What can compare to a buttery and extra flaky biscuit straight out of the oven?
Not much! This recipe for flaky buttermilk biscuits is spot on with extra flaky buttery goodness.
My mouth was watering when I pulled these out of the oven, and they did not disappoint!
Jump to:
What you will love about these flaky buttermilk biscuits
EXTRA FLAKY!
Need I say more?
When I want a hot American biscuit (European biscuits are a totally different thing), I want layer upon layer of melt-in-your-mouth buttery flakes.
I took the extra steps in this recipe to make sure that these buttermilk biscuits were extra flaky. You are going to adore them, and you won’t be able to stop yourself from sneaking more!
Tips
When it comes to making flaky buttermilk biscuits, there are 2 keys to getting them perfect:
- Cold butter and cold buttermilk
- Layering
It is absolutely necessary that the butter and buttermilk are cold! This will help make our biscuits extra flaky.
We are also going to take the steps to make extra layers in these biscuits before we cut them out and bake them.
Ingredients
These basic ingredients for the buttermilk biscuits are probably already in your pantry. Let’s take a moment to focus on butter and buttermilk. Butter is an essential ingredient for flaky biscuits.
I almost always use salted butter and when these are done baking, I generously slather my hot biscuit with butter before eating it. You really can’t have too much butter with biscuits.
The only thing we need to keep in mind is that the butter needs to be very cold in order to end up with flaky biscuits. Cold butter is essential to flakiness in biscuits.
Buttermilk is also a standard ingredient in southern biscuits. It works better than normal milk to make the dough flaky and light, as opposed to regular milk which may render your biscuits tough and dense.
The last thing we want is dense biscuits! So make sure to buy buttermilk! The acidity of the buttermilk helps these biscuits to turn out mouthwateringly perfect.
These are the ingredients for flaky buttermilk biscuits:
- All-purpose flour
- Buttermilk
- Butter (salted)
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Sugar
How to make flaky buttermilk biscuits
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
For the biscuit dough, I use a food processor so that the butter quickly gets incorporated well into the flour without warming up or melting.
You can also use a pastry cutter or something like that to break up the butter, but it is a lot more work than necessary if you have a food processor. The food processor breaks up the butter evenly.
Start by adding the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar to a food processor. Take your butter straight out of the fridge and quickly cube it or cut it into ½ tablespoons size pieces.
Add a few cubes of butter at a time and pulse the food processor a few times. It should break up the butter and incorporate it into the flour.
Keep adding butter cubes into the dry ingredients and pulsing it together. After all of the butter cubes are added, run the processor for a few seconds.
Your flour/butter mixture should end up looking almost like sand, with some pea sized pieces of butter also. Make sure there aren’t any larger sizes of butter chunks. They should be pea size and smaller.
Pour the processed ingredients from the food processor into a large mixing bowl.
Measure out the COLD buttermilk and fold it into the flour mixture. It should be completely combined, but it will be a very thick dough.
Pour the dough out onto a floured surface and with a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a large rectangle.
Cut the dough into thirds and place each layer on top of each other. Roll the dough again and cut it into thirds again. We will repeat that 3 times in order to get all of those lovely layers.
The last time, roll the dough to be about ¾” thick. Cut into round biscuits with a floured biscuit cutter. Most biscuit cutters are 2.5-3” in diameter.
Line a pie plate with parchment paper and place the biscuits in it. They should be touching or right next to each other, almost touching.
Place the biscuits in the preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve them warm with plenty of butter.
Serving Suggestions
Clearly the best way to eat biscuits is slathering it with an absurd amount of butter, but there are other ways to serve them also.
Another great way to serve biscuits is with homemade jam. I LOVE buttery biscuits with homemade strawberry jam. Yum. Honey is another sweet alternative to drizzle on a hot biscuit.
Serving these biscuits with sausage gravy is a breakfast delight that is enjoyed down south. I’ll have to share that recipe sometime in the future. It’s a good one!
FAQ’s
Why are my biscuits dense?
Overworking your biscuit dough can make biscuits dense and tough. Using regular milk can also make the dough more dense as opposed to using buttermilk.
Warm butter can also cause biscuits to be dense. Make sure that the butter and buttermilk are very cold when preparing your dough!
Should you let biscuit dough rest?
It is advisable to let the biscuit dough rest for 30 minutes before cutting and baking it, although it is not necessary.
Should shortening or Crisco be used in biscuits?
No. I never recommend using butter substitutes in any sort of baking, not only because it is less healthy, but because the taste is so much better with real butter.
Do biscuits have yeast?
Most southern biscuits do not contain yeast, however there is a recipe that is referred to as “angel biscuits” or “heavenly biscuits” that do contain yeast. They come out somewhere in between a dinner roll and a biscuit.
Can I freeze biscuits?
Yes! You can bake the biscuits until they are almost done. Pull them out of the oven just a few minutes shy of them being completely baked, let them cool completely and freeze them in an airtight container. They will keep for up to 3 months.
Can I make biscuit dough ahead of time?
Yes, you can make biscuits the day before and place the dough in the fridge overnight. Allow time for the dough to warm up slightly before rolling it out. When the dough is cold, it will be very stiff.
📖 Recipe
Flaky & Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits
Equipment
- Food processor
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ cup salted butter 1 stick very cold
- 1 cup buttermilk very cold
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Measure out the dry ingredients into a food processor. *
- Cut the cold butter into cubes and add a few cubes at a time into the food processor while pulsing it.
- Continue pulsing and adding the cubed butter until it has all been added. Run the food processor for another few seconds until the flour and butter mixture looks almost like a sandy consistency. Make sure there are not large chunks of butter left. All of the butter pieces should be about the size of a pea or smaller.
- Pour the butter and flour mixture into a large mixing bowl and fold in the cold buttermilk until just combined. It will be a thick dough. Don’t overwork it.
- Dump the dough onto a floured surface and roll it into a rectangle about ¾” thick.
- Cut the dough into thirds and stack the dough pieces on top of each other.
- Repeat steps 6-7 three times.
- Roll the dough to be about ¾” thick and cut it with the floured biscuit cutter.
- Place the biscuits next to each other in a greased pie plate (or with parchment paper) or cast iron skillet.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm.
Comments
No Comments