Biscuits make just about any meal better. That’s why so many people choose to make their own from scratch.
When you don’t have a lot of experience, it’s going to be easy to make a mistake or two along the way. You might wind up baking some with bottoms that are quite hard.
Why are the biscuit bottoms so hard, and is there some mistake that caused them to turn out this way?
Read on to find out why this happens and what to do about it.
1 – You Baked Them Too Long
The most common reason why biscuits turn out hard on the bottom is that people bake them too long. You might have simply lost track of time and kept them in the oven longer than you were supposed to.
Take a look at the recipe that you’re using to see how long the biscuits are supposed to bake. Then ensure that you set a timer so that you can take them out of the oven on time.
During the baking process, it’s going to be wise to avoid getting too distracted. Some people make the mistake of talking on the phone or doing household chores away from the kitchen.
If you’re vacuuming, you might not hear the timer go off. The same thing can happen when you’re having a phone conversation in the other room.
Try to be somewhat mindful of the time that the biscuits have left. Be ready with your oven mitt to take them out and see if they baked as intended.
2 – Improper Oven Temperatures
Oven temperatures need to be just right for the biscuits to turn out perfectly. If you have the temperature wrong, you could easily burn them.
Even if the biscuits don’t completely burn, it might make the bottoms hard if you bake them at too high of a temperature. Avoid using temperatures that are higher than recommended by the recipe.
There are some other potential reasons why your oven would be too hot to consider, though. Some ovens have hot spots, and this means that certain parts might get hotter than others.
You can check for oven hot spots by toasting bread on the oven racks and seeing the spots where the bread gets burnt. If your oven has hot spots, you might need to be careful to just bake things in the center.
It’s also highly recommended to line the baking sheet or tray with parchment paper. This should help to keep the bottoms from getting too hard.
3 – Placing the Tray Too Close to the Bottom of the Oven
Of course, you might just be baking the biscuits too low in the oven. If you put them on the bottom rack, the bottoms might harden due to being too close to the heating element.
It might be easier to get good results if you bake biscuits on the top or middle racks instead. Try to be mindful of where you’re putting them so that you can avoid issues like this.
Some ovens might not have problems with putting trays on the bottom rack. This means that this may or may not be a problem that you’ll need to worry about.
Thankfully, it’s easy to just put the biscuits on the middle or top rack to be safe. It’s worth changing up the way that you’re doing things since it could make all the difference.
4 – Try Turning the Tray
Turning the tray might be a solution to your hard biscuit problem. Often, the biscuits will get too hard in certain spots, and this could be because of heat issues with your oven.
As mentioned earlier, sometimes ovens will have hot spots that will cause certain parts to be hotter than they should. You might be able to get this problem fixed, but you could also try working around it.
Try turning the biscuit tray halfway through the baking process. This might help the biscuits to bake evenly instead of having issues with some parts being too hard.
If you do this while also placing the biscuits on the middle rack, issues with hardened biscuit bottoms should become an uncommon occurrence. It’s good to know that you can fix this problem without having to go to too much trouble in most instances.
Final Thoughts
Making biscuits is something that you’re probably going to be doing a lot. When you love the homemade variety, it makes sense that you’d want to make them to go with specific meals.
If your biscuits have been turning out too hard on the bottom, this can be a bit disappointing. You don’t have to give up on making them because a few things went wrong, though.
It’s possible to make them turn out better if you pay attention to the common causes of hardness. Ensure that you’re baking the biscuits at the right temperature while also baking them for the right amount of time.
Sometimes this problem is as simple as making mistakes with the temperature setting. You might also be trying to bake them for longer than you should.
Oven hot spots can make biscuits turn out too hard or get burned. You should try putting them in the middle rack to avoid having issues like this.
Sometimes turning the tray about half way through the baking process will help you to combat hardness and burning issues as well. You could try lining the baking tray or sheet with parchment paper to protect the bottoms, too.
Hopefully, you’ll feel more confident now. Enjoy your delicious biscuits that are made to perfection!
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.