Square biscuits have advantages. First off, you can cut them with a sharp knife instead of pinching your layers closed with a biscuit cutter. Second, their's less waste and effort because you can roll up the trimmings for an extra "biscuit" instead of re-rolling out the scraps and cutting again. Third, they can sit closely in the pan to help each other rise.

The other reply is correct that I used a knife to cut my final rectangle of a dough into 6 pieces. Like I said, I very rarely bake, so I don't actually own any biscuit cutters. Plus, part of the exercise today was to get me to let go of the block if have in my head about baking being fussy, so this was a (somewhat) intentional rustic approach to the dish. After cutting the dough into individual pieces, they all fit into the bottom of that square pan, with a couple centimeters to spare between most of them. I figured that if they expanded against one another, that would actually help push the rise further vertically, so I wasn't bothered by merging if it occurred. However, it turned out that the majority grew straight up rather than out, and most of them were fully freestanding when done baking.

Liberally, and frequently!

100%

I definitely have some ideas for some variations with cheese and herbs that I think will go great with some sort of chicken dish.

• 250 g AP flour
• 1 TBSP sugar
• 1 TBSP baking powder
• Pinch salt
• 6 Tbsp (90 g) butter (cold)
• 2 Tbsp (30 g) butter (melted for topping)
• ~2/3 cup (~150 ml) whole mil

Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to bowl. Take your very cold butter, and grate it into the dry ingredients using a box grater. Quickly work the butter into the flour mix with a fork or your hands. Add a portion of the milk, and mix until a shaggy dough forms, adding more milk as necessary (I did not use the full allotment). Turn out onto a work surface dusted with flour. Knead with your hands until you have a solid mass which does not stick to your work surface. Roll it into a rough ball/lump, then flatten it out into a rough rectangle approximately 1 inch thick. Fold one half of the rectangle on top of the other half, and then knead it back out to a 1 thick rectangle. Turn the dough 90 degrees, and repeat a couple times. I think I maybe did 5 reps. Once you have your final rectangle, cut out your biscuit rounds if you have the tool to do so. I did not, so I just cut the rectangle into thirds and then half using a chef's knife. Lubed a baking pan with cooking spray, hucked the bits of dough in, and set into a 425 degree F (~220 C) oven. Baked until the dough had puffed up at least twice it's initial size, and the surface was dry and unyielding to my finger (roughly 15, 20 min? I don't know, tbh, this was all feel at this point). Notably, the biscuits had not acquired much of any color other than their bottoms. I was worried about over cooking them or scorching the bottoms if I let it go until the tops were golden brown, so I brushed them down with butter and then hit em with a full broiler grill fro several minutes, until the coloration seen here was achieved. Reapplied more melted butter, cracked over some fresh salt, and voila.

Thank you! The broiler did most of the work at the end there.

Salt! I used salted butter, so I had not added any to the actual dough. My first sample told me I needed a little more salt to balance out the sweet, so I spread a little more melted butter on top and cracked over a bit of salt. Vast improvement!

I sympathize with you entirely. While I know there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for almost every baking mishap (too dry, too wet, too much gluten, not nearly enough, overworked, underworked, and on and on), I can't help but feel that some loaves are just cursed by fate

Not an expert, but I think that means you overproofed your dough. Is that a possibility?