Easy Buttermilk Biscuits
These easy buttermilk biscuits are incredibly soft, tall, flaky, and buttery. Serve these with some jam or gravy for an easy breakfast!
Making buttermilk biscuits from scratch is so much easier than you’d think. All it takes is seven simple ingredients and a little elbow grease — just a little!
Believe me, once you find out how easy it is to make your own biscuits you’ll never buy the pre-made kind again.
One thing I love about this buttermilk biscuit recipe is how versatile it is. Top the biscuits with your favorite sausage gravy, chocolate gravy, jam, or a little butter and a drizzle of honey.
No matter how you dress them up, you’re going to love these biscuits!
Recipe Ingredients
Homemade buttermilk biscuits require just seven basic ingredients, so it’s important that you use all the right ones. Here’s what you’ll need to make this easy biscuit recipe:
- All-purpose flour: You need to spoon and level the flour when measuring it rather than scooping it straight from the bag. This will ensure that you don’t measure out too much by mistake, which would result in dense, dry biscuits.
- Baking powder & baking soda: Make sure your baking powder and baking soda are still fresh before starting. Both ingredients are important to get a good rise.
- Granulated sugar: Doesn’t make the biscuits taste sweet, it just gives them some flavor.
- Salt: Like the sugar, the salt flavors the biscuits and makes them taste more buttery.
- Unsalted butter: Needs to be cold before being cut into the flour. If you use warm butter, the biscuits won’t rise properly in the oven, nor will they be flaky.
- Buttermilk: The acidity of the buttermilk reacts with the baking soda to help them rise as they’re baking in the oven. It also creates ultra tender biscuits! I highly recommend using real buttermilk for best results.
How to Make Buttermilk Biscuits
Before you start the recipe, it’s important to note that you need 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 stay cold.
- Prepare the dry ingredients: Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
- Add the cold, cubed butter to the flour mixture: The butter can be cut into the flour mixture using a fork, a pastry cutter, or a food processor. You want to see small pea-sized crumbs of butter in your dry ingredients, a few larger pieces are okay though.
- Add the buttermilk: Pour the cold buttermilk into the bowl and mix just until the dough starts to come together.
- Work the dough together: Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and very gently work it together with your hands.
- Fold the dough: Form the dough into a rectangle, fold it into thirds like a letter (as shown in the photo above), and then pat it back out into a rectangle. This folding process needs to be repeated two more times. By folding the dough over itself, you’re creating layers. These layers result in ultra flaky, fluffy buttermilk biscuits! Trust me here, it’s worth the extra step.
- Pat out the dough: After the dough has been folded a third time, pat it out into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Make sure to measure here! If the dough is too thin, the biscuits won’t rise very tall.
- Cut out the biscuits: Use a floured 2.5-inch biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits, and arrange them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. 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.
- Place them side by side on the baking sheet: Make sure the biscuits are touching each other like the picture above. Not only will this help the biscuits rise taller in the oven, but it will also give them softer sides.
- Brush the tops of the biscuits with buttermilk: This step is optional, but it helps the tops turn a beautiful golden brown as they’re baking in the oven.
- Bake until golden brown: This will take about 15 to 17 minutes, depending on your oven.
How To Freeze Buttermilk Biscuits
Yes, you can either freeze the biscuits before baking them or after you have baked them.
- To freeze before baking: Place the cut out biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Transfer the baking sheet to the freezer and freeze for 1 to 2 hours or until the biscuits are frozen solid. Place the biscuits in a large freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. The biscuits may be baked from frozen, just add a few extra minutes to the baking time. If they start to brown too much before they’re fully baked through, place a piece of foil over the top until they’re done.
- To freeze the baked biscuits: Once the baked biscuits have cooled completely, place them in a large freezer bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Bring to room temperature on the counter. Reheat in the microwave or in the oven at 300°F until warmed through.
Storage Instructions
These biscuits are best eaten the same day that they are prepared. However, you can store them in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. I recommend warming them for a few seconds in the microwave or for a few minutes in the oven at 300°F.
For longer storage, you may freeze the biscuits as mentioned above.
Baking Tips
- Don’t overwork your dough! The more gentle you are with the dough, the more tender the biscuits will be.
- If you don’t have a circular cutter, you can use a knife to cut the dough into eight to ten square biscuits.
- I prefer to bake my biscuits side by side on the baking sheet so the sides are softer. If you prefer crisper sides, you can leave a little space between each one. Keep in mind that if you do, they may not rise quite as tall.
- If the dough feels a little too warm after you have cut it out, place the baking sheet in the freezer for 10 minutes, then bake as directed.
More Easy Breakfast Recipes to Make!
Recipe Video
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!
Ingredients
Servings: 10 biscuits
- 2 cups all-purpose flour spooned & leveled (250 grams)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cubed (85 grams)
- ¾ cup cold buttermilk plus more for the tops of the biscuits (180 ml)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). 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 cubed cold butter and cut it 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 mix 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 into thirds (like a letter). Turn the dough, gather any crumbs, and flatten back into a rectangle. Repeat the folding 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. Make sure not to twist the biscuit cutter as you're cutting, just press the cutter straight down and pull it straight back up.
- Continue to gather any scrap pieces of dough, patting it back down to 1/2-inch thickness, and cutting it until you have 8 to 10 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 for 15 to 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!
Notes
Storage Instructions: Biscuits are best eaten the same day that they are prepared. However, they may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Reheat for a few seconds in the microwave or for a few minutes in the oven at 300°F.
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Adapted from All Recipes and Food.com with some helpful research from King Arthur Flour.
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This is an excellent biscuit recipe. I received a container of free buttermilk from a neighbor and had no clue what to do with it! The only thing for me is that in my gas oven at 450°, it only took 11 minutes to bake. I think all ovens will have a bit of a temp or time difference. Overall, I will keep using this recipe time and time again!
It was a little wetter then it was supposed to be so I added a little more flour and it was fine their delicious and able to substitute the butter milk for milk with white vinegar but it’s not as buttery
These biscuits were easy to make and out of this world delicious! They were light and fluffy and tasted so good. We ate them warm with butter and jam with roasted chicken dinner. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Fantastic recipe. My only complaint is the temperature is too high. I took mine out at 11 minutes and they were brown on the tops but not quite done in the middle. Next time I’ll lower the temp to 375 and they’ll be perfect.
I’ve used this recipe several times, I got better at it each time! Wonderful biscuits. But, I was wondering if I can use self-rising flour instead & how to adapt the recipe? Do I simply remove the baking powder & baking soda?
Hi, Caroline! Self-rising flour usually has 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt per cup. If you use 2 cups of self-rising flour, I would leave out the baking powder and reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon. You will still need to add the baking soda.
This is the only biscuit recipe I use any more after many years of searching for a good recipe 🙂
Love this recipe for biscuits. Make them all the time.
These are amazing. Best tasting and nice and golden.
Made these this morning, I added rasins, diced apples and cinnamon they are excellent!! Good easy recipe! 😊
These came out excellent. For anyone not used to baking, you might think the dough won’t work when you turn it out of the bowl, it is a sticky mess. But if you use enough flour on your work surface and on your hands it comes together quickly and is easy to work with. You just have to add a little extra flour. Well done!
What degree do I set for Oven
450°F – it’s in step 1 of the recipe.
Trying to think of an easy breakfast. Can I mix the dough ahead of time. Put in fridge and bake next morning?
I haven’t tried it with this recipe, but I have tried it with my scone recipe (which has similar ingredients) and it worked so I think it would be okay. I would just cover the dough tightly so that it doesn’t dry out.
the baking sods and powder start to react with the buttermilk and will turn the dough a darker color and eventually black. I’ve baked the next morning but the dough didn’t rise as well. can do but sub optimal.
Good recipe although the temperature may be too high or time is too long. I took them out at 11 minutes because they already started browning. They’re also a teensy bit salty for me.
I’ve tried many buttermilk biscuit recipes and this one came out perfect! Now my go to recipe! I use a rubber spatula to help fold the dough, avoids sticky hands. BTW I left out the sugar and they are still perfectly tasty.
Have never made buttermilk biscuits before but decided to start with this recipe. Turned out great! The hard part is trying not to eat a third one… oh, I’m totally going to eat a third one.
I’ve just found your website and haven’t tried the biscuits yet but am very excited to get stated. I’m so happy to have found you someone who focuses on helping beginners!!
Thank you, Jessica! So glad you found my site! I’d love to hear if you try any recipes!
This is my first time making homemade bisquits. I measured the ingredients to the tee. I only have one concern. I didn’t want to overwork the dough before turning out onto the surface. It was too crumbly. I managed to make it doable. It kept breaking apart when trying to fold the dough. They turned out fluffy and rose well. What did I do wrong? I need suggestions.
It sounds like you may have just needed to work the dough together a little better. It’s okay to use your hands (or a rubber spatula) to mix it a little and help it come together.
Thank you for the advice. Will try that the next time I make them!
Can I preheat the bisquit platter before baking?
You can if you want to, but I don’t find it necessary.
Really good biscuits and very easy to work with from start to finish.Only isssue I encountered was burnt bottoms and still pale tops.
If you used a dark baking sheet, that can cause that to happen. I always use a light baking sheet and bake them on the middle rack and haven’t had any issues.
I really want to find a light, crumbly homemade biscuit recipe, thought I’d try this one because of the reviews. Wish I could have included a photo of my disaster. I prepared the recipe as directed, and ended up with the stickiest dough ever. It stuck to everything, the prep table every utinsil, I couldn’t fold it like it said, I finally gave up, got angry, just globed up round balls and tossed it on the baking pan. The biscuits looked like large cookies. I’m so bummed.
The biscuit dough should not be sticky at all, it should actually be easy to work with. If your dough was too sticky it was likely that there was too much moisture, you used a buttermilk substitute that was thinner than regular buttermilk, or there wasn’t enough flour. I’d recommend double checking all of the measurements that you used and keep in mind that even small changes to a recipe can make a big difference in the final product.