When seeking convenient yet delicious baked goods, frozen biscuits often come to mind. These ready-to-bake options can be a lifesaver for busy mornings or when entertaining a crowd. But with numerous brands on the market, choosing the right one can be a challenge. To simplify this decision, a comprehensive taste test was conducted on several widely available frozen biscuit brands, encompassing both plain and buttermilk varieties. The results not only highlight the top performers but also shed light on the characteristics that define an exceptional frozen biscuit.
The selection process involved a blind tasting, ensuring impartiality, where each biscuit was evaluated based on taste, texture, and overall appeal. The top contenders demonstrated a balance of tenderness, flakiness, and a satisfyingly crisp exterior. While some brands excelled in buttery richness, others offered a delightful blend of sweet and savory notes. This rigorous evaluation provides consumers with clear recommendations for purchasing frozen biscuits that deliver on quality and flavor, making it easier to enjoy warm, fluffy biscuits without the effort of baking from scratch.
Top-Rated Frozen Biscuits Revealed
In a comprehensive blind taste test, seven widely available frozen biscuit brands were evaluated to determine the best options. The evaluation considered crucial attributes such as tenderness, flakiness, crispness, and flavor balance. Immaculate Baking Organic Flaky Biscuits earned the top spot in the plain biscuit category, praised for their pleasant crunch and soft interior. Tasters consistently noted their appealing "toasty" flavor and a subtle sweetness that enhanced their overall profile. These plain biscuits offered a harmonious blend of salty and sweet notes, coupled with a tender texture and distinct layers.
For buttermilk biscuits, Magnolia Table Jo's Buttermilk Frozen Biscuits were crowned the winner. Despite some comments about their oily nature, tasters found their rich, buttery flavor to be exceptional. The biscuits were described as dense and satisfyingly buttery, compensating for any perceived oiliness with their intense flavor. Additionally, two brands were recognized as runners-up: Trader Joe's Organic Biscuits for plain and Callie's Hot Little Biscuit Buttermilk Biscuits for buttermilk. Trader Joe's biscuits, while slightly drier, were appreciated for their buttery taste, good browning, and balanced sweet-savory profile. Callie's biscuits were favored for their Southern diner-like quality, offering a nice buttery flavor and a crispy, crumbly texture, despite being a bit doughy.
Insights into Biscuit Composition and Characteristics
Both refrigerated and frozen biscuits share fundamental ingredients, typically consisting of flour, water, sugar, salt, chemical leavening agents like baking powder or soda, and a fat source, often palm oil or butter. Many commercial brands also incorporate additives and preservatives such as xanthan gum, mono and diglycerides, and ascorbic acid to enhance texture and shelf life. All tested biscuits, whether refrigerated or frozen, came pre-portioned, simplifying the baking process to merely arranging them on a baking sheet and following package instructions.
Notably, the top-performing biscuits generally featured shorter ingredient lists with fewer additives. The plain biscuit winners and runners-up often contained palm oil, a hydrogenated fat common in processed foods. In contrast, the favored buttermilk biscuits were dairy-enriched; Magnolia Table Jo's used cream cheese, while Callie's Hot Little Biscuit incorporated sour cream. This suggests that while additives are common, quality ingredients, especially dairy fats, play a significant role in superior flavor and texture. Despite not replicating homemade quality, the majority of the tested frozen biscuits were deemed enjoyable, particularly when enhanced with butter or gravy, highlighting their utility as convenient and tasty alternatives for any meal occasion.
