Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe

These Buttermilk Biscuits are the perfect fluffy biscuit to enjoy with any meal. Fill with bacon, sausage, country ham, or fried chicken for the best breakfast biscuits!

The years fly by, don’t they? I remember not too long along settling our daughter in her dorm room for her sophomore year and simultaneously gearing up for our son to start his senior year. That summer was much too short. And so was the next. We now find ourselves fluctuating between being excited for what is ahead for each of them and not wanting another year to be marked off the calendar. We are so proud of them and the creative, independent adults they are becoming. And while I love my babies and want them to fly and be amazing, my heart still aches a bit realizing how quickly they have grown up.

So I’m in comfort food mode. And one of the best comfort foods is biscuits. This biscuit recipe for Buttermilk Biscuits is one I shared in the spring of last year. While I get my bearings straight and deal with my melancholy I’m thinking making a batch of biscuits may be the thing to do. They’re simple and familiar and remind me of good times with family.

Speaking of family, there are so many things I learned from my grandmothers. And so many other things I wish I had learned. Especially from my great-grandmother, Nannie. She was my mother’s grandmother and a mother herself to twelve. She was a woman of substance, a self-sufficient woman who knew how to do things. Lots of things. With twelve children, she had to. She had no choice. She learned how to do and how to make do.

Nannie knew how to grow and raise food, make things out of nothing, and cook. And boy, did Nannie know how to cook. Wonderful, tasty things! Things that would draw you into the kitchen to watch her work over the big pots and pans. I remember sitting at the wax cloth-covered table while she cooked her famous creamed corn. Hearing it sizzle in the skillet meant goodness was close at hand. Her fried chicken was second to none, and the biscuits. Those biscuits were worth their weight in gold.

As a child I took for granted the knowledge that Nannie carried, as if it would always be there to access. If only I could google her mind now. If it were only that easy.

I was much younger when Nannie passed away. Too self-involved to concern myself with the importance of learning her way to cook a mean skillet of creamed corn, how to properly butcher and then fry a chicken, or the best fat to use in a biscuit. Had I known then what I know now, I would have paid more attention. What a vast amount of knowledge she possessed of life, both inside and outside of the kitchen. Better than any Google search, that’s for sure.

With that said, for the past few weeks I’ve been trying to perfect Buttermilk Biscuits. A biscuit that is not too dry but not too dense with a slight crunchy top. A fluffy biscuit. One that would be the perfect biscuit to use for a breakfast sandwich, because there’s nothing quite like an egg and cheese biscuit, ya know? I began with a basic biscuit recipe from the Tupelo Honey Cafe cookbook, and made adjustments over the course of a few renditions, settling on a biscuit recipe that I think would make Nannie proud.

I hope you enjoy them as much as our family does. They’re the very best hot out of the oven, drizzled with honey, slathered with preserves, or eaten straight-up plain. And of course, split wide open and stacked with some cheese and an egg would work mighty fine too. That’s one of the things about biscuits, they’re flexible. These Buttermilk Biscuits are no exception. Enjoy!

A few Buttermilk Biscuits recipe notes:

• A hot cast-iron skillet or pan will result in a better rise for biscuits. AND the taller the sides of the skillet or pan will result in a higher rise too.
• All-purpose flour is listed in the recipe below. Different types of flour (bread flour, wheat flour) and even the same type of flour from brand to brand can vary the texture and the amount of rise in a biscuit and other baked goods.
• To save time, prep the butter ahead of time: freeze the butter, grate it, then freeze the grated butter covered with plastic wrap on in an airtight container. Store in the freezer covered until ready to use.
• Less kneading and messing with biscuit dough will result in a fluffier biscuit. So don’t mess with the dough any more than you have to.

You may also enjoy these other biscuit or dinner roll recipes:

• Sweet Potato Biscuits Recipe
• Sour Cream Cheddar and Chives Drop Biscuits Recipe
• Easy Whipped Cream Biscuit Recipe
• The Best Dinner Rolls from Mom On Timeout

Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe

Originally posted May 19, 2014.