It’s cozy season, and I’m excited to be teaming up with my friends over at Crisco again to bring y’all this recipe for Snickerdoodle Biscuits! The weather is turning chilly, the holidays are coming up, and these biscuits are a spice-filled treat perfect for any kind of breakfast or brunch from now until it starts to get warm out again. (Although anyone who has been reading this blog for any length of time should know that I’m obsessed with cinnamon all year round!) If you’ve got guests in town or family over, these biscuits are definitely what you should make for them.
This is a classic buttermilk biscuit recipe, and we’re using Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening Baking sticks (I used the butter flavored variety), which give the biscuits a super soft and tender texture and those wonderful layers we all love. Plus, there’s lots of cinnamon and sugar folded in.
My mom always tells me about my grandmother making biscuits with Crisco when she was growing up, and I’ve always wanted to be the kind of person who can whip up some really incredible biscuits the way my grandmother could. That’s like a requirement or a rite of passage for a Southern baker, you know? I feel like Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening is mostly used for pie crusts and things like that, but it also works wonders in biscuits. It’s high melting point helps us get those iconic flaky layers. And it’s a true testament of a trustworthy product that I’m standing in my kitchen all these years later and still using Crisco in my own baking!
Some fun facts about Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening that you might not know: it’s plant-based (hence the “all-vegetable” part) and it contains 50% less saturated fat than butter. Just a couple of the many reasons why I always have some stashed in my pantry!
If you’ve never made homemade biscuits before, you should definitely give it a try! The process is maybe a little messy, but it’s pretty easy and straightforward. You’ll whisk together your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. The shortening needs to be thoroughly chilled (you can pop it in the freezer 30 mins or so before you plan to bake) and diced. Next, the shortening is incorporated into the dry mixture, and my personal favorite way to do this is just with my hands! You can use a pastry cutter if you’d like, and I know some people even use food processors. If you use your hands though, I feel like you can better gage of the consistency you’re looking for: sandy with pea-sized bits throughout. Next comes the buttermilk and you’re ready for rolling.
Then fun part number one: rolling out the dough and sprinkling with cinnamon-sugar. The dough is folded, then cut in half and stacked, adding sprinkles of cinnamon-sugar to all the layers. After cutting out the biscuits and baking them, they’re brushed with some melted butter and rolled in cinnamon-sugar again for good measure (fun part number two). Voila! Snickerdoodle Biscuits perfect for weekend mornings with large cups of steaming coffee. What could be better? Nothing, except making dunking these babies in the coffee?? I’m trying it next time.
These biscuits are so soft and tender, making them the perfect vessels for butter or jams. I highly suggest going the seasonal route and serving them with apple or pumpkin butter. I’m already looking forward to making these all season long!
Snickerdoodle Biscuits
Ingredients
Biscuits
- 1 cup 1 stick Butter-Flavored Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp Clabber Girl Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Clabber Girl Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Spice Island ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup very cold buttermilk
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup butter melted
Cinnamon-Sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tbsp Spice Island ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Place shortening in the freezer at least 30 minutes to an hour before preparing the biscuits.
- Preheat oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Dice shortening and add to the dry ingredients. Using your clean hands or a pastry cutter, mix the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal with small pea-sized pieces throughout.
- Using a rubber spatula, mix in the buttermilk mixture until a shaggy dough just comes together.
- Stir together sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
- Turn biscuit dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out until dough is about ½-inch thick. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar. Fold the dough in thirds, letter style, and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar again. Cut in half, and stack on half on top of the other. Roll into a 9” x 6” rectangle. Using a lightly floured biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits (remember not to twist the cutter). Gather the scraps and pat into a square or circle about an inch thick; cut out additional biscuits. There should be enough dough for 12 biscuits total.
- Transfer biscuits to the prepared baking sheet and arrange in three rows of four, leaving about an inch between them. Brush tops of biscuits with cream.
- Bake biscuits for 12 to 15 minutes, or until tops are lightly golden brown. Let the biscuits cool for 5 to 10 minutes, then brush with melted butter and roll in remaining cinnamon-sugar.
- Serve Snickerdoodle Biscuits with apple or pumpkin butter. Store covered at room temperature.
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