Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe
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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
Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe
Buttery buttermilk biscuits go with just about any meal. They're not just for breakfast.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour (sifted before measuring)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 4 ounces (1/2 cup or 1 stick) salted butter, frozen
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
Instructions
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Add sour cream, stir to combine.
- Grate in frozen butter and quickly combine using a pastry cutter or fork until crumbly. Don’t overwork dough.
- Add buttermilk a little at a time until just combined and no longer crumbly. Do not over mix. Dough should be bumpy and clump together.
- Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface; gently pat or roll out to 1-inch thickness. Cut into squares or use a biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits. Carefully transfer to greased/buttered hot skillet or parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake at 450-degrees F for 12-14 minutes. Remove from oven, brush with melted butter, return to oven and bake for another 1 minute until golden brown.
Biscuits are my weakness! I can wait to try! Pinned
Being a southerner, I feel obligated to discover the perfect biscuit 🙂 These looks so fluffy!! Definitely going to give them a try!!
ooommmmmmmm pair this with a good baked crispy chicken and it would be heaven.
Buttermilk biscuits are the best!! These look great!
I love family recipes! These biscuits are perfect!
I have some garlic chives in my garden that will be fantastic folded into these! I see oven fried chicken biscuits in my future!!
Watching Nannie make the biscuits was always interesting to me. She kept her flour in a wooden dough bowl covered with a cloth in the pantry and would uncover it and just add the ingredients into the flour, mixing it with her hands and only use the flour that ended up in a dough ball. She’d then lift it out leaving the remaining dry flour in the dough bowl and would replace the cloth. But like Amy I thought Nannie would always be around. And I never paid much attention to the amounts of what she put into the flour. We were always too busy talking about latest news and catching up on family as we buzzed around the kitchen.
As a child I remember the one on one times with Nannie and how sometimes we’d get into deep discussions about life blessings and what all we had to be thankful for. And I am very thankful to have had and have such wonderful women in my life. I miss Nannie and my mother (Amy’s grandmother, Nana) but knowing their genes have been passed along to my two beautiful daughters and two sweet granddaughters makes me excited to see how they handle the blessings that come their way.
That’s exactly the way that my Grandmother made biscuits. She had a wooden bowl in the pantry cabinet that she kept covered with a cloth. It always had dry flour from the last biscuit batch (yesterday, lol) But she would mix everything in that bowl with her hands and it produced this wonderful batch of dough that she separated out and rolled gently in her hands into a perfectly sized ball. All of the balls of dough were placed on the greased baking sheet first and gently pressed down with her fingers to make the biscuits. They always had that 3 finger indention on top because of the way she mad them, but they were the best biscuits you would ever eat.
You both described my “Granny’s” biscuits perfectly! She didn’t measure anything and she would make the well, squish the shortening with her right hand and pour the buttermilk with her left until her heart was happy lol. She didn’t use a rolling pin or cutter. Just balls and pressed them down. Those finger indentations mean so much more now..💜
I love the way food can connect us with the past and with those we’ve lost. I didn’t have any biscuit makers in my family, so I’m still trying to get them right. Can’t wait to try this version.
These look so yummy! Who doesn’t love a buttermilk biscuit?! 🙂 Definitely saving this recipe. Thanks for sharing Amy!
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These look and sound wonderful. I can just about taste them as I read.
My favourite aunt lived in a very hot part of the country. She always kept everything , and I mean everything, she used to make her biscuits (scones) in the freezer right down to the knife, baking tray, milk etc. Her special method was to let everything get very cold, mix all the ingredients as fast as she could and then put them into a very hot preheated oven. Aunties biscuits (scones) always ended up over three inches high every time and boy did they taste good. You may wish to try her little trick. I shall be looking out for more of your wonderful recipes to try. Thank you so much.
For the first time in my life I made a beautiful biscuit using this recipe. Both my husband and myself thought it was way salty though. I’m not sure if cutting back on the salt would make as beautiful a biscuit, but I’m going to either cut back to 1/2 tsp. salt, or try using unsalted butter next time. It’s a great recipe, and I’ll use it again and again when I get the salt issue figured out!
I’m blown away by the texture of these biscuits – absolutely mouthwatering. Bookmarked!
I made these biscuits this morning. I have to admit I have never made biscuits homemade before. All I can say is amazing! They were buttery, flaky and moist. This will now be my go to recipe! Thank you!
So glad to hear it, Sheri. Yay for biscuits!
Dear Amy – gorgeous biscuits. Two things I learned about today: grating the frozen butter and using a skillet for the best rise. Great tips! Thank you.
These biscuits look so yummy!! And thanks for all the tips!
Lovely post! And these biscuits look perfect!!
These were delicious! My husband said that he can easily say that these were the best biscuits he’s ever had! Cyber high five! ** Two question- your note said to use a hot cast iron skillet so I put mine in the oven while it was preheating…. then hesitated thinking that might be too hot so I took it out to cool. The bottoms ended up being a golden brown and crusty but not bad! What is your method or temp of a hot skillet before you put the dough in? Also these went fast, so do you think multiplying the recipe and using a couple different size skillets (a 10 and 12 inch) would be ok or maybe a jelly roll pan is better? I’m a newb. 😉 and would you change the temp or baking time? I’m on the road to 12 myself, I’ve got to know these things!
So happy to hear that y’all enjoyed them, Raven! I usually heat the skillet up for about 10 minutes. As far as multiplying the recipe, I’d use whatever you have that will fit. A taller sided baking pan will help them rise more, but a jelly roll pan will work too. I would not change the temperature or bake time. Happy biscuit baking!
Thank you so much! 🙂
I could not understand some of the descriptions in the instructions. It did not work for me at all. Seriously disappointed.
Could you explain what was confusing to you, C?
Way, way too salty. Had to throw out. I would cut the salt to 1/2 teaspoon.