A Low-Fi Technique for Laminated Biscuits

"It's called folding because that's what we'll be doing-folding the dough, like a letter to a lover. This technique is used in other baked goods like croissants or puff pastry or pie crust. The end goal is always the same-to create parallel layers of butter and ensnare them between the dough. Once the dough hits the oven, the butter starts to melt and the water it contains turns to steam, puffing out the surrounding dough like a microscopic balloon."

"For croissants and puff pastry, the process is intricate and exacting, involving something called a butter block (which is, well, a big rectangular block of butter) and an expensive machine called a sheeter (whose sole purpose is to smoosh the dough and butter block into increasingly thinner sheets). All that work adds up to a seemingly infinite number of layers. And it's why most people buy these products at a bakery or supermarket, rather than make them from scratch."

Flaky, peel-apart biscuits are created by folding dough to trap parallel layers of butter and dough so that melting butter releases steam and puffs the layers. The folding technique is a form of lamination also used for croissants, puff pastry, and pie crust. Croissants and puff pastry require a precise butter block and a sheeter to produce many ultra-thin layers, which makes them more labor- and tool-intensive. Biscuits tolerate a rougher approach: butter can be incorporated as haphazard chunks with a food processor or fingers, and the dough can be rolled and folded by hand to achieve layered results.

Read at Bon Appetit