Household hacks and recipie thread.

[KarynMcD]

Bread flour would have made it tougher. Try a cake or pastry flour, but not the "self-rising" kinds.
A blend of butter and shortening or lard might help also.
Don't use liquid oils. They won't leave an air pocket when they melt to trap steam to help with the rise.
Also make sure the liquids that you are adding are cold. This will help keep the solid fats from melting too early.

[Perry]

I love to watch cooking shows & read cooking magazines. I recall a tip from many, many years ago, not sure why it stuck with me, about cutting biscuits the right way to ensure a proper rise. My mom used a drinking glass as did all my other relatives. The tip is to ditch the drinking glass, use a biscuit cutter. It produces edges that encourage the release of steam to provide the lift. Evidently using a glass and a twisting motion compresses the dough.

Curious if my memory was right I did a quick search. Wouldn't you know, one of the first results is an article from King Arthur Flour extolling the virtues of a "proper" biscuit cutter! Alternatively the article suggested using a sharp knife could produce like results.

If you are already using a biscuit cutter then I don't know, unless you are patting it down too aggressively or not starting out with it tall enough to produce a nicely risen biscuit.

Perry

[Colleen_definitely]

I am using a cutter but I'm twisting it. I wonder if that might be the problem...