It’s quick and easy to have the best flaky 3-ingredient biscuits on the table in 20 minutes. This simple rolled biscuit recipe and our tips for success will give you perfect results every time!
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Why We Love This Recipe
- Simplicity: With just three ingredients, this biscuit recipe is incredibly straightforward, making it perfect for beginners or anyone short on time.
- Convenience: The limited ingredient list means you likely already have everything you need in your pantry, so there’s no extra trip to the store.
- Quick Preparation: These biscuits come together in a flash, allowing you to enjoy warm, homemade goodness without spending hours in the kitchen.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Self-rising flour – although this ingredient is a must for this recipe, I have an easy substitution using all-purpose flour or 00 flour below.
- Heavy cream – this is another essential ingredient. Unfortunately, I don’t have a recommended substitution for this. If you substitute regular milk for heavy cream, you won’t have tender, fluffy biscuits.
- Salt – just a little bit helps bring more flavor. Since there’s already salt in the self-rising flour, just a pinch is all you need.
🎯 TFN Pro Tip
Make a batch of self rise flour. It’s less expensive than buying it premade, and you’ll have it on hand whenever you need it.
That’s it! Before you know it, you’ll pull these delicious, flaky rolled biscuits out of the oven.
No heavy cream on hand? Make one of these recipes instead!
Tender buttermilk drop biscuits recipe include buttermilk instead of cream. Or, make these how to make biscuits from self rising flour that use milk and butter. For a little spicy kick, try our jalapeno biscuits with cheese.
Tips For Making The Best Biscuit
Read on to discover my 3 simple tips for creating the perfect from-scratch biscuits in only 20 minutes using these 3 basic but must-have ingredients.
Baking Tip #1: The Flour
Initially, I thought self-rising flour was the secret ingredient for making the perfect biscuit. Then I began using organic flour, and I couldn’t find an organic self-rising flour. So, I did what anyone would do and turned to Google.
Through a little research, I found that soft winter wheat is an ideal flour for making biscuit recipes. It’s low in protein and has a lower gluten content.
A search for organic soft winter wheat brought me to organic 00 flour. I already use that for pizza dough. But, after testing it out on the 3-ingredient biscuit recipe, it’s now one of my favorite types of flour to use.
Baking Tip #2: The Fat
Heavy cream is high in fat and is easy to use. You could use a combination of butter and buttermilk or milk to get that amount of fat. But it requires more mixing.
Pouring in cold cream is just easier.
Trust me. You don’t want to try substituting whole or low-fat milk for heavy cream in this simple biscuit recipe! Heavy cream makes all the difference in the world for the best moist and flaky biscuits.
Here’s a quick comparison: heavy cream contains 36-40% milk fat, while whole milk has 3.5-4% milk fat. When making biscuits with just 3 ingredients, the right amount of fat is essential for the flakiest texture!
Or, you can even add a pat in the middle before baking to give them that buttery taste.
Baking Tip #3: The Techniques
There are two simple techniques to achieve fluffy, flaky homemade 3-ingredient biscuits.
The first important technique is folding.
The dough is patted out flat and folded like a letter several times over to create those beautiful layers.
The second technique to perfection is properly cutting the dough.
When cutting out the biscuits from the dough, simply press down and come straight back up. Try not to twist the cutter, as moving it side to side can seal the edges and stop your biscuits from rising beautifully.
So, it’s straight down and up for the highest rise!
Additional Recipe Tips
- Consider using a food processor to mix the ingredients, especially if your kitchen is warm. On the other hand, keeping the dough as cool as possible is essential during preparation. So, the less you handle the dough, the better.
- Heavy cream is an essential ingredient. It has a high-fat content (36%–40%). Compare that to milk’s fat content of 3–4% for whole milk and 2% for low-fat milk.
- Use a cast-iron skillet for baking instead of a sheet pan to create “cathead” style pull-apart biscuits.
- A hot oven is essential for the best rise possible. Wait until your oven is at room temperature before adding the pan of three-ingredient biscuits.
Now that you know the easy baking tips for making the perfect 3-ingredient biscuits, let’s make a batch—or two—and why not try pairing this biscuit with some delicious homemade gravy recipe for biscuits?
Recipe FAQs
Space the unbaked dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. This allows air to circulate around and between the dough, creating more rise!
If you want the most luscious results ever, brush the tops with melted butter after they come out of the oven. It will melt into the bread, resulting in a buttery flavor in every bite.
These Recipes Made With Self-Rising Flour Are A Must-Try…
- Banana Bread With Self Rising Flour Recipe
- Self Rising Cornmeal Cornbread
- Almond Cranberry Scones
- Old Fashioned Sourdough Cake with Apples
If you tried this 3-ingredient biscuit recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
3 Ingredient Biscuits
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
Ingredients
- 2 cups self-rising flour (see notes for all-purpose flour)
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream (don't substitute milk, heavy cream is a must!)
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Keep cream in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
- Add flour and salt to a medium bowl. Pour in cold cream and stir with a heavy wooden spoon until mixed. Preheat oven to 475°F.
- Dump bowl onto a counter and scrape out any remaining dough or flour. Pat into a rectangle about 2" thick. Fold in thirds, turn 1/4 and fold again, continuing 3 times.
- Cut biscuits with a 3" biscuit cutter. Press down and bring straight up. Do not twist biscuit cutter. Pat excess dough out, cut, and repeat process again.
- Place biscuits on a cookie sheet about 2" apart. Bake for 12 minutes, until golden. Brush with butter. Serve warm.
lori barnes says
Can you use water instead of milk period?
Gianne - TFN Team Member says
We haven’t tried it with water.