My favorite Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe is made with only 6 ingredients. It’s a very classic homemade biscuit recipe with flaky, buttery layers and a melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits
Biscuits are my breakfast love language, if there is such a thing.
I live for the buttery, flaky layers that practically melt in your mouth. Whether they’re topped with jam, honey, or gravy (or even used for sandwiches, like a ham biscuit sandwich!), you can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll be coming back for seconds.
In college, friends used to text me when the caf was serving biscuits for breakfast. During a summer I worked at a camp, every Wednesday was spent down the mountain at a hole-in-the-wall that served the world’s best biscuits (it’s debatable if they were the world’s best, but they were worth every penny). Every time I see a feature on Food Network or the Travel Channel about a place serving biscuits, I write it down on my biscuit bucket list.
The love, clearly, runs deep. Due to that love, I am a self-proclaimed biscuit aficionado and I will not lead you astray when it comes to making biscuits from scratch.
These homemade Buttermilk Biscuits is a recipe you can 100% count on to be a winner every single time.
Three Reasons I Love These Flaky Biscuits:
- Buttermilk: It’s such a simple ingredient, but it makes all the difference in the entire world. It adds so much flavor and texture.
- Lamination: We fold the dough multiple times in order to really layer the butter, which makes for incredibly flaky biscuits.
- Versatile: I love this biscuit recipe for breakfast with butter and jam, but I also love it for breakfast sandwiches, biscuits and gravy, or even as a savory biscuit!
If you love bread and biscuits, try these recipes next: Homemade Buns, Orange Cinnamon Rolls, and Apple Cobbler with Cinnamon Biscuits.
Ingredients:
- All Purpose Flour
- Unsalted Butter (if you only have salted butter, you can use that and omit the salt in the recipe)
- Salt
- Baking Powder
- Buttermilk (If you only have regular milk, you can use that in place of buttermilk. Additionally, I will add details below on how to make your own buttermilk too.)
- Honey or Sugar (you can omit if you prefer)
It might seem overly simple, but with the right ingredients and the right technique, you can make the best buttermilk biscuits from scratch in just a short amount of time.
How To Make These Super Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits:
- Mix flour, baking powder and salt together.
- With a pastry blender, a fork or your hands, cut the butter into the flour mixture, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Mix buttermilk with sugar (or honey) and pour half into the flour mixture. Gently stir until the liquid is absorbed. Mix the remaining liquid into the flour mixture.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough 3-4 times, until the dough has come together.
- Flatten dough into a rectangle, about 1” in thickness. Take the left side of the dough, and fold it to the center of the dough. Take the right side of the dough and fold it on top of the left side.
- Turn the dough 90 degrees, flatten into a rectangle, and repeat. Do this 1 more time. This is what creates the layers of flakiness in each biscuit. (Look at the picture above.)
- After the final turn, flatten the dough into a 1” rectangle and use either a 2” biscuit cutter or a knife to cut out biscuits.
- If using a biscuit cutter, you will need to gently reshape dough scraps to get the maximum amount of biscuits. If using a knife, you can cut the dough into even squares.
How To Make Homemade Buttermilk:
- Substitutions: If you do not have buttermilk, you can substitute regular milk in this recipe. Buttermilk yields a richer texture and flavor, but regular milk will still work. Alternatively, you could use half & half if you have that.
- Homemade: If you want to try making homemade buttermilk, you need milk, lemon juice, and/or white vinegar.
- Measurements: For this recipe, you need 1 cup of buttermilk. Mix just about 1 cup of regular milk with 1 Tbsp of lemon juice OR white vinegar (the amount of milk + 1 Tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar should equal 1 cup). Allow the mixture to sit for 10-15 minutes, until the milk begins to curdle. Viola, you have buttermilk made at home!
How Do You Bake These Biscuits?
- You have a couple of options here. First of all, you can bake the biscuits in a cast iron skillet. These will bake up similar to cinnamon rolls in that they will bake into each other and you will have to cut them apart when serving them.
- Or, you can bake them on a greased baking sheet. If you bake them on a baking sheet, just know that because these biscuits are so flaky, sometimes the tops of the biscuits are uneven after they have baked. They make not be perfectly symmetrical, but they still taste amazing.
Can I Freeze Biscuit Dough?
Yes! You have two options here for freezing:
- Unbaked: If you are freezing unbaked buttermilk biscuits, place unbaked biscuits on a parchment lined baking sheet. Make sure the biscuits are not touching each other. Flash freeze the biscuits, uncovered, for 45-60 minutes. Then, place the biscuits into a freezer safe bag or container and freeze until ready to use. You can bake frozen, but you will need to add a couple more minutes to the overall bake time.
- Baked: If you are freezing baked biscuits, flash freeze them (like above), uncovered for 45-60 minutes. Then, place the biscuits into a freezer safe bag or container and freeze until ready to use. Baked biscuits can be thawed overnight in the fridge, warmed in a 350 degree oven, or in the microwave.
Flash freezing is important because it keeps the biscuits from freezing to one another.
I adore biscuits, and much like cinnamon rolls, I am very picky about my homemade biscuits. They must be ultra flaky, super tender and buttery.
These absolutely fit the bill, and I love using them for all sorts of things:
- Ham and Cheese Biscuit Sandwiches (cut the biscuits in half, put some ham and cheese on top, and broil for a couple of minutes until the cheese is melted)
- Egg and Bacon Biscuit Sandwiches
- Topped with jam or honey
- Topped with gravy
- BLTs
- Topping with whipped cream and berries (for a comfort food dessert–a lot like this Strawberry Cobbler!)
These southern buttermilk biscuits are truly so versatile, from using for any meal of the day to using in both savory and sweet recipes!
Final Tips & Tricks for These Easy Homemade Biscuits:
- Cold Butter: Make sure your butter is very cold. This makes sure you get biscuits with lots of flaky layers.
- Biscuit Size: This recipe makes 6-7 very tall biscuits. If you want to stretch the recipe, you can flatten the dough to 1/2” (instead of the 1” I instruct in the recipe) and make more like 9-10 biscuits. They will not be as tall, but they will still be just as flaky inside.
- Buttermilk: The recipe requires 3/4 cup buttermilk in the biscuit dough mixture. The remaining 1/4 cup is used to brush the tops of the biscuits. This gives each biscuit that perfect golden brown color, as well as adds extra richness to the overall flavor.
- Variations: You can use these biscuits for a cobbler topping, as a pot pie topping, for biscuits and gravy, for sandwiches, or as is served with jam or honey.
My favorite Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe is made with only 6 ingredients. It’s a very classic homemade biscuit recipe with flaky, buttery layers and a melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold & cubed (you can use salted butter and omit the salt in this recipe)
- 3/4 cup + 1/4 cup buttermilk, divided (you can substitute regular milk or half & half)*
- 1 Tbsp honey or sugar (optional)
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In a medium-large bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt together.
- With a pastry cutter or fork, work the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture is crumbly (and resembles coarse crumbs).
- Whisk honey or sugar into the 3/4 cup of buttermilk. Drizzle half of the buttermilk into the flour mixture, and gently mix until the liquid is absorbed. Drizzle the rest of the 3/4 cup buttermilk into the mixture, and mix until combined.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough 3-4 times, or until the dough has just come together. (If the dough is really sticky, add in a little more flour, 1 Tbsp at a time.)
- Flatten into a small rectangle, about 1” in thickness.
- Fold the left side of the dough over to the center, then fold the right side of the dough on top (see pictures in post for visual detail).
- Rotate the dough 90 degrees. Gently flatten the dough into a rectangle and repeat folding. Rotate again, and repeat folding 1 more time (this create the buttery, flaky layers).
- Gently flatten dough into a rectangle, about 1” in thickness**.
- Using a 2” circular biscuit cutter (or a biscuit cutter similar in size), gently cut out biscuits (you will probably get about 3-4 on the first time).
- Gently re-work the dough scraps into a rectangle, and repeat cutting out biscuits until you have used most/all of the dough.
- Alternatively, you can use a knife to cut biscuits into equal squares.
- You can bake biscuits in a cast iron skillet or on a baking sheet (greased or lined with parchment paper). If baking in a cast iron skillet, the biscuits will bake into each other, like cinnamon rolls. If using a baking sheet, space them evenly apart (because the biscuits are so flaky, the tops of the biscuits might be a bit uneven).
- Brush the tops of the biscuits with the 1/4 cup of buttermilk.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes, until biscuits have risen and are golden brown on top.
*If you want to make homemade buttermilk, mix just about 1 cup regular milk with 1 Tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar. Let stand 10-15 minutes, or until milk has thickened/curdled.
**Dough flattened to 1” thickness will yield about 6-7 tall biscuits. Flatten the dough to 1/2” - 3/4” for 9-10 shorter biscuits (they will still be flaky, just shorter!).
Recipe adapted from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook.
Here are some other breakfast favorites:
Updated 2022.
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