🍞 Biscuit Calculator
Plan biscuit dough ratios — calculate every ingredient weight instantly
| Biscuit Style | Liquid % | Salt % | Butter % | Fat % | Sugar % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White Sandwich | 65–68% | 1.8–2.0% | 1.0–1.5% | 0 | 0–2% |
| Buttermilk Biscuits (levain) | 70–80% | 1.8–2.2% | 0–0.1% | 0 | 0 |
| Drop Biscuits | 68–72% | 1.9–2.0% | 0.3–0.5% | 0 | 0 |
| Cheddar Biscuits | 75–85% | 2.0% | 0.3–0.5% | 0–2% | 0 |
| Cream Biscuits | 70–80% | 2.0–2.2% | 0.5–1.0% | 4–6% | 0 |
| Southern Biscuits | 55–65% | 1.5–1.8% | 1.0–1.5% | 12–20% | 8–15% |
| Pizza (Neapolitan) | 60–65% | 2.0–2.5% | 0.05–0.2% | 0 | 0 |
| 100% Freezer | 80–95% | 2.0% | 0.5–1.0% | 0 | 0–2% |
| Ingredient | Baker's % | Per 500g Flour | Per 1kg Flour | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water (65%) | 65% | 325g | 650g | Medium hydration |
| Water (75%) | 75% | 375g | 750g | High hydration |
| Salt (2%) | 2% | 10g | 20g | Standard |
| Instant Yeast (1%) | 1% | 5g | 10g | Active dry × 1.25 |
| Olive Oil (4%) | 4% | 20g | 40g | Cream Biscuits style |
| Butter (15%) | 15% | 75g | 150g | Southern Biscuits style |
Biscuits have different meanings according to where you live. In United States they like dinner rolls but they are denser and flakier because you do not use yeast. You consider them fast bread that rises by baking soda, baking powder or both, similarly to banana bread or yeast-free bread.
British and Australian people call a biscuit what Americans call a cookie. American biscuits are for them almost a scone or the top for a cobbler casserole
Biscuits: Meanings, Types and How to Make Them
Biscuit is made of flour and are baked. They usually are hard, flat and without yeast. Most commonly they are sweet, with sugar, chocolate, icing, coconut, ginger or cinnamon.
However Southern-style biscuits are entirely different (buttery), soft and made from scratch.
The word biscuit originates from French and means “cooked twice“. Weird is that in English you pronounce it “biskit” without any trace of “u”.
Centuries ago when the Southern-style biscuit was perfected, buttermilk was the creamy, sour liquid that you left after churning butter. Smart housewives saved that rich byproduct and started to add it to baked goods as biscuits. Buttermilk-biscuits have a sour taste that reacts with baking soda to give a fluffy texture.
Buttermilk on top makes bright biscuits but with a bit uneven browning. Heavy cream gives denser, rich biscuits with even colour.
For a simple butter biscuit you require all-purpose flour, cubed butter and milk. Prep happens in around 15 minutes, and you bake for 12 minutes at 425°F. Ice-cold butter and some extra foldings of the dough are key for many flaky layers in each golden brown biscuit. Over-working the dough is a common mistake.
Mix ingredients only until they meet.
Traditional drop-biscuits use only five ingredients, but because of their buttery, salty taste and cloud-like bite the result is not ordinary. From one family to the next recipes have almost endless varieties. Canned biscuit-dough you can use surprisingly: roll for little pizza crusts or cover chicken in a pot pie.
Many surprise biscuits with gravy, American biscuits covered in white sauce from flour, fat and milk with bits of sausage. Warm buttermilk-biscuits are light and soft, but firm enough for rich, meaty gravy. For it you brown pork sausage, thicken with flour, season with salt and pepper, and turn into smooth sauce with whole milk.
Special flour is 00-type, used for pizza and pasta. It works well for biscuits, because it absorbs butter and buttermilk exactly and create perfect flaky layers without chewiness. After you figureout biscuits, you can quickly bake a whole set.