Buttery Sourdough Biscuits

Use your discard to make these fluffy, buttery sourdough biscuits in minutes, not overnight! Whether you use whole wheat flour, einkorn, or even gluten-free flour for your sourdough starter, this sourdough biscuits recipe turns out delicious every time!

Part of having a frugal grocery budget is trying to avoid wasting food. I absolutely hate throwing anything out, and that includes any active sourdough starter discard that I may happen to have.

I generally save all of my leftover sourdough starter and keep it in a jar in the fridge for this sourdough pancake recipe or sourdough waffles, but what am I supposed to do if we end up not making pancakes one weekend?

That’s when it’s time for easy sourdough biscuits.

SOURDOUGH DISCARD BISCUITS

Unless I have a hankering for sweet potato biscuits, my quick dinner biscuits are generally my go-to recipe because they’re just so easy!

• They have just enough butter to make them light and fluffy and buttery, but not so much that you feel like you wasted an entire stick of butter on biscuits that your family made disappear in 1.3 seconds. And you don’t feel bad for forking them open to smear more butter either!
• Plus (mom perk!), you can roll them out and cut them when you’re feeling fancy or make them quick drop biscuits when you just need to get them in the oven. They’re delicious both ways!
• You can even change up the type of flour based on what you have! Before I started grinding my own einkorn flour with a grain mill, I used to use up the last random bits of flour in my pantry while making my biscuit recipe… whole wheat, all-purpose, spelt…all turned out great!

I used those easy dinner biscuits as the basis for my new favorite biscuit recipe, and ended up with an amazing sourdough discard recipe that is:

• Soft
• Buttery
• Have that signature sourdough tang
• Quick to make
• A great way to not waste any of that leftover sourdough!

It might sound silly, to make a big fuss about not throwing away what’s essentially ½ cup of flour and ½ cup of water, but in our house, every crumb counts!

Pennies add up to dollars, so changing the way you view food can change the balance of your savings account over time!

SOURDOUGH BISCUITS RECIPE INGREDIENTS

These sourdough biscuits are pretty straightforward, but let’s break down what you need.

SOURDOUGH STARTER

• You need a sourdough starter to make sourdough biscuits. It doesn’t have to be active or mature, which means it’s totally fine to use the flour/water mixture if you’re only on day 2 of making your sourdough starter (see the full process for making your own starter here)!
• The more mature your sourdough starter is, the more tang your biscuits will have.
  • Early on when I had just started making my sourdough starter, the tang in the biscuits was so mild, that it was barely noticeable.
  • After a few weeks though, as my sourdough starter matured, the tang got stronger and stronger.
  • If you don’t want as much tang, I would suggest either using less starter for this sourdough biscuit recipe and adding milk as needed for additional liquid OR adding a teaspoon or two of sugar.
• Ever since we quit sugar, I stopped adding sugar to my biscuits because it just wasn’t necessary. (I still use sugar in my white sandwich bread recipe or my overnight no-knead bread recipe where you need sugar to feed the yeast.)
• Use sourdough starter that hasn’t been fed in at least 4 hours, and make sure to stir your starter before measuring what you need for this recipe.

FLOUR

• Even though there is flour in the sourdough starter, you still need additional flour for your biscuit dough to come together. I’ve made these with freshly ground einkorn and with all-purpose einkorn and they’re absolutely amazing both ways.
• If your family is new to real food and hasn’t boarded the whole grain train yet, don’t feel bad making these with all purpose flour. Be excited that you’re making biscuits from scratch and not having to use a can!
• Also, if you have a batch of homemade Bisquick in the pantry, you can use that here instead of the dry ingredients!

BUTTER

• I cut back on the butter just a tad from what’s typically called for in biscuit recipes because it just isn’t needed. You can get away with 6 Tablespoons per batch and still get the same rich buttery flavor as you would if you used a full stick (8 Tablespoons).
• It’s important that you use COLD butter, otherwise, your biscuits won’t rise. As the butter heats up during baking, it leaves air pockets that make for light and fluffy baked goods. If it’s too warm, it leaks out instead of creating those air pockets.
• I personally haven’t tried this biscuit recipe with coconut oil, but my gut says the biscuits won’t turn out well. I would guess the fat in coconut oil would melt while in the oven, where the fat in the butter evaporates to create lift.
• If you can’t tolerate butter or want vegan sourdough biscuits, try using a plant-based butter replacement.

BAKING POWDER & SALT

• While sourdough does have some lift on its own from the wild yeast, the baking powder helps make these quick biscuits rather than having to wait for a full fermentation time like if you were making sourdough bread.
• I almost always bake with unsalted butter so I can control the amount of salt in a recipe, so take that into consideration if you’re using salted butter.
• You might want to halve the salt in the recipe, taste a bite and if it needs more, sprinkle a bit on top of the biscuits before baking them. Then make a note to adjust the salt the next time you make these sourdough biscuits.
• If you’re going to add salt, I highly recommend Ava Jane’s Kitchen. You may think all salt is created equal, but unfortunately, 90% of the salt produced around the world contains microplastics (gross, right?). Ava Jane’s Kitchen is an exception. Their salt is 100% microplastic-free, and it’s SO GOOD! Plus, you can get a free 8oz. bag of sea salt (just pay shipping and handling!)

SOURDOUGH BISCUIT RECIPE

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with a silpat mat or parchment paper.

Step 2: Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment. Add the butter in slices and mix on low until the dough resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Alternatively, mix these ingredients in a large bowl and use two forks, a box grater, or a pastry cutter to break apart the butter, taking care NOT to make a paste. Fold butter gently into the flour mixture.

Step 3: Add the sourdough starter and mix on low until the dough mostly sticks together. If the dough is too wet, add additional all-purpose flour 1 Tablespoon at a time and mix gently.

Step 4: Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface (a silpat mat works great here!) and gently press the dough into a ¾” thick rectangle.

Step 5: Using a biscuit cutter or 2-inch cookie cutter, cut biscuit dough and place on your prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart.

Step 6: Bake for 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven, until the biscuits are golden brown. Allow the biscuits to cool slightly before serving.

Store your sourdough biscuits in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days or wrap them twice and freeze them for up to 3 months.

FLAKY SOURDOUGH BISCUITS RECIPE TIPS

• I use my KitchenAid stand mixer to make this dough. It keeps my hands clean, and the dough comes together REALLY fast. (Check out over 40 other ways to use your cake mixer here!)
• You can make the biscuit dough – minus the sourdough portion – ahead of time and store it in the fridge. We do this when we go camping. Then whenever you’re ready to make biscuits, just add the sourdough starter and knead either in a stand mixer or by hand in a bowl.
• Sourdough biscuits will spread a bit more than a traditional quick biscuit recipe, so it’s important that your butter is cold. You could even take it a step further by refrigerating your sourdough starter discard overnight as well if you don’t already store it in the refrigerator. The colder the dough is when you start, the less the biscuits will spread.
• I have several hacks for making biscuit cutting easier!
  • Use a mason jar or a drinking glass instead of a biscuit cutter. Decide how big you want your biscuits to be and use whatever jar or glass you have that is closest to that size. If you lightly oil the rim of the glass, the biscuits will cut out easily.
  • If you don’t feel like cutting your sourdough biscuits, you can press the dough into a rectangle and slice them into squares. Bonus – no scraps!
  • If you need “more” biscuits, use a smaller cutter. People tend to take one whole biscuit, no matter the size of the biscuit. If you’re feeding a crowd, consider making smaller biscuits rather than a double batch of large biscuits. I used a pint mason jar and got 14 biscuits out of this recipe, which was perfect for dinner plus leftovers.
• These biscuits freeze well! I recommend baking them first and then freezing them.

HOW TO USE SOURDOUGH STARTER IN ANY QUICK BISCUIT RECIPE

I created this sourdough biscuit recipe to have a quick and easy sourdough version of our favorite dinner biscuits. I quickly realized, though, that you don’t just have to follow that recipe to get buttery sourdough biscuits. You can start with just about any quick biscuit recipe you have!

Taking any quick and easy biscuit recipe and turning it into a sourdough biscuit recipe is pretty straightforward.

You’re essentially substituting sourdough starter for the liquid in a traditional quick biscuit recipe. At the same time, sourdough starter contains flour already, so you do need to reduce the amount of flour you use in your quick biscuit recipe.

Here’s my 1-2-3 method for using sourdough starter in a quick biscuit recipe:

Step 1. Halve the amount of flour. Keep all the other measurements the same.

Step 2. Use sourdough starter in place of the liquid.

Step 3. As the dough comes together, add additional ALL-PURPOSE flour** as needed.

** Note: All-purpose flour absorbs quickly into dough and batters, and it’s important to not over-knead or over-mix biscuit dough. If you do, your biscuits will be tough and chewy, instead of light and fluffy. Using all-purpose at the very end, just to help bring the dough together, will help you not over-mix and still get the right ratio of wet to dry ingredients. You can still use your preference of flour in your sourdough starter and for the initial flour in the biscuits.

MORE YUMMY SOURDOUGH RECIPES

• Sourdough 101: What Is Sourdough and the Benefits of Sourdough Bread
• Sourdough Starters
  • How to Make a Sourdough Starter
  • How to Make an Einkorn Sourdough Starter
  • How to Make a Gluten-free Sourdough Starter
• Sourdough Bread Recipes
  • Simple Sourdough Bread
  • Einkorn Sourdough Sandwich Bread
  • Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
• Sourdough Pancakes (using discard)
• Sourdough Waffles (using discard)
• Sourdough Crackers (using discard)

SOURDOUGH BISCUITS FAQS

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