Quick and Easy Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits
These Quick and Easy Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits are tender and full of butter flavor, nestled in tons of flaky layers. Having a good biscuit recipe is a staple in any baker's kitchen and this one is easy with only a few simple ingredients. Don't have buttermilk in your fridge? No worries - you can make your own!
Servings: 6 3-Inch Biscuits
Equipment
- 1 - Baking Sheet Unlined
Ingredients
- 2 cups (plus more for dusting) all purpose flour spoon & level to measure
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper optional
- 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold VERY cold & grated (see Notes)
- 1 cup buttermilk, cold reserve and set aside 1 tablespoon
- 1 tablespoon honey or any sweetener
Instructions
- Using a box cheese grater, grate the cold butter onto a piece of parchment paper. Put the grated butter in the freezer until ready to use.
- In a liquid measuring cup, measure out the buttermilk. Place it in the refrigerator until ready to use. See Notes for Homemade Buttermilk.
- Preheat oven to 425F degrees and adjust the oven rack to the middle position.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine with a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula.
- Remove the butter from the freezer and add it to the flour mixture. Stir until just combined.
- Remove the buttermilk from the refrigerator and reserve and set aside 1 tablespoon - this will be used to brush the tops of the biscuits.
- Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add the honey and 2/3 of the buttermilk to the dry ingredients. Mix gently and add more buttermilk as needed until the dough is coarse and crumbly and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. You don't want the dough to be too wet, and you may not need all of the buttermilk.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Using your hands, gently work the dough together and form into a rough rectangle. If the dough is sticky, lightly flour the top of the dough.
- Once the dough has come together, fold the dough in half. With your fingertips, gently flatten the dough. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and fold in half again, gently flattening the layers again. Repeat this step 5-6 more times. Keep the surface lightly floured as needed to avoid the dough sticking to your work surface. The folding and rotating is what creates the flaky layers in the biscuit.
- Flatten the dough to approximately 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Dip the biscuit cutter into flour. Starting in one of the corners of the dough, gently press the biscuit cutter straight down - making close cuts to get as many biscuits as you can before having to re-work the dough. Note - The number of biscuits you get will depend on how thick your dough is and what size biscuit cutter you use. Re-flatten and cut any remaining dough.
- Place the biscuits close to each other, but not touching, on the baking sheet. With a pastry brush, brush the reserved buttermilk on top of each biscuit.
- Bake the biscuits until the tops are golden brown, about 18 - 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and serve warm! You can also brush on some melted butter or honey before serving.
Notes
- Homemade Buttermilk - Pour a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice into a liquid measuring cup, then pour milk to the 1 cup mark. Stir and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes before using. I prefer whole milk, but 2% will also work.
- Cold Butter - Butter is, by far, the most important ingredient in this recipe, and it needs to be VERY cold before using. I even go so far as to just keep sticks of butter in the freezer for recipes that need very cold butter.
- Grate the Butter - Grating the frozen butter on a cheese box grater is a great way to get small pieces of butter evenly distributed into your dough, without having to over-handle the butter. A pastry cutter will work as well, just cut the butter into tablespoons before using.
- Work by Hand - When preparing your dough, I do not use a rolling pin because I don't want to over-work the dough or melt the small butter pieces in the dough. The folding and flattening technique is an easy alternative and it gives you more control of the dough and its thickness.