Carla Hall's No-Knead Method For Perfect Biscuits
Since appearing on Season 5 of "Top Chef," where she made it all the way to the final round, Carla Hall quickly won over cooking fans with her warm, quirky, and bubbly personality. She then appeared in "Top Chef: All Stars" and went on to host "The Chew" and "Holiday Baking Championships." A trained chef and bestselling author of several cookbooks, Hall believes that "food connects us all" (via Food Network), which she puts into action when she shares recipes and cooking tips with her followers and fans.
Hall's trick for using a glass lid when making caramel to prevent sugar from crystallizing was a game changer for ensuring the perfect smooth texture for the sticky sweet dessert sauce. Hall has also shared an easy trick for saving over-softened butter that's key for making both good cookies and flaky biscuits. And Hall should know a thing or two about biscuits — she notes in her Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits class on the Food Network that, given her love for biscuits, they're one of the first things she learned how to make. Well, in a recent Instagram post, Hall shared more of that knowledge with her "five top tips for making perfect biscuits every time," noting that "biscuit making is an art!"
The alternative to kneading your dough
Carla Hall's five tips for perfect biscuits include: (1) using your hands; (2) grating in your cold butter; (3) using whole buttermilk (not low-fat); (4) patting and folding, skipping the kneading and rolling pin; and (5) using a biscuit cutter and flipping to get that perfectly tall shape.
As Cook's Illustrated explains, the reason you knead dough is to build strength and structure, by bringing the gluten in the dough into alignment. Folding is a different technique that achieves largely the same result, while using a more gentle process that can lead to "more even dough." Crust Kingdom concurs, noting that "folding is more gentle and can produce slightly lighter, more airy bread." As a bonus, folding also requires less physical effort than kneading. To fold the dough, use your fingertips to "grab the edge of the dough and gently lift and fold it towards the middle," per Cook's Illustrated. So the next time you're planning to make biscuits from scratch, channel Carla Hall, skip the rolling pin, and fold your dough instead to make the perfect, flaky and airy biscuits.