Real flaky layers set these buttery keto biscuits apart. Almond flour, no eggs, 4.7g net carbs each. The secret is grating frozen butter into the dough and folding it five times so they pull apart.
I’ve tested a lot of low carb biscuit recipes over the years, and this keto biscuit recipe is the one I keep coming back to. The layers are real. Not that dense, crumbly texture you get from most gluten-free baking, but actual flaky layers that pull apart. The whole thing comes down to frozen butter and a simple folding technique.
These biscuits use almond flour and coconut flour with no eggs, which makes them gluten free and grain free. They rise from baking powder, baking soda, and the acid in sour cream. The frozen butter is what makes the layers. It creates steam pockets in the oven, and those pockets separate into flaky sheets as they bake. I tried softened butter once and the difference was dramatic. Tender, sure, but the biscuit was completely flat.
Hot out of the oven, they’re almost too tender to pick up. I pour sausage gravy right over the top because the gravy soaks into every cranny while they’re still warm. If you want something sturdier, let them cool overnight. They firm up enough to slice in half or dunk into soup. You can also fold in sharp cheddar before cutting for a sausage cheddar biscuit variation that my readers love.
What I love about this recipe is how little it needs. No eggs, no yeast, no rise time. Mix, fold, cut, bake. I can have a batch done in under 30 minutes and they go with just about everything. I serve them alongside chili, with roasted chicken, or just split open with butter and coffee. If you’re building out your baking rotation, my keto tortillas and bread loaf are worth trying too.
These store well in an airtight container at room temperature for about three days, or in the fridge for a week. I actually prefer the texture on day two. They firm up just enough to hold together without losing that buttery flavor. If I’m meal prepping, I make a double batch on Sunday and keep them in the fridge for easy reheating throughout the week.
I’ve had readers tell me their non-keto friends couldn’t tell the difference between these and regular buttermilk biscuits. That’s the kind of feedback that tells me the technique works.
The frozen butter trick for flaky layers
The secret is butter that’s frozen solid. I put mine in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before I start. You want those butter pieces cold and chunky in the dough, not soft, because cold butter creates steam in the oven. That steam separates the dough into flaky layers.
My favorite method is using a cheese grater to shred the frozen butter right into the dry ingredients. It creates perfect shreds and keeps the butter colder than cubing and cutting it in with a fork. The less you handle the butter, the better your layers will be.
If you don’t have a cheese grater, cube the butter and work it in with a fork or pastry cutter. Just move fast. I made the mistake of using softened butter once, thinking it would mix more evenly. The biscuits came out tender but completely flat. No layers, no flake. That one batch is the reason I’m so particular about frozen butter now. Skipping the fold step does the same thing. Those five folds are what build the layers, so a dough that goes straight from the bowl to the pan bakes up tender but flat.
Why psyllium husk makes the difference
I use psyllium husk in this recipe for two reasons.
It retains moisture and keeps the biscuits from crumbling apart as they cool. Without it, almond flour baked goods tend to fall apart once they’re not warm anymore.
It creates bulk and structure in the dough, which you need when baking without gluten or eggs.
My go-to is psyllium husk by NOW Supplements. I’ve tried other brands and this one is the most consistent. Make sure you’re using whole psyllium husk, not the powder, for this recipe. The powder absorbs differently and will change the texture completely.
No eggs needed
If you’re sensitive to eggs or just want to avoid them, this recipe doesn’t use any. A lot of gluten-free biscuit recipes lean on eggs to get the dough to rise, and the result often tastes eggy. I wanted something that tasted like a real buttermilk biscuit, not a savory pancake.
This dough rises from baking powder, baking soda, and the acid in sour cream. The sour cream activates the leaveners during baking, releasing carbon dioxide bubbles that puff everything up. I’ve found this combination gives a lighter, more bread-like texture than eggs do in keto baking.
More low carb bread recipes
I serve these alongside soups, stews, and anything with gravy. If you’re looking for more bread options to round out your meals, here are some I come back to:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: almond flour, coconut flour, psyllium, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
For this step
Almond flour
Coconut flour
Psyllium
Baking Powder
Salt
Baking soda
2
Grate your butter
Using a cheese grater, grate frozen butter into the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir to distribute, but don’t mix too much. You want the butter to be in lumps. The more the butter is still intact and not soft or melted, the flakier the biscuit will be.
For this step
Butter
3
Mix
Add in the whipping cream and sour cream. Stir with a spoon to combine until just incorporated.
For this step
Heavy cream
Sour cream
4
Make a rectangle
On a piece of parchment paper, gently mold the dough into a rectangle that is 1 inch tall.
5
Press and fold the dough
Fold one half of the dough onto itself, hamburger style, and press into a rectangle shape that is 1 inch tall again. Continue to fold and mold into a rectangle shape four more times.
6
Butter and bake
Using a knife, cut the biscuits into six squares, brush each biscuit with melted butter, and place on a parchment lined baking tray or baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.
7
Let cool
Remove from oven, and let sit on the baking tray for about 5 minutes. Using a spatula, gently transfer each biscuit to a wire rack to finish cooling. The biscuits will be very tender and delicate when they first come out of the oven, but will firm up once they cool. For a firmer biscuit, let sit overnight.
Nutrition
Per serving: 1 Biscuit
Calories
339
Fat
31.6g
Protein
6.5g
Total carbs
10.8g
Net carbs
4.7g
Nutrition is an estimate calculated from the ingredients listed. Brands vary, so check labels if you track closely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I add cheddar, herbs, or bacon to these biscuits?
Yes. For cheddar biscuits, I add about half a cup of shredded sharp cheddar and a teaspoon of garlic powder to the dry ingredients before grating in the butter, then brush the tops with garlic butter before baking. One of my readers did exactly that and said they came out buttery and flaky with a nice cheese pull. For herbs or bacon, fold them in right after the cream and sour cream. I've tried rosemary and garlic, and for bacon I cook it crisp and crumble it small. I keep herbs or bacon to about a quarter cup so the dough structure holds. My favorite combination is sharp cheddar with crumbled bacon.
Can I freeze these biscuits before baking?
Yes, and I bake them straight from frozen. Once they're cut and buttered, I freeze them on the tray until solid, then move them to a freezer bag, where they keep for about two months. Bake from frozen at 400 degrees and add 3 to 4 minutes to the 10 minute bake time. I don't freeze the dough before cutting because the texture changes.
How do I reheat leftover biscuits?
I wrap mine in a damp paper towel and microwave for 20-30 seconds. If I want to bring back some of the fresh-baked crispness, I pop them in the oven at 350 for about 5 minutes after microwaving. I've also reheated them in an air fryer at 300 degrees for about 3 minutes, which gives the outside a nice crunch again.
Can I swap the butter or the sour cream?
Ghee should work in place of the butter since it behaves like butter once frozen solid. I haven't tested coconut oil in these. Whatever fat you use has to go in frozen, because those cold pieces turn to steam in the oven and that steam builds the layers. For the sour cream, full-fat Greek yogurt works. I tested a batch with it and the biscuits still rose and held their layers, but the tang came through sharper than I wanted, so sour cream is what I stick with. If you need to skip dairy for the sour cream, I'd try full-fat coconut cream with a small splash of apple cider vinegar, since the acid in sour cream is what helps activate the leaveners.
First time ever baking anything keto and these came out SO flaky! I was nervous about grating the frozen butter but it went fast, and the dough came together in a couple minutes. Do you know if I can freeze the shaped dough before baking? I want to have some ready to go.
If you want the flakiest layers, keep the butter frozen right up until you grate it. Mine started to soften on the counter and the folds went pasty. These turned out so flaky and delicious, seriously the best keto biscuits I’ve made. SO good. Thank you!
That part took the most testing. I needed the sour cream and heavy cream working together to do what eggs usually handle, and once that clicked the texture finally held.
These actually pull apart the way a real biscuit should. I expected dense and crumbly like most almond-flour things, but the five folds did exactly what the recipe promised.
That pull-apart is what I kept testing toward. More than five folds and the butter warms up in your hands, fewer and the layers compress instead of separating.
The snap when you pull the layers apart surprised me. I expected dense and heavy from almond flour, and instead it breaks open clean, like actual laminated dough. Don’t skip the psyllium husk.
The psyllium husk is what lets the layers actually stay separate. Pull it and you get mush, cold butter or not. Natalie, that snap is exactly what I’m shooting for.
Corinne, you really do need it in this one. Without those 2 tablespoons the biscuits crumble the second they cool off, and I haven’t found a swap that holds them together. I order mine online since my store never carries it either.
Made a batch and a half Monday, two per bag in the freezer. Reheated at 350 for eight minutes with turkey sausage this morning and they held together perfectly. 4.7 net carbs each. That’s the whole point of making them ahead.
What clicked for me on this recipe is the heavy cream and sour cream together. Most keto biscuit recipes use one or the other, and the dough ends up either too stiff to fold properly or too wet to hold its shape. Here the fat content does something that makes the dough workable without overhandling, and the five folds actually build separate layers rather than just pressing everything into a mass. Mine have also held up better at room temperature than anything I’ve tried with almond flour alone, which usually turns dense once it cools. The carb count is under five grams per biscuit, lower than most comparable recipes I’ve tested. Three batches in the last month and I keep going back to this one.
The fat combo was the unlock in testing. Single source either seized up or turned sticky and the folds did nothing. Both together and the dough actually cooperates.
Had zero business attempting these as my first keto bake but did it anyway. Grating frozen butter felt insane, but those layers actually pulled apart. Would coconut cream work instead of heavy whipping cream?
Should work. Fat content is close enough that the dough will come together the same way. You’ll get a faint coconut flavor but with all the butter in here it mostly disappears. Same 1/2 cup.
Biscuits were the one thing I couldn’t figure out after going keto. Tried two recipes before this. Both crumbled apart when I pulled them. Grating frozen butter into the flour seemed like extra work at first, but that’s literally the whole trick. First batch came out with actual layers, the kind you can peel back. I ate one over the sink before I even plated the rest. Haven’t done that since I stopped eating carbs.
These are freaking good. Cannot believe I pulled them off on my first try. I genuinely struggle with anything more involved than scrambled eggs. The grating frozen butter step is fiddly if you rush it (I clumped mine and had to start over), so go slow. Once I got that right, the layers actually pulled apart the way biscuits are supposed to. Fair warning: the psyllium husk smell right out of the oven will throw you, but it fades within a couple minutes and they taste nothing like it.
That smell gets everyone the first time. Gone in two minutes. And good call starting over on the butter – clumped pieces just bake in instead of steaming.
On my sixth batch now, and I stopped rushing the folding after batch three. Four folds and they’re fine. All five and the layers actually pull apart like they should.
Made these on Sunday and my daughter, who has turned her nose up at every keto thing I’ve put in front of her, picked one up, pulled it apart, and said ‘Mom, why does this taste like a real biscuit.’ I wasn’t expecting that from her, or from the recipe honestly. The folding step felt fussy as a beginner but the layers actually separate when you break one open, and that’s what she noticed too.
The layers are real, you can actually pull them apart like a proper biscuit. Only note: the folding step needs a lighter touch. I pressed too hard trying to get a clean rectangle and compressed the layers right out of it. Go gentle and the flake shows up.
I’ve made these six times now and I finally feel like I’ve got the folding technique down. The five folds really do build actual layers, the biscuit pulls apart instead of crumbling, which I didn’t expect from almond flour. Somewhere around batch three I stopped second-guessing the frozen butter step and just trusted it, and that’s when they started coming out right. These are firmly in the Sunday dinner rotation.
