What could be better than butter biscuits in the morning with sausage gravy and eggs? Butter biscuits are terrific for breakfast sandwiches, for lunch with steaming hot soup, and are great with any dinner meal.

Between the butter and the sourdough I just love these biscuits. But even better, when there are only five ingredients: your discard (or active starter), flour, baking powder, salt, and butter.

Our recipe today is adapted from one developed by PJ Hamel for King Arthur Baking, who likes them extra large.

“These big, palm-sized biscuits are perfect for a breakfast sandwich. Their sourdough tang pairs nicely with egg, ham, sausage, or whatever you choose to stuff them with. Better yet — the recipe uses your “discard” sourdough, the extra starter you might otherwise throw away during the feeding process.”

PJ Hamel for King Arthur Baking
  • Sourdough butter biscuits
Sourdough butter biscuits made with just discard, flour, baking powder, salt, and butter. So simple and so good

SIMPLE SOURDOUGH DISCARD BUTTER BISCUITS

Serving Size:
12 Large or 18 Standard Biscuits
Time:
Prep 10 mins
Bake 20–23 mins
Difficulty:
Very Easy

Ingredients

  • 2 cups | 240g Abigails Oven Premium White Whole Wheat Flour
  • 4 tsp | 16g baking powder
  • 1½ tsp | 8.5g salt
  • 16 Tbsp |226g unsalted butter, cold
  • 2 cups | 454g sourdough discard or starter

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 425°F | 220°C, with the rack in the upper third of the oven.
  2. Line a baking sheet with parchment (or grease it with butter).
  3. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt until well combined.
  4. Then cut in the butter into the flour with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
  5. Next add your starter, mixing until the dough is moist and cohesive.
  6. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, kneading it ten times.
  7. Then pat the dough into a circle between ¾ and 1 inch thick.
  8. Using a large (2 ⅜” | 6cm) biscuit cutter, cut dough into rounds. Cutting them as close to one another as possible will help keep the dough scraps softer when using them back together to get the last few biscuits cut. You should get a baker’s dozen, albeit one may be slightly smaller than the others.
  9. Put the cut biscuits onto your baking sheet, but leave about 2inces | 5cm between each of them as they will spread as they bake.
  10. Bake them in the upper third of your oven for 20-23 minutes, but don’t take them out until they are golden brown.
  11. Take the biscuits out of the oven, and serve them warm.

“Or, suggest PJ, “cool completely, wrap in plastic, and store at room temperature for several days. Freeze, well-wrapped, for longer storage.”

She also invites you to perfect your technique at the King Arthur Blog where she explains how to make this biscuit in greater detail for your Sourdough for breakfast. And for more fun, she suggests you “join King Arthur baker Martin Philip and his family as they bake Sourdough Biscuits together, start to finish. Watch Martin Bakes at Home – Sourdough Biscuits now.”