Easy Buttermilk Biscuits
These easy buttermilk biscuits are incredibly soft, tall, flaky, and buttery. Serve these with some jam or gravy for an easy breakfast!
Making buttermilk biscuits from scratch is so much easier than you’d think. All it takes is seven simple ingredients and a little elbow grease — just a little!
Believe me, once you find out how easy it is to make your own biscuits you’ll never buy the pre-made kind again.
One thing I love about this buttermilk biscuit recipe is how versatile it is. Top the biscuits with your favorite sausage gravy, jam or marmalade, or a little butter and a drizzle of honey.
No matter how you dress them up, you’re going to love these biscuits!
Recipe Ingredients
Homemade buttermilk biscuits require just seven basic ingredients, so it’s important that you use all the right ones. Here’s what you’ll need to make this easy biscuit recipe:
- All-purpose flour: You need to spoon and level the flour when measuring it rather than scooping it straight from the bag. This will ensure that you don’t measure out too much by mistake, which would result in dense, dry biscuits.
- Baking powder & baking soda: Make sure your baking powder and baking soda are still fresh before starting. Both ingredients are important to get a good rise.
- Granulated sugar: Doesn’t make the biscuits taste sweet, it just gives them some flavor.
- Salt: Like the sugar, the salt flavors the biscuits and makes them taste more buttery.
- Unsalted butter: Needs to be cold before being cut into the flour. If you use warm butter, the biscuits won’t rise properly in the oven, nor will they be flaky.
- Buttermilk: The acidity of the buttermilk reacts with the baking soda to help them rise as they’re baking in the oven. It also creates ultra tender biscuits! I highly recommend using real buttermilk for best results.
How to Make Buttermilk Biscuits
Before you start the recipe, it’s important to note that you need to use cold butter and buttermilk in these biscuits. Prepare your dry ingredients first, then take your butter and buttermilk out of the refrigerator to ensure that they stay cold.
- Prepare the dry ingredients: Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
- Add the cold, cubed butter to the flour mixture: The butter can be cut into the flour mixture using a fork, a pastry cutter, or a food processor. You want to see small pea-sized crumbs of butter in your dry ingredients, a few larger pieces are okay though.
- Add the buttermilk: Pour the cold buttermilk into the bowl and mix just until the dough starts to come together.
- Work the dough together: Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and very gently work it together with your hands.
- Fold the dough: Form the dough into a rectangle, fold it into thirds like a letter (as shown in the photo above), and then pat it back out into a rectangle. This folding process needs to be repeated two more times. By folding the dough over itself, you’re creating layers. These layers result in ultra flaky, fluffy buttermilk biscuits! Trust me here, it’s worth the extra step.
- Pat out the dough: After the dough has been folded a third time, pat it out into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Make sure to measure here! If the dough is too thin, the biscuits won’t rise very tall.
- Cut out the biscuits: Use a floured 2.5-inch biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits, and arrange them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. When cutting your biscuits out, don’t twist your cutter. This will seal off the edges of your dough and they won’t rise as high. Just cut the dough straight down and pull the cutter right back out.
- Place them side by side on the baking sheet: Make sure the biscuits are touching each other like the picture above. Not only will this help the biscuits rise taller in the oven, but it will also give them softer sides.
- Brush the tops of the biscuits with buttermilk: This step is optional, but it helps the tops turn a beautiful golden brown as they’re baking in the oven.
- Bake until golden brown: This will take about 15 to 17 minutes, depending on your oven.
How To Freeze Buttermilk Biscuits
Yes, you can either freeze the biscuits before baking them or after you have baked them.
- To freeze before baking: Place the cut out biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Transfer the baking sheet to the freezer and freeze for 1 to 2 hours or until the biscuits are frozen solid. Place the biscuits in a large freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. The biscuits may be baked from frozen, just add a few extra minutes to the baking time. If they start to brown too much before they’re fully baked through, place a piece of foil over the top until they’re done.
- To freeze the baked biscuits: Once the baked biscuits have cooled completely, place them in a large freezer bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Bring to room temperature on the counter. Reheat in the microwave or in the oven at 300°F until warmed through.
Storage Instructions
These biscuits are best eaten the same day that they are prepared. However, you can store them in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. I recommend warming them for a few seconds in the microwave or for a few minutes in the oven at 300°F.
For longer storage, you may freeze the biscuits as mentioned above.
Baking Tips
- Don’t overwork your dough! The more gentle you are with the dough, the more tender the biscuits will be.
- If you don’t have a circular cutter, you can use a knife to cut the dough into eight to ten square biscuits.
- I prefer to bake my biscuits side by side on the baking sheet so the sides are softer. If you prefer crisper sides, you can leave a little space between each one. Keep in mind that if you do, they may not rise quite as tall.
- If the dough feels a little too warm after you have cut it out, place the baking sheet in the freezer for 10 minutes, then bake as directed.
More Easy Breakfast Recipes to Make!
Recipe Video
Easy Buttermilk Biscuits
These Easy Buttermilk Biscuits are incredibly soft, tall, flaky, and buttery. Serve these with some jam, gravy, or your topping of choice for an easy and delicious breakfast!
Ingredients
Servings: 10 biscuits
- 2 cups all-purpose flour spooned & leveled (250 grams)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cubed (85 grams)
- ¾ cup cold buttermilk plus more for the tops of the biscuits (180 ml)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt until well combined. Add the cubed cold butter and cut it into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter (you may also use a food processor for this step) until you have small pea sized pieces of butter. Pour the cold buttermilk into the mixture and gently mix until the dough starts to come together.
- Scoop the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently work it together with your hands. Pat the dough into a rectangle and fold it into thirds (like a letter). Turn the dough, gather any crumbs, and flatten back into a rectangle. Repeat the folding process two more times.
- Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat it down into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle (make sure to measure!). Using a floured 2.5-inch biscuit cutter, cut out the biscuits. Make sure not to twist the biscuit cutter as you're cutting, just press the cutter straight down and pull it straight back up.
- Continue to gather any scrap pieces of dough, patting it back down to 1/2-inch thickness, and cutting it until you have 8 to 10 biscuits. I suggest trying to get as many as you can the first time, as you continue to work the dough the biscuits won't be quite as good.
- Arrange the biscuits on the baking sheet touching each other. Brush the top of each biscuit with a little bit of buttermilk.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter, if desired. Allow to cool for a few minutes, serve, and enjoy!
Notes
Storage Instructions: Biscuits are best eaten the same day that they are prepared. However, they may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Reheat for a few seconds in the microwave or for a few minutes in the oven at 300°F.
Did you make this recipe?Mention @livewellbakeoften on Instagram or tag #livewellbakeoften.
Adapted from All Recipes and Food.com with some helpful research from King Arthur Flour.
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Easy enough. Great tasting biscuits , I succeeded on the first attempt. Very well written easy to follow instructions. I will definitely make these again!
Hello Danielle – My wife and follwed your recipe and sure enough we got lovely biscuits, thank you for sharing. One thing we suffered from was that the bottom of the bicuits were a little burnt. They were on parchment paper and a good quailty baking tray, any ideas on why the bottoms would burn please?
Hi, Alan! Are you using a darker baking sheet? If so, a lighter baking sheet will help with that. You could also reduce the oven temperature to 425°F.
What temp to bake ❓❗
450°F – It’s listed in step 1 of the recipe.
Can I prep the biscuits and refrigerate them until the next day.
I haven’t tried it, but I think it would be fine. I’ve frozen them without any issues as well.
Mine came out a tad dry
Suggestion?
Was the dough dry? If so, an extra tablespoon or two of buttermilk will help next time you make them. It could also be that they were a little over baked. You can try reducing the baking time by 2 to 3 minutes next time and see if that helps.
Simple ingredients, easy directions. Biscuits turned out great. 🙂 will be using this recipe more in the future
Not nearly enough flour! I had to do 4 cups. Then they were perfect.
Are you sure you used the correct measurements for the other ingredients, specifically the buttermilk? Or did you happen to use a smaller measuring cup to measure your flour? I’ve made these dozens of times and 4 cups of flour would be far too much for this recipe.
First time making biscuits from scratch and while I had trouble getting even thickness when patting them down, they were perfectly done at 425 for 16 minutes. My family gobbled them right up. I didn’t have obvious layers though. Any suggestions?
Glad your family enjoyed the biscuits, Lisa! Did you make sure to fold the dough? If so, do you think you may have patted it down too much? And did you make sure not to twist the cutter as you were cutting out the biscuits?
I baked these and froze the leftovers. Thawed them overnight in the frig and warmed them in the microwave gently they turned out just fine. Some of the best I have tried.
Success on my first try! Great tips and notes. Well written instructions. Thank you!
This recipe sounded good; however, it yielded poor results. The biscuits had an average taste and consistent with other comments, they did not rise. I realized too late that these would not be the hit where they were intended to play a key part in the menu.
Hi! I tried to make these for my family today but they didnt rise enough but they tasted good! What couldve been the reason for it not rising enough?
Hi, Danyelle! There are quite a few reasons they may not have risen very well – baking powder/soda wasn’t fresh, overworking the dough, twisting your cutter (which seals off the edges), etc. You also want to make sure to use cold butter and buttermilk too. I hope that helps and glad you still enjoyed the biscuits!
I had some leftover buttermilk to use to and decided to try out this recipe. These biscuits are amazing! Easy to mix together and so delicious. My kids and husband didn’t even want butter with them.
Going to be making them again in a few days to go with sausage biscuits & gravy.
I don’t have any buttermilk. I do have buttermilk powder can I use this intead.
Yes! You can prepare the buttermilk powder according to the package directions to make liquid buttermilk, then use 3/4 cup of the liquid buttermilk.
Best recipe ever!!!
I made theses for christmas eve and now i have already hadto make another batch for breakfast husband loves them and pretty easy to make
I’ve made your biscuits a few times now, and they’ve turned out great. A few tweaks I use:
1) I use a full stick of butter for the recipe. It uses up the whole stick, and I absolutely love butter!
2) I freeze and then grate my butter on the large side of a box grater. Freezing it makes it grateable (not a word, I know), and it gets the butter into the perfect size for mixing. If it gets a little too warm whole grating, you can chill it or, like you suggested, put the dough in the freezer before baking. Easier than using a fork, and I don’t really want to buy a pastry cutter.
3) If I’m making breakfast sandwiches, I’ll do one last fold in half with a small layer of flour between. That way, it’s easier to separate the biscuits into sandwich halves.
Just a few thoughts. Thanks!
Quick.
Easy.
Simple instructions.
Came out great!!
I suggest 425F temperature.
Check at 10-12 minutes
Great biscuits, next time I will add a smidge more Buttermilk and try to cut all of the biscuits at the sametime so they all rise the same.
can you please insert the video
I just checked and I’m seeing the video in the post. I’m wondering if you can’t see it because of the browser or device that you’re using?
Absolutely delicious! I’ve made these dozens of times and they always turn out perfect. I don’t change a thing from the recipe. We eat half and freeze the others – they are just as tasty weeks later (or months if I forget they’re in the freezer). Thank you!!
Exactly what I needed tonight to go with my ghoulish. Thank you
I had one problem when I was mixing the dough in bowl it was dry it was soft when it came out the oven but but dry. How do you know when it really to put on cutting board don’t think it’s wet enough. Could you post the video instead of me trying to read the ingredients ir send it to me. I don’t use sugar because I am a diabetic thanks never done it from scratch first time we did eat them.
Hi, David! The dough shouldn’t be dry. Are you making sure to spoon and level your flour and scraping all of the buttermilk out of your measuring cup? If so, try adding an extra tablespoon or two of buttermilk and that will help. There is a video in the post right above the recipe showing how to make them. There’s also some images in the post showing what your dough should look like.
We’ve had great success every time we’ve made them. This is the family’s favorite biscuit recipe so we’re sticking with it. The kids are able to make them by themselves, too, so that’s a perk. I don’t normally follow recipes exactly, but we do this one. To us, it’s perfect as is.
I made the biscuits with no additions or changes and they were delicious! Thank you
This is a great recipe I put it in my cooking box. I will be using this from now on.
I bookmarked this and have made these many times. It’s fine but it’s not flaky. It’s more bready, cakey, not full flaky layers like I prefer. But I do like the recipe. So easy.
This recipe is awesome and worked perfectly, I love it and will continue to use it.
I love this recipe. The biscuits are soooo good! Instead of buttermilk, I stir fresh lemon juice into regular milk and let it sit for a bit, covered. Sometimes I add vanilla extract. They are so amazing warmed with blackberry jelly. I love how the lemon shines through. I’ve made several batches and the next ones I plan to add blueberries and chocolate chips.
Biscuits came out excellent in just the first try.
Thank you