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These buttermilk biscuits are buttery, tall and super flakey. These all-butter biscuits are easy to make, with minimal ingredients. They’re soft that they melt in your mouth. Perfect for breakfast sandwiches or for eating with butter and jam.
I’ve always been obsessed with buttermilk biscuits. Kentucky Fried Chicken was a place I would frequent after tennis practice in high school and that is where my obsession was born.
I crave these biscuits ’til this day. I love to eat these warm with Strawberry Butter or Classic Pimento Cheese. During the summer months, they make the perfect Strawberry Shortcake Biscuits.
What Are Buttermilk Biscuits
While biscuits can sometimes refer to cookies or scones in other parts of the world, here in the United States, buttermilk biscuits are akin to dinner rolls, in the sense that they are served in a similar manner. They are the flakier, more buttery, and slightly denser version and are typically made with baking powder, baking soda, or both. I also have a version that uses shortening (see: Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits). But I prefer this version if I’m being very honest.
Ingredients You’ll Need for Buttermilk Biscuits
When you only have a few ingredients in a recipe, every ingredient counts. For maximum success, make sure all of your ingredients are as cold as possible.
- All-purpose Flour: I mostly use King Arthur or Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder: Always check the expiration date on your Baking Powder and use Aluminum Free if you are worried about a metallic taste.
- Baking Soda: Always check the expiration date on your Baking Soda and sift it through a fine mesh sieve if it looks clumpy. There’s nothing worse than biting into a clump of baking soda.
- Unsalted Butter: I like to use Frozen Unsalted Butter when making biscuits. Just take it out of the freezer and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes before grating.
- Buttermilk: Cold and Shaken Real Buttermilk is the key for these biscuits. While some may say you can substitute whole milk and vinegar, I recommend using real buttermilk for these.Â
- Large Egg: Size matters here, as an extra-large egg will alter the amount of liquid in your dough. Make sure you’re using a Large Egg.
How to Make Buttermilk Biscuits
- Start by preheating your oven to 400F and lining a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set the baking sheet aside.
- Mix together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Grate in your butter and transfer the bowl to the freezer for a few minutes.
- Whisk together your buttermilk and an egg and chill in the fridge. Whisk together your eggwash using an egg and some milk.
- Remove your bowl from the freezer and mix the butter into the flour with your hands, quickly but gently. Then add the buttermilk mixture and mix until *just* combined. On a clean countertop, sprinkled with flour, dump your dough out and form it into a 3/4-inch thick square.
- Use a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter to stamp out biscuits, being sure to press straight down and not twist. Transfer the biscuits to your banking sheet and stick the sheet in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Remove from the freezer and brush with egg wash. Bake it in the oven for 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Serve warm with softened butter and jam.
Tips and Tricks
- Cold Ingredients are Key: For flaky layers and pockets, use cold butter, and cold buttermilk, basically, everything should be as cold as possible. When your butter melts as your biscuits are baking, it releases steam which in turn creates little pockets of air. This is what makes your biscuits flaky and airy on the inside.
- Put Your Flour Bowl in the Fridge: If your house is really warm, put your flour mixture bowl in the fridge for five to ten minutes before grating your butter. This gives your dry mixture time to cool down before adding the cold butter.
- Freeze Your Butter: Frozen butter is the easiest butter to grate. I like to take my butter out and rest it on the counter for a few minutes before grating.
- Grate Your Butter: Using a box grater to grate your cold butter is the move. It gives you the perfect-sized pieces of butter to ensure you have even butter distribution.
- Be Gentle with the Dough: Overworking your biscuit dough amounts to tough biscuits. Dough that is slightly crumbly and *just* combined is what you’re looking for.
Recipe FAQs
Is it bad to twist the biscuit cutter when I’m stamping these out?
Yes! It’s so important to press your cutter down firmly, never twisting. If you twist your cutter, what you’re doing is essentially sealing the edges of your biscuits which will prevent them from rising.Â
Egg washing the tops of your biscuits is the key to perfect golden brown and shiny tops. Don’t skip this step.Â
If your oven runs cool make sure to adjust your temperature accordingly. It’s important to have a hot oven to ensure a good rise and golden bake.Â
What to Serve with Buttermilk Biscuits
Breakfast
Matcha Latte
Quick and Easy
Olive Oil Fried Eggs
Desserts
Salty Milk Jam
Breakfast
Iced Pumpkin Spice Latte
If you tried this Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Buttermilk Biscuits
Equipment
- 1 large bowl
- 1 (3-inch) cookie cutter or biscuit cutter
- 1 Baking Sheet
Ingredients
Dry:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter
Wet:
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, cold and shaken
- 1 large egg, cold
Egg Wash:
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon milk, or 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a box grater, grate the butter into the flour mixture. Transfer the bowl to the freezer while you gather the wet ingredients, about 5-7 minutes.
- Measure out the buttermilk and add the egg; whisk until combined. In a small bowl, make the egg wash, whisking together the egg and milk. Transfer both to the refrigerator.
- Grab the bowl out of the freezer, and gently break up the butter and combine with the flour, using your hands, until it resembles small peas. Add the buttermilk mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Mix until barely combined; and lightly knead the dough. until it forms one solid mass. Sprinkle your kitchen counter with flour and dump the dough onto it. Press the dough into a 3/4-inch thickness.
- Cut out the biscuits using a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter, ending up with about 6 biscuits. You can recombine the scraps and get 2 more biscuits. Transfer them to the baking sheet.
- If you think you’ve been moving a little slow (like I was because I was..ahem..taking pictures), stick the baking sheet in the freezer for 5 minutes. This will get the bits of butter nice and cold again.
- After the biscuits are cold, brush the tops of with egg wash and bake in oven or 10 to 15 minutes, until tall and medium golden brown. Serve biscuits warm with honey and jam. YUM.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
*This post was originally published on October 23rd, 2013. The photos and text have been redone, as well as some tweaks to the recipe.
Why!! Somehow my biscuits ended up sad squishy blobs in a *POOL* of butter on my baking sheet. Was v careful not to overwork the dough and keep the butter nice and cold. Where am I going wrong #halp
Did you add too much liquid? That’s the only thing that could’ve resulted in this. Or too much butter!
Adrianna,
I made them and it was successful this time.My kids love these buttermilk biscuits.Usually they like to eat ginger biscuit cookies but this time they were taken away by the taste of these buttermilk biscuits.I’m I made this twice thrice but finally got it right.
Thank you Adrianna.I am hoping to make this again during the weekend.Let’s see what will happen.
I love to eat biscuits and I love trying out recipes too.I made this recipe for 32 but it wasn’t a success.I multiplied quantities by 4 and according to my sense added needed amounts and made this.I have no idea why it went wrong.Hoping try out this again.
So multiplying baking recipes sometimes doesn’t work. It works if you weigh out the ingredients but there can be problems if you don’t. For instance, a lot of times when people scoop out 1 cup of flour, it’s usually 7 to 8 grams more of flour. Usually that’s not a problem for a small batch recipe but if you multiply that discrepancy by four, then that means 40 to 50 grams more flour. Apply that to every ingredient and you can be in some serious trouble. I would try this recipe just making the single batch–it should work 🙂
These look amazing! I can’t wait to try your recipe. Your dog is adorable btw.
aww thank you!
You can make buttermilk if you do not have any on hand, (or just don’t buy it, mine always goes to waste) 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar to 1 cup milk, let stand for 5-10 minutes.
You can do this but I don’t recommend it. It’s not the same thing. The texture is way off and the flavor is too.
After searching for years for a biscuit recipe that I can follow and not be ashamed to serve the results – I have found it at last! Made these this morning and …oh man! Not much to say other than these are the real deal!! From experience I have learned that biscuit making is somewhat of an art form (one I have never been able to master) but these weren’t that hard and aside from tasting delicious, they were tall and handsome and flaky but not crumbly… they will be a regular at my house from here on. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!
OMG YES! I looove these biscuits. They’re one of my favorite things to make ever. I’m so glad you were successful with them. YAY!
Hi! This looks like SUCH a yummy recipe! I just had one question. Could I make these using regular milk? (such as 2%) Thank you!
Hi Lucy, Unfortunately it’s not an even swap out. You really need the acid that the buttermilk has to react with the baking soda. Sorry about that!
Hi there,
As a college kid, these would be marvellous if I could just pop them out of the freezer and toast them. Do you have any tips for making them and storing them for later use? Or would you say that this recipe isn’t really meant for freezing?
Many thanks!
Hi! Yes, you absolutely can freeze these. I would recommend rolling out the dough, cutting it and then putting it on a baking sheet (separated) and sticking that in the freezer for about 1 hour. This should flash freeze them. Then I’d transfer the almost-frozen biscuits to a freezer-safe plastic bag and sticking them in the freezer until you’re ready to bake them off. You might need to bake them a few minutes longer but it should work out just great!
try a dash or three of cayenne in the dry ingredients for spunky biscuits. I’ll share my results from your recipe. many thanks.