Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

Tall, fluffy, flaky buttermilk biscuits with crisp edges and soft, tender middles are just a few minutes away. Quick, easy, and with these secrets, you can make perfect biscuits every time.

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I love biscuits. I might be part biscuit, considering how much I eat them. Not just in buttermilk form, but in Cheddar Bay form, too.

A good, fluffy biscuit is a quick labor of love. That’s right, you can have beautiful, buttery biscuits in less than thirty minutes. I promise they will be fluffy and flaky with magical layers of butter folded into them.

Secret #1: White Lily self-rising flour. You need a soft, delicate flour with very little protein and some leavener in it. No eggs in biscuits, so there’s nothing else to help fluff up your dough!

Secret #2: Cold, cold, cold fats. Freeze (or refrigerate) your fat, whether it be bacon lard or some good ole Crisco, but I use high fat, sweet unsalted European butter which I get from the farmer’s market. Kerrygold butter is good to use for this. Regular American butter is high in water content, especially in comparison to European butter, so if you want to get some serious flaky layers, try to find the highest fat content butter around.

I sounded so stuffy, but I promise it’s just so you get the best results.

Secret #3: Keep it all cold. And I do mean all of it. Flour, butter, buttermilk, the cutter you use. All of it. The colder it is the better. Not frozen, of course, but incredibly cold so that the butter can’t melt and ruin your light, delicate biscuits.

Secret #4: Don’t twist your cutter. If you do, you close off the layers and lose the height for your biscuits before you even bake. You’ll end up with a short, dense, heavy biscuit. Just use an up-and-down motion, don’t twist. Press Down, Lift Up.

Secret #5: Don’t roll your dough out. You want these barely man-handled. After combining the ingredients, gently and quickly make the dough into a rectangle about 1-inch thick.

Secret #6: When you fold your dough, do it in thirds for quicker layers. Or in halves, to make perfect layers. Fold onto the middle, then flatten out again. Or if cutting in half, just stack each half on top of each other, then press back down into a thinner rectangle.

Secret #7: Shove everything in the freezer before baking. Those layers need to stay layered right before hitting that hot, hot pan in that hot, hot oven.

Secret #8: Space. Keep your buttermilk biscuits apart on the sheet, the crunchier the edges. Keep them close, you get a fully soft biscuit all around.

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Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

25 mins

 

Tall, fluffy, flaky buttermilk biscuits with crisp edges and soft, tender middles are just a few minutes away. Quick, easy, and with these secrets, you can make perfect biscuits every time.

Course: Breads, Breakfast/Brunch

Cuisine: American, Southern

Servings: 12 biscuits

Calories: 153 kcal

Author: Britt

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups White Lily self-rising flour cold
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter extremely cold and cubed
• 1 cup buttermilk very cold
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp butter melted
• Extra flour for hands and surface

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. In a large bowl, cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender/pastry cutter. Blend until the butter is the size of peas. Pour in buttermilk and gently stir with spoon until dough is just put together and the flour is a shaggy dough, do not over mix .
2. This is optional, but cover your dough with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for five to ten minutes to cool the dough or keep it cold while you clear your workspace.
3. Working quickly, take your dough and mold it into an 1/2-inch thick rectangle on a well-floured surface using your well-floured hands. Fold dough in thirds or cut in half and flatten out again. Repeat this quickly, about three or four times. You've just created layers.
4. Flatten into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle once again using well-floured hands. Using a biscuit cutter or glass cup that has been floured, use the press down/lift up motion to cut out biscuits as close to one another as possible and transfer them onto a parchment lined baking sheet or plate (whatever fits in your freezer). Freeze for 2-5 minutes.
5. Put biscuits on parchment lined baking sheet, either against each other for soft edges or apart for crisp edges, and put into the oven for 15-17 minutes. They should be slightly golden brown, tall, and fluffy. Brush with melted butter.
6. Eat hot, with homemade honey butter, or drizzle a little honey on top. Spread some jam in the middle, get some gravy, whatever your heart desires.