Flaky and Tender Mini Honey Butter Biscuits
This post will teach you how to make the absolute best mini honey butter biscuits. This detailed guide is full of tips and tricks and how-to photos to help you successfully make these tender and flaky mini buttermilk biscuits at home. This recipe makes 18 mini biscuits, which are so good topped with a pat of butter and a bit of fruit jam (like my pineapple habanero jam!)
Ingredients
Honey Butter
- 113 grams unsalted butter (1 stick / 8 TBSP)
- 38 grams honey
Honey Butter Biscuits
- 60 grams honey butter (chilled)
- 110 grams buttermilk (chilled)
- 171 grams pastry flour
- 2¼ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon diamond crystal kosher salt (use half as much of any other brand)
- 1 egg (whisked well, for egg wash)
- 1½ teaspoons flaky sea salt (for topping)
- 60 grams honey butter (melted)
Instructions
Make honey butter
- In a larger bowl than you think you'll need, use a hand mixer to combine softened butter and honey until cohesive.
- Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge until firm and cold throughout, at least 2 hours or overnight.
Make biscuits
- Measure 60 grams of chilled honey butter and cut into roughly 1" pieces. Place in the freezer while you mix the dry ingredients (5 minutes).
- Combine pastry flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium sized bowl.
- Add chilled honey butter and toss it with the flour mixture, pinching and smushing it between your fingers until the butter pieces are the size of large peas or small grapes.
- Fold in the cold buttermilk, stirring gently just until the buttermilk is absorbed. The mixture will be clumpy and might have lots of dry floury bits, but that's okay. Do not overmix!
- Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured counter or cutting board. Gather it into a pile in the center and use a bench scraper to cut a cross hatch pattern through it. Then use your hand and the straight edge of the bench scraper to form a square about ½" thick. Work quickly so the butter doesn't start to melt.
- Cut the square into quarters and stack them on top of each other. Press down with your hand to flatten the dough back into a square ½" thick. Repeat the cutting and stacking process two more times.
- Pat the dough out into a long rectangle about 6 inches across and 1 inch thick. Trim the edges to release any tension on the dough. Pat the excess dough down on top of the rectangle.
- Cut the dough rectangle into 18 mini biscuits — a 3 by 6 grid. Move the bench scraper in an up and down motion, do not slice or slide the blade along on the counter.
- Transfer biscuits to a lined baking sheet about 2" apart. Place the sheet pan in the freezer for 20 minutes while the oven preheats.
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Brush just the tops of the biscuits with egg wash and sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Try not to get egg wash on the sides of the biscuits, or it will glue the layers together.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes at 400°F. After 10 minutes, spoon melted honey butter over the biscuits and return to the oven for an additional 3-5 minutes. Best served warm.
RECIPE NOTES
- To use buttermilk powder instead of buttermilk, add 2 teaspoons of buttermilk powder to the dry ingredients and use chilled whole milk instead of buttermilk.
- I don't recommend using a milk + vinegar/lemon juice buttermilk substitute here as it will throw off the ratio of liquid and dry ingredients, leaving you with very wet and sticky biscuit dough.
- DO NOT OVER MIX biscuit dough. Once you add the buttermilk stir and fold gently just until no liquid remains. The flour will continue absorbing the buttermilk as you work through the stacking and smushing process. At first it might not seem like it will hold together, but by the time you do the final stack and flatten, the dough will hold together just fine.
- To make bigger (or regular-sized) honey butter biscuits, double the recipe. Pat the dough into a square about an inch to an inch-and-a-half thick, then cut it into a 2x2 or 3x3 grid. You'll get 4 or 9 square biscuits. Bake for 15 minutes at 400°F, then top with melted honey butter and bake for 5-6 minutes more.
- ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR: All-purpose flour can work if you don't have pastry flour. If you're being picky, look for an all-purpose flour with a lower protein content (9-10%). All-purpose flour is better at developing gluten than pastry flour, so be very gentle with your mixing when you add the buttermilk. Stir gently, just until the buttermilk absorbs. Let the flour finish hydrating while you're folding the dough. You don't want to end up with dense biscuits!
- Biscuits are best eaten day-of, still warm. They can be stored in an airtight container overnight.