Can you make biscuit dough ahead of time?

by Mark Geslock
(Fredericksburg, VA)

I make the same style of biscuits that you make in Cooking Coarse #37. Can you make the biscuit dough the day before and chill or freeze?

I would think the cold would effect the baking powder.


Chef Todd Says:
Mark-
It's not the cold that we're worried about, it's the moisture. There are two types of baking powder, single acting and double acting. The single acting reacts with moisture, the double acting has it's first reaction with moisture and the second with heat.

If you mix your biscuit dough ahead of time, the baking powder will react with moisture, and the next day you'll have smaller biscuits. If you immediately freeze the dough, you slow this reaction, and can then bake biscuits directly from the frozen biscuit dough the next morning.

Or, substitute the double-acting baking powder for single acting. Or, "par-mix" your biscuit dough. Cut the fat and flour together, but leave out the baking powder and liquid ingredients. The next morning, just add the leavening agent and liquid ingredients to finish mixing, then pan and bake. This is probably the best method to get the highest rise.

Make yourself a little experiment. Mix a batch of biscuits, bake half immediately, and half the next day. Tell me how it goes.

Chef Todd.