture to flour and bring together using a rubber spatula. Once it is mostly mixed together pour onto a clean surface. Instead of kneading dough on my counter (which is hard to tell if it's clean because it's a dark color), I like to knead dough on a silicone baking mat or a rimmed cookie sheet. This also makes clean up easier.

Fold the dough and chill. Once the dough starts to hold together in a shaggy ball, roll or press out into a 15”x6” (38cmx15cm) rectangle then cut into three equal pieces (cut where you would fold for a letter), and stack. I like to use a bench scraper to help me combine everything, cut, and stack. Press out into a 15”x6” (38cmx15cm) rectangle and then repeat once more. After the last fold shape into a rectangle around 15”x6” (38cmx15cm) and about 1” (2.5 cm) thick. Sprinkle flour on the surface throughout this step as needed. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in freezer for 30 minutes or the fridge for 1 hour. Don’t let it stay in the freezer for longer than 45 minutes, otherwise it will get too cold and could bake unevenly in the oven. I recommend baking this within four hours of mixing otherwise the juice from the herbs and onions stain the dough brown.

Prepare to bake. While the biscuits chill, preheat oven to 400°F (220°C). I like to start preheating as soon as I put the biscuits in the fridge/freezer otherwise I tend to forget. Remove from freezer, and cut all of the outer edges off (as little as possible). This helps the biscuits rise evenly on all sides. Then cut the remaining dough into 8-12 squares, and separate on to two parchment-lined baking sheets. Brush all sides with egg white wash. Do not use heavy cream in place of egg wash, as it turns a brown color during baking.

To make the biscuit flower (optional): Take the off cuts and find the smallest one, this will be the center of the flour. Then grab each part and wrap around the middle, slightly overlapping as you go until you use all of the off cuts. You can make one to two biscuit flowers this way. Bake with the rest, and set to the side as a baker’s treat!

Bake. Bake in the oven 25-30 min, rotating half way through until browned. It is done when it barely gives when you poke the thickest part and is golden brown. While the biscuits are in the oven, melt the butter. Brush with melted butter when they’re still hot from the oven, and top with flakey sea salt if desired.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can this be made in advance? This biscuit recipe in particular should be made and baked on the same day. The juices from the green onions and herbs brown in the dough, and it is noticeable even after baking (it doesn’t alter the taste, but it is rather unappetizing in my opinion). biscuits are best baked fresh the day you plan to serve them, but if you’d like to bake them the night before an event, you can gently reheat them by putting them on a baking sheet in the oven at 300°F (150C) for 10 minutes.

My biscuits turned out dry, what did I do wrong?

Very likely you added too much flour to your dough. If when you turned out the dough onto the surface to knead it but it didn’t stick at all to the surface, you likely over measured. Measure the flour by weight in grams using a kitchen scale (this is the one I use) next time (240 grams), or whisk the flour thoroughly to “fluff it up” before gently scooping it into your measuring cup and leveling with the flat side of a butter knife (not shaking to level).

The other possibility is that you over worked the dough when bringing it together. Remember to fold and press the layers together; you don’t need a rolling pin for this. There should still be a few cracks in the corners, and it doesn’t have to be a perfect circle (mine rarely are).

Why did my biscuits leak butter during the baking?

Most likely you didn’t chill the scones for long enough or let them sit at room temperature for too long before baking. They need to be chilled in the freezer for a minimum of 30 minutes (up to 60 or they may stay too cold on the inside and over bake on the outside), or chilled in the fridge for one hour. Don’t take them out to cut until the oven is fully preheated or they might get too warm before baking. Making sure your ingredients (heavy cream, milk, and butter) are as cold as possible before combining the dough is another way to make sure the dough stays cold and the butter doesn’t soften before baking.

Can these be made gluten-free?

In my experience, pastry is really hard to get right gluten-free. My attempts at gluten-free pastry typically end up brittle, stodgy, leak out all of the butter, and have a weird aftertaste. Your best bet is using King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Bread Flour* mix, but it has wheat in it, and is not safe for people with wheat allergies.

Stuffing Biscuits