Easy Buttermilk Biscuits
These Easy Buttermilk Biscuits are incredibly soft, tall, flaky, and buttery. Serve these with some jam, gravy, or your topping of choice for an easy and delicious breakfast!
Growing up, my mom used to keep store-bought buttermilk biscuits on hand all of the time. She would use them for things like monkey bread, chicken and dumplings, or just bake them for breakfast. To say that we were huge fans of buttermilk biscuits would probably be an understatement.
A few weekends ago, I decided to test some recipes and try my hand at homemade buttermilk biscuits. And let’s just say that it took quite a few tries to find the perfect recipe. I did some research to figure out how to get biscuits that were tall, soft, and flaky. This recipe delivers all of that and the best part? They’re SO easy to make! These biscuits only take about 15 minutes to prep and 15 minutes to bake. Which means that you can be enjoying homemade buttermilk biscuits in about 30 minutes flat.
So what makes a good biscuit? First, you’ll start with some all-purpose flour. You’ll also need a good amount of baking powder and some baking soda to help your biscuits rise. This recipe uses 1 tablespoon of baking powder (yes, you read that right) and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. You’ll also be using some salt as well as a little bit of sugar to help balance it all out.
Now here’s the most important part to making buttermilk biscuits. You want to use COLD butter and buttermilk in your recipe. I’m talking straight from the refrigerator cold, don’t leave them sitting on the counter while you’re prepping the other ingredients. You want cold pieces of butter in your dough so that when you put it into the oven, the butter melts and creates steam pockets, which gives you that soft, light, airy texture in your biscuits.
You’ll cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until you have small pea sized crumbs, then stir in your buttermilk just until the dough starts to come together.
Once you’ve mixed up the dough, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and work it together gently with your hands. Here’s another important thing, be very gentle with your dough. Overworking your dough can lead to tough, dense biscuits. Remember, we’re going for soft, light, and fluffy biscuits here!
You want to pat the dough into a rectangle, then fold it into thirds, pat it down again, and repeat the process two more times. Folding the dough helps to create those beautiful, flaky layers that you see.
I honestly don’t bother using a rolling pin to make these either, I just gently pat the dough into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Just be sure to measure your dough before you cut it and make sure it’s actually 1/2-inch thick. I’ve made the mistake of not measuring it and guessing and the biscuits did not turn out nearly as tall.
The biscuits will only take about 15 minutes in the oven. Once they’re done, top them with anything you like! I personally love some jam or gravy on these biscuits. But honestly, these taste incredible with just a little melted butter on top too.
Baking tips for buttermilk biscuits
- Make sure your baking powder and baking soda are still fresh before starting. Both ingredients are important to get a good rise in these biscuits.
- Be sure to use cold butter and buttermilk in these biscuits. Prepare your dry ingredients first, then take your butter and buttermilk out of the refrigerator to ensure that they are cold.
- Don’t overwork your dough, make sure to work it together very gently.
- Be sure to fold the dough into thirds and pat it down three times. This helps to ensure that your biscuits are super flaky.
- When cutting your biscuits out, don’t twist your cutter. This will seal off the edges of your dough and they won’t rise as high. Just cut the dough straight down and pull the cutter right back out. I like to flour the biscuit cutter to make sure the biscuit dough doesn’t stick too.
- Lay the biscuits on a baking sheet touching each other. This will help them rise taller and give them soft edges when you pull them apart!
Easy Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour, spooned & leveled
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (85 grams) cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) cold buttermilk, plus more for the tops of the biscuits
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt until well combined. Add the in the cubed cold butter and cut into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter (you may also use a food processor for this step) until you have small pea sized pieces of butter. Pour the cold buttermilk into the mixture and gently work it together until the dough starts to come together.
- Scoop the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently work it together with your hands. Pat the dough into a rectangle and fold it in thirds. Turn the dough, gather any crumbs, and flatten back into a rectangle. Repeat this process two more times.
- Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat it down into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle (make sure to measure!). Using a floured 2.5-inch biscuit cutter, cut out the biscuits. Continue to gather any scrap pieces of dough, patting it back down to 1/2-inch thickness, and cutting it until you have 10 to 12 biscuits. I suggest trying to get as many as you can the first time, as you continue to work the dough the biscuits won't be quite as good.
- Arrange the biscuits on the baking sheet touching each other. Brush the top of each biscuit with a little bit of buttermilk.
- Bake at 450°F for about 15-17 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter if desired. Allow to cool for a few minutes, serve, and enjoy!
Adapted from All Recipes and Food.com with some helpful research from King Arthur Flour.
Great recipe, I would have given it 5 stars but the time needs to be adjusted. With two minutes and about 28 seconds left on my timer, the biscuits were overcooked. I would recommend leaving them in for about 12 mins or keep an eye out on them for your preferred readiness after 10 mins!
Can you use self rising flower instead ???
I think it would be fine, but self-rising flour has baking powder and salt added to it. I would omit the baking powder and reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon if you use it.
These are great biscuits…..2nd batch! First batch came out burnt at 15 minutes. At 450° 10 minutes was all the second batch needed! And they were worth the effort of a second batch.
May I suggest the this blogger adjust the online recipe to save future biscuits? “Joy of Cooking” suggests 10-12 minutes at 450°.
The baking time is correct, I’ve made them dozens of times. Keep in mind that if your oven is too hot or you make your biscuits smaller, the baking time will need to be reduced.
What the calories in the biscuits?
Hi, Jessica! I’m not sure about the nutritional information, but you can plug everything into an online calculator to get an estimate.
Good flavor but the amount of buttermilk wasn’t right for my area. I added a bunch more buttermilk and the dough still had a hard time holding together so the biscuits were a little tough because they were overworked in order to hold it together.
Followed recipe to a tee…but unfortunately the dough was too dry couldn’t keep it together. Didn’t want to over work the dough so they more or less fell apart.
Sorry you had trouble with the dough, Wendy. If you find that it’s too dry, you can add an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of buttermilk.
Cook time as stated is too long. At 15 minutes my biscuits are very overcooked. They are crispy and dark brown, top and bottom. Taste is great, and the interiors are tender and flaky. Next time I’ll check them at 11 minutes.
Do you know if you can pre make the dough and cut in to biscuits and freeze them? And pull them out to bake later?
I haven’t tried it with this recipe yet, but I have with my scone recipe (which is kind of similar) and it worked well! You may need to increase the baking time if you’re baking them from frozen. If the tops begin to brown too much before they’re fully cooked through, you can place a piece of foil over them until they’re done.
What about high attitude baking? At an elevation that over 4,000 feet?
I’m not familiar with high altitude baking, but some readers have found this guide helpful.
These buttermilk biscuits are perfect! I love them. I used a food processor for cutting in the butter and adding the buttermilk. They were fluffy and very easy to make. I baked them for about 10-15 minutes. Thank you!
Finally a buttermilk recipe that’s easy an delicious!! I’ve made a few batches and they were great every time. I can’t make them fast enough, My husband loves them! Even used them in a dessert recipe! Thank you!!
Good recipe with the added baking soda and sugar, and helpful prep tips. Mine were done after 12 minutes at 450, tho, but likely depends on oven and size of biscuits. Plan to make more and freeze!
I made these they were great but I shook my flour in the container to get air into it I turned mine over last 5 min as the bottoms were burning.
These were definitely a hit! I’ve always had trouble making biscuits and these turned out light and flakey. I even forgot to put in the sugar and we still liked them!
We were trying to decide what to do for breakfast on a Sunday morning (we were out of eggs) and I suggested that I make biscuits. I hopped online and found this recipe. We only had powdered buttermilk, but made that up and let it chill a little. Then I couldn’t find my pastry blender, so I tried my food processor. Thought I overmixed the dough, but I guess not. Danielle’s tip on folding in thirds, three times was perfect! I didn’t have a biscuit cutter, so I just cut the dough into squares with a knife and baked. 15 minutes in my oven was perfect! Oven temps vary, it depends on where your oven rack is placed, and I think the inside size of your oven all can affect baking times. I have gotten into the habit of checking about 5 minutes before the suggested time.
Thanks Danielle! This is my go to recipe now.
Thank you, Jane! So glad you loved the recipe!