Name: Buttermilk Biscuits
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 4 c flour; 2 tsp kosher salt; 1 tbsp cane sugar; 1/2 tsp baking soda; 3 tsp baking powder; 8 tbsp butter (cold and cubed); 2 c buttermilk + a splash more if needed

This recipe for buttermilk biscuits is so quick and easy, taking only 30 minutes to make! You can make them as a traditional biscuit or a drop biscuit and they require just a few basic ingredients. They are fluffy and delicious.

My family loves these buttermilk biscuits! I’ve been making them for years and they always turn out great. But I really love how easy and quick they are to make.

One thing you will notice is that this recipe doesn’t call for a lot of butter. When I first came up with it I wanted something that didn’t go overboard but you could still enjoy a yummy tender biscuit.

I’ve never had any complaints though and I feel a bit less guilty eating a few of these!

But if you really want to indulge then waffles with strawberries and whipped cream is the way to go.

It’s an all butter recipe, meaning the biscuits are made without shortening (crisco). And while shortening can create a very tender biscuit, the intention was still to make something a bit healthier than the norm.

Everyone loves buttermilk biscuits, I mean they even made a buttermilk biscuits song forever ago.

What Ingredients are In Buttermilk Biscuits

As I mentioned, you only need a few basic ingredients.

flour – all purpose flour
kosher salt – for flavor, I like to use kosher salt in all my recipes
cane sugar – can sugar is my go to sugar, if you don’t have cane sugar that’s fine you can use whatever variety you like, since cane sugar has bigger granules you may need to decrease the amount of sugar depending if you use a traditional white sugar
baking soda – this helps to rise the biscuits and since we are using buttermilk, baking soda is necessary
baking powder – gives rise to the biscuits
butter – start with cold, right out of the fridge, butter (I prefer salted butter)
buttermilk – this can be cold too, right out of the fridge. I use buttermilk in some of my most favorite recipes, like these pancakes, waffles and these cranberry orange poppyseed muffins.

For this recipe it’s not necessary to have any room temperature ingredients. The butter and buttermilk can be cold, right out of the fridge to use.

Biscuits are always better homemade.

In the winter, I pretty much always have these ingredients on hand to make a batch in the morning. We also love to use these for breakfast sandwiches on Christmas morning!

We also make these maple cream cheese cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, a family tradition.

How To Make Buttermilk Biscuits

I’ve made these biscuits so much, I hope this visual step by step helps you make really good buttermilk biscuits!

Step 1. Grab a large bowl and sift together (or whisk together) flour, kosher salt, baking soda, baking powder and sugar.

Step 2. Cut the butter into little cubes and use your hands to mix it into the flour. You could use a pastry cutter or a fork, but I’ve found that your hands are your best tools for this.

Step 3. Pour in the buttermilk and use a spoon to mix it together. You can add an extra splash of buttermilk if it’s looking a bit dry.

It’s okay for the dough to be sticky but you don’t want it super sticky. If it get’s too sticky just use extra flour when you roll it out (like I did in the picture, I blame the measuring cup I chose for the pictures).

Step 4. Use your counter top, I used a cutting board just for picture purposes. Dust flour all over your counter.

Dump out the dough. Using a rolling pin to gently roll the dough out. If you notice your dough is a bit too wet you can sprinkle flour on top also.

biscuit dough on a cutting board rolled out

Step 5. Fold the dough over 3 times. Now roll it a little bit more and fold it over another 3 times.

Step 6. Sprinkle on a little more flour. Roll this out so the dough is 1″ thick.

Use a biscuit cutter, press straight down and then wiggle a bit to separate. Dip your biscuit cutter into flour after each biscuit cut. Put the biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

With any excess dough roll it back up and repeat the above steps, folding a few times and rolling out. Cut more biscuits out.

Step 7. Once all the biscuits are on your pan, brush the tops with some buttermilk and bake at 425 for about 15-17 minutes. They will be golden on top when done. Serve right away!

This was with a 2 3/4 biscuit cutter and makes about 15 biscuits.

Breakfast Sandwich Sized Biscuits

If you want to make big biscuits that are perfect for breakfast sandwiches (eggs, cheese and ham or bacon) then I recommend using a 3 1/4″ biscuit cutter.

They are slightly bigger but a bit more substantial and this size is better for a fried egg. I like to roll these a bit thicker, a 1″ thickness. Whereas snacking biscuits (or sharing for a family get together) I’ll usually do the 2 3/4″.

You can see below what the 3 1/4″ biscuits look like that were about 1″ thick when I cut the biscuits out. And you get about 9 biscuits total.

FAQ

I don’t have buttermilk, what can I use? If you don’t have any buttermilk you can substitute 2 cups of milk (minus 2 tablespoons) and to it add 2 tablespoons white vinegar or lemon juice. Let it sit for 10 minutes then use it in the recipe. It won’t be exactly the same, but close when you are in a bind.
My biscuits did not rise after baking? Check your baking soda and baking powder, is one of them expired or been sitting out for too long? It may be time to replace. Old baking soda/powder doesn’t work as well for lifting baked goods.
Can I make these as a half batch? Yes! I make them as a half batch all the time, halving the recipe works great.
Should the biscuits be touching while they bake? They don’t have to be touching when they go to bake. You can leave space between them too. If I’m baking them the same day as other things I’ll stuff them all on to one pan. It doesn’t make too much of a difference.
Can I make my biscuits taller than these? Definitely. Don’t roll the biscuit dough out to 1″, the thicker you roll it, the taller the biscuit. This is a good general size to fill up a whole pan though.
Can I use a different biscuit cutter size? Yes! You can use whatever size biscuit cutter you want, in the pictures I used a 2 3/4″ biscuit cutter. If you want to use a 3 1/4″ biscuit cutter you will end up with 9 larger biscuits.
My biscuit edges stuck together when I cut my biscuits out, what happened? Make sure to dip your biscuit cutter in flour before each cut of biscuits, it helps the biscuit cutter release from the sticky dough.

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