Use up your discarded starter in this quick and easy Sourdough Biscuit recipe. Buttery, flaky and full of flavor, these are made with sour cream and scallions. Vegan adaptable with a video!
If there is something “past” that needs to be seen or healed back into wholeness, it will arise in the present experience. We do not have to dig up pebbles from a streambed.
Dorothy Hunt
These flaky buttery Sourdough Biscuits are studded with scallions and have the best texture and flavor. A great way to use up that sourdough discard! If I’m being truthful they are pretty dangerous to have around, because it’s impossible not to devour them once they are made. So be warned!
Sourdough Biscuits |60-second Video
This is for those of you who are ready to do something with your sourdough discard, or sourdough starter in addition to making the Sourdough Bread-which I keep hearing is working out for you! So happy and excited for you! A true feat! Hooray!
Want more sourdough discard recipes? Check out Sourdough Waffles, Sourdough Pancakes, and Sourdough Scones!
Table of Contents
Why You Will Love SourDough Biscuits!
- Flavorful: Sourdough biscuits have a distinct tangy flavor that adds depth and complexity to your ordinary biscuit recipe.
- Flaky Texture: The combination of butter and sourdough gives these biscuits a light and flaky texture that is absolutely irresistible.
- Easy to Make: With just a few simple ingredients and minimal steps, you can have freshly baked sourdough biscuits on your table in no time.
- Use Up Sourdough Discard: If you’ve been maintaining a sourdough starter, this recipe is a great way to use up your discard instead of wasting it. It gives a beautiful sourdough tang to your baked goods and adds nutrition! It’s a win-win situation!
- Versatile: Sourdough biscuits can be enjoyed on their own, as a side dish with soups and stews, or even as a base for sandwiches. They’re incredibly versatile and can complement a variety of meals.
Ingredients In Sourdough Biscuits
Ingredient Notes
- All-Purpose Flour (or bread flour): Make sure to fluff the flour, spoon it into the measuring cup, and level it off to ensure accurate measurements.
- Salt: If you’re using salted butter, you can use a slightly smaller amount of salt in the recipe.
- Baking Powder: This helps the biscuits rise and become light and fluffy.
- Unsalted Butter (or vegan butter): Cut the cold butter into small slices to create uneven crumbs in the dough.
- Chopped Scallions or Chives (optional): These add a delicious flavor to the biscuits. Feel free to use either scallions or chives based on your preference.
- Sourdough Starter discard: You’ll need 3/4 cup of sourdough discard or unfed sourdough starter for this recipe. If using discard, make sure it has been kept in the fridge for 7-10 days without feeding.
- Sour Cream (or vegan sour cream, buttermilk, or yogurt): Sour cream gives the biscuits a lovely flavor when combined with the scallions. However, you can use alternative options like vegan sour cream, buttermilk, or yogurt if desired.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
How To Make Sourdough Biscuits
In a large bowl, start with butter, flour, salt and baking powder. Use your fingers and break apart into uneven crumbs, no bigger than a pea. Add scallions if you like, or chives are nice too.
Mix 3/4 cup starter with 1/2 cup sour cream. You can also use yogurt, vegan yogurt, vegan sour cream, or buttermilk. The sour cream really gives a lovely flavor here with the scallions- just sayin’. 🙂
Combine and stir into a shaggy ball. Place onto a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle with flour.
Knead twice- for like 2 seconds. Pat flat into a 3/4 inch rectangle. Then fold up into thirds like an envelope. Pat it down and repeat 2 times. The third time, pat the folded “envelope” into a thick rectangle 5 by 9 inches and about 1 1/2 inches thick. This folding creates tender layers.
Using a biscuit cutter, or sharp knife, cut the biscuit dough into 6 pieces. Place onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet, and bake until golden brown, about 20 -25 minutes. Internal temp should reach 205F.
Sourdough Biscuit FAQS
Sourdough Starter is often referred to as “wild yeast”, made from flour and water and the wild yeast in the air around us,and it is typically used as the “yeast” when baking Sourdough Bread. The sourdough “discard” – the part of the starter that often goes to waste- can be used to make flavorful biscuits, waffles and pancakes.
Keep sourdough discard in the fridge for 7-10 days without feeding. Don’t feed the “discard” (only feed the starter that you plan to use for bread). Use the discard up in sourdough pancakes and sourdough waffles. Yes, you can add to the discard.
Yes! Simply take some out of the jar and feed it fresh water and flour.
It is most likely from expired or old baking powder. Also make sure your oven is fully preheated.
More Sourdough Discard Recipes
My favorite biscuit ever!!!! Flakey, flavorful and so easy.
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Enjoy! Such a great way to use up your sourdough starter or discard!
Print
Sourdough Biscuits Recipe
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: baked
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: northwest
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
An easy recipe for Sourdough Biscuits with scallions using discard or sourdough starter. These buttery biscuits can be made in 45 minutes!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup (180g) All-Purpose Flour (or bread flour) , fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 teaspoon salt (use a little less if using salted butter)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 8 tablespoons unsalted, cold butter (or use vegan butter), cut into 1/4-inch slices. (113.5 grams) See notes!
- 1/4–1/2 cup chopped scallions or chives (optional, of course)
- 3/4 cup (170g) discard or sourdough starter, unfed
- 1/2 cup sour cream (or sub vegan sour cream, buttermilk or yogurt)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F
- In a medium bowl, mix flour, salt and baking powder.
- Work in the cut cold butter into the flour using your fingers until it is unevenly crumbly, with the biggest crumbs the size of peas. Mix in the scallions if using.
- Place 3/4 cup starter and 1/2 cup sour cream in a bowl and mix with a fork ( it doesn’t have to be perfectly mixed together).
- Pour this into the flour mixture and using a fork, mix until the dough comes together into a very shaggy ball.
- Place the ball on a well-floured surface, sprinkle with flour and knead gently just to incorporate ( for 5 seconds- don’t over knead). Pat into a 6 x 10-inch rectangle. Fold up the sides into thirds like a tri-fold envelope and pat again into a 6 x10 inch rectangle. Fold up the sides into thirds again. Re-flour your work surface, adding more if needed. Pat into an 8 x 5-inch rectangle about 1 1/2 inches tall. Cut into 6 equal pieces.
- Place on a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Check at 15-20 minutes, rotating pan if necessary. Keep baking until biscuits are beautifully golden and internal temp reaches 205F.
Notes
A friend of mine makes this with 3/4 and sometimes 1/2 the butter- and it still turns out. A little less flakey but still pretty good.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 biscuit
- Calories: 291
- Sugar: 0.6 g
- Sodium: 408.5 mg
- Fat: 18.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 11.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 27.4 g
- Fiber: 1.1 g
- Protein: 4.8 g
- Cholesterol: 47.4 mg
Easy and simply amazing!
Awesome!
These biscuits are delicious, a regular go-to for me. I’ve shared the recipes with friends and they’re always a hit
Thanks Kay!
These were amazing!! I sent a picture to my brother and he said, “can you make these for me when I come visit?” Can’t wait to make these again 🙂 thanks Sylvia!!
Great to hear!
We absolutely love this sourdough biscuits recipe. My husband calls them crack biscuits! Lol
Great to hear!
I love these! But I have a ton of left over starter. Just got it going. Do I freeze these before or after they are cooked?
I would freeze after!
These were fantastic! The only changes I made were to add 1.5 cups of cheddar cheese and use buttermilk instead of sour cream. This made a wonderful dinner. With I could add a photo because they look so beautiful and taste wonderful.
Perfect Maureen! Glad these worked for you!
These biscuits wete amazing! Needless to say, I will be making more🙂
Awesome Valerie!
Is there a way to substitute all or part of the butter with olive oil?
Hi Paula- a friend of mine makes these using half the butter. You could try that. Keep everything else the same. Not sure how olive oil would affect the liquid ratio.
Can you freeze these biscuits?
Yes, these should freeze just fine!
i used chopped scallions and parsley and brushed the hot biscuits with scape gee when they were straight out of the oven. ooh la la…
Awesome Heather!
Best biscuits that I have ever tasted! Light, flaky and easy to make. THANK YOU!!
Yay! So glad you liked them Melanie!
I have made these biscuits over and over and over !!!!! Winner!!! I made your starter about a year ago and have made the no knead bread ( given loaves during Covid) to members of my church and delighted my husband with biscuits!!
Delicious
Thank you so much
Kim 💕
Yay Kim!!! Glad this is working for you!
SO yummy! I used an unfed starter, and these were so deliciously sour. My young kids devoured these plain. Didn’t use the scallions this time, but probably will next time.
Glad you enjoyed Megan!
Wanting a quick breakfast, I made these today using starter that has been sitting in my fridge, unfed, for over a month… They came out fantastic!
The whole story: the way I usually use my starter leaves me no discard. But this starter has been through a lot: it had to travel from the US to Poland, upon arrival it got fed in preparation for baking, and then I found out that my oven had died… After that, I was away, and busy, and so it sat in the back of the fridge until I got a new oven and more time… A few days ago, a bit of it got used for some bread (so I knew it was still alive!), but since I had previously done a feeding without baking, I had way more than I needed. So I made these biscuits.
I am not a biscuit maker, so I didn’t quite know what to expect, but these rose nicely and came out light and fluffy and beautiful and very yummy! I wouldn’t call them flaky (which is what I have heard real biscuits should be), but I am not even sure what that means… I loved these and will purposely create some discard to be able to make them again. 🙂 Thank you!
Your starter has indeed been through a lot Hania! Glad you enjoyed the biscuits!
My third time to use this recipe, and we love these biscuits! And I always double it! It’s so fun to bake biscuits the slow and beautiful buttery way of days gone by! I use homemade butter, and the buttermilk that comes with it when I am preparing it!
Thank you!
(PS – The video attached is actually one for harissa paste! It also looks yummy!)
Glad you like the biscuits Vicki! Will check on the video- it just may have scrolled through to the next one. 😉
This is such a perfect biscuit that it is the only recipe I use! Do you have any suggestions of spreads to put on the biscuit and make it an appetizer?
How about brie or cambozola and fig jam? 😉
Hi Slyvia, what kind of difference will it make if i use unfed/discard vs fed sourdough starter? Thanks for the recipe!
It shouldn’t matter too much here!
I’m new at sourdough and biscuit making. These were easy and excellent! Just like your sourdough bread recipe! Had to hide them from my husband before our company came.
Has anyone tried to make the dough the night before and bake them in the morning?
Thanks Bonnie!
Heavens, this is delish! SO glad i doubled it! Thank you for the recipe! Added grated mozzarella with chive from the garden. Magic x
Awesome!
yummy with crabapple jelly
Yum!
Hi Sylvia, thank you for sharing such an amazingly easy recipe! I baked a double batch today and they turned out great. Will be sharing them with my family tomorrow! I dare say these are even better than those i have bought as takeaways from restaurants. Thank you again and stay safe and healthy 🙂
Thanks and glad you liked them Ainie!
So delicious. Thank you for sharing the recipe. I would like to make a triple batch for an upcoming breakfast gathering and was wondering if I could prepare them the night before and keep them unbaked in the fridge and pop them in the oven in the morning. Thanks.
I think that should work fine, but truthfully haven’t tried? I bet it would be fine!
This is my go to recipe and my go to blog for all the people ingetnhooked on sourdough starter!😁. I even play with it a little like adding jalapeños and cheddar cheese and garlic powder. Also, I sometimes substitute the butter for 1/2 olive oil and 1/2 canola oil for a more heart healthy version (I date a cardiologist, and you know how they are about butter!)😒. These biscuits are definitely boyfriend tested and mother approved. The instructions are great as well. The only thing I will add is I tried doing this with buttermilk and I think the combo of the sourdough and buttermilk make the biscuits too sour. I stick with yoghurt. Thanks for the recipe
Delicious! Mine weren’t quite as fluffy as yours, but a super tasty way to use that discard.
My husband requests these on Father’s Day and his birthday. These biscuits always turn out great!
thanks Kylie!