Buttermilk Biscuits

*Photos and recipe updated 4/9/2020

I thought about which of my recipes I wanted to share first for a whole 10 seconds before I realized that it obviously had to be these buttermilk biscuits. I really wanted this blog to be a true reflection of me and how I bake for my family, and nothing says that better than these babies.

Sunday mornings in my house call for biscuits. My husband takes his with sausage gravy (can you blame him?) I’ve always been more of a honey or butter girl. Or sometimes I like to whip them together and make honey butter. Life-changing actually.

This recipe has been tweaked for years, and I finally think I got it jusssst right. They’re perfectly flaky and buttery, and also just dense enough to hold up to a healthy slather of that yummy honey butter. They also won’t crumble under a heaping pile of sausage gravy.

Homemade biscuits are worth the extra effort. I promise. And does it even count as extra effort if you can have these on your table in 30 minutes?

How to Make Buttermilk Biscuits

First things first, unlike most baking recipes where you’d want your ingredients to be room temp, here we want everything COLD. For the flakiest texture, I recommend cubing your butter first. Then pop it into the freezer to keep it as cold as possible until you need it. Also, preheat your oven to 475 degrees.

Next, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Grab the butter from the freezer and add it to the dry ingredients. Cut the butter in with a pastry cutter or your hands. You want the mix to be very crumbly and the butter to be about pea size at this point. Once I have used the pastry cutter to get it mostly cut in, I use my fingers and kind of squish some of the butter pieces into flat discs. This is super helpful in getting those defined flaky layers.

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Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, make a well in the center of the flour butter mixture. Pour in the COLD buttermilk. Stir it together gently. Be careful not to over mix. It should be JUST BARELY combined.

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Prepping and Baking

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface and bring it together with your hands. Try to handle the dough as little as possible. We want the butter to stay cold, and messing with the dough too much will warm it up. Pat the dough out flat and then roll it out with a rolling pin to about 1/2 inch. Apply a small amount of flour to the top and then fold it in half. Pat and roll it back out and repeat. Do 4-5 folds total for extra flaky biscuits.

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After the final fold, roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Use a biscuit cutter (I use a 2 1/4 inch size) and press straight down to cut. Do not twist. Twisting the cutter will prevent the layers from rising and separating. Place the biscuits on an ungreased cookie sheet and into a 475 degree oven for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, take the biscuits out and brush them with melted butter. Then pop them under the broiler for 2-3 minutes to get those golden brown tops.

Enjoy right away, or keep them in the fridge for up to a week. This recipe also freezes well and you can keep the baked biscuits in the freezer for up to 3 months.

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