Sourdough Sandwich Biscuits (2024)

FAQs

Why don't my sourdough biscuits rise? ›

If you twist, you'll seal the biscuit edges and you won't get layers! They also won't rise as well. Put your biscuits in the freezer while the oven heats up to make sure everything stays really cold.

You can feed your sourdough starter with any flour you like, as long as it provides the starches the wild yeast in your sourdough starter need to convert to Co2 to rise your dough.

The secret to sourdough is simple: water. The more water you add to your dough will affect how open the crumb (bigger holes and softer texture) will be once it's baked.

If you have too much starter compared to the additional flour and water you're adding, your hungry starter consumes all the nutrients and then it's not as bubbly.

When sourdough bread dough doesn't rise, it's usually because the starter you used wasn't active enough. To remedy this problem, make sure you're using recently fed, active starter with lots of bubbles. Also, next time try using warm (not hot) water when you mix up the dough and rising it in a warmer location.

Keep the oven hot.

When baking buttery treats like biscuits, the key is to bake them at a temperature where the water in the butter turns quickly to steam. This steam is a big part of how the biscuits achieve their height, as it evaporates up and out.

Eggs in dough usually produces an extra open and delicate crumb and the bread comes with an extra rise. Why is that? Egg has protein, fat, water and while the fat and water soften the crumb, the protein helps with strengthening the gluten and capturing more CO2.

Bacteria and yeast in the flour and air around you enables the microbes to convert the sugars in the flour into ethanol, carbon dioxide and acids. Carbon dioxide makes your sourdough bread rise. Acids give the sourdough bread its unique flavor.

With each sourdough starter feeding, you'll be discarding some to avoid it from becoming overly acidic. Most will compost or trash this discard, but you can save it and use it in other recipes!

If you don't get rid of the excess, eventually you'll have more starter than your feedings can sustain. After a few days, your daily 1/4 cup flour and water won't be enough to sustain your entire jar of starter, and your starter will be slow and sluggish, not much better than discard itself.

Can you stretch and fold sourdough too much? ›

An over-folded dough might have a tighter crumb as the layers of alveoli push against each other and coalesce. In the worst case, excessive folding might cause a dough to tear under too much tension.

Overworking (or Underworking) the Dough

The biscuits will be hard and tough if you stir the dough too much. They will have a floury, uneven texture if you don't mix enough. Our Test Kitchen cracked the code: Stir the dough 15 times for the perfect consistency and texture.

The enclosed environment will keep the dough warmer and help it to rise. You can also use warm water in your dough (between 80° to 85°F) to speed up the rising process. In my experience, sourdough bread dough tends to thrive at temperatures between 75°F and 80°F.

Overworking the dough will not only create a tough biscuit instead of a tender biscuit, but can also result in a flatter biscuit. The more you play with the dough, the warmer the dough becomes. If the fat becomes too warm it will melt into the flour and they won't rise as tall.