Making biscuits from scratch is a really valuable skill to have in your repertoire as a home cook. Especially this recipe for flaky, tender buttermilk biscuits! They’re so easy and delicious and can be put together in a matter of minutes.
Having a homemade buttermilk biscuit recipe on hand is so useful for adding a great bread option to a meal. They’re so versatile and can be eaten on their own, with butter and jam, with homemade sausage gravy, as a breakfast sandwich, there are countless options.
Table of Contents:
- How to Make Biscuits from Scratch
- Easy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe
- The Best Fat to Use for Flaky Homemade Biscuits
- Buttermilk Biscuit Ingredient Options
- Mixing Biscuit Dough by Hand
- How to Create Flaky Biscuits
How to Make Biscuits from Scratch
Making recipes from scratch allows so much room for you to use the ingredients you love. Here are a few suggestions of substitutions and adjustments you can make to the base recipe to make it your own.
Add a little bit of whole wheat flour to include some whole grains. I recommend substituting a third of the flour for whole grain flour. You can use bread flour for a little extra texture and lift. Self rising flour is also a great option and eliminates the need for a leavener, namely baking powder.
You can also make adjustments to the fat. I have had best results with a combination of butter and lard (or shortening). But you could use just butter if you prefer.
A good practice is to read the recipe in its entirety. This is true for all recipes that you work with, especially if it’s the first time you’ve used them.
Preheat the oven and prepare the baking pan.
Be sure the butter is very cold. So, place it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. While it’s chilling, measure out the rest of the ingredients. Then proceed to assemble the biscuits.
Easy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe
Mix your dry ingredients. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt (and buttermilk powder, see recipe note) in a large bowl and whisk them together to combine. Set this bowl aside.
Let’s talk about what makes the biscuits delicious, which are the fat components. This recipe calls for two types of fat. I find that it creates the flakiest baskets and gives such a tender, wonderful texture. The two fats that I’ve had the best success with are butter and lard.
Many recipes for biscuits from scratch call for shortening, which you can use if you like. I prefer lard because it is less processed. Cooled bacon grease would be another great option. You can also just use all butter if that’s what you like and have on hand.
The Best Fat to Use for Flaky Homemade Biscuits
The butter is the first fat to be added to dry ingredients and requires a little preparation. Freezing the butter for about 10 to 15 minutes makes it easier to grate. Adding grated butter to the biscuits creates a flakier dough.
Grate the butter on the large holes of a box grater. Add the butter into the flour mixture very gently so you don’t smush the little butter pieces. Scoop your hands underneath the flour and lift and separate the butter into the flour until it’s evenly distributed.
Lard is the second type of fat needed in this recipe. Before adding the lard, make a well in the center of the flour mixture by pressing the flour outward with the back of your hand. The well doesn’t have to go all the way to the bottom of the bowl.
Add about three tablespoons of lard, or an amount that is approximately the size of an egg, into the center of the well. Don’t mix yet.
Buttermilk Biscuit Ingredient Options
So let’s talk about the milk for a moment. Buttermilk obviously is the best choice for this. I don’t always keep buttermilk on hand, just because I don’t go through it very quickly and I don’t want it to go bad. Powdered buttermilk is a great alternative to keep on hand and work very well for buttermilk biscuits, and also things like pancakes.
If using buttermilk powder, you should add it into the flour mixture prior to adding the butter. Sometimes buttermilk can get a little cakey, so you can push it through a fine wire strainer to work out any lumps. Check the package instructions for how much buttermilk powder to use for the liquid you will add to the dough.
I love the results that using milk gives to the recipe, even when using buttermilk powder. However, you can just add water when using the buttermilk powder. And of course, if you have real buttermilk on hand, use that.
Now that you’ve made your well and added the little egg sized bit of fat into the center, pour in the milk (or water). Start with about 1 cup. Then begin mixing the lard and milk together. Squeeze and swish to break up the lard into smaller chunks, it won’t mix in complete.
Mixing Biscuit Dough by Hand
Now you get to get messy! Make a claw shape with your hand and moving in a circular motion start bringing the flour into the center of the bowl combining it with the liquid. It’s best to use your hands for mixing. It gives you more control. Using a tool could overmix the dough making it tough. Hand mixing also preserves those fat pieces you worked so hard for.
The mixture is going to be fairly dry and flowery. You don’t want it to be a very wet dough. But if you feels it’s too dry, add more milk a little bit at a time until you’re happy with it. The dough should be loose and not hold together completely.
Turn out the dough onto a generously floured surface. Remove the dough from your fingers by encircling a finger with the thumb and first finger of the other hand. Squeeze gently and pull the dough down off the end of each finger and add this to the dough ball.
Once you’ve removed as much dough from your fingers as you can, you’ll gently pull the dough balll together with your hands. Carefully smush it into a mass and start to flatten it out. This process will continue to make the dough cohesive.
If you have one, use a bench scraper during this step to keep the bits contained and the edges straight. Press the dough with your palms, flattening out the ball until it’s about an inch to an inch thick and approximately 8”-9″ wide.
How to Create Flaky Biscuits
Next, we’ll create the flaky, puffy layers of the biscuits by folding the dough 4 times. Take your bench scraper (or a large, flat spatula) and fold the dough. I love this method because it really does create a layered flaky biscuit texture, almost like a puff pastry, that pulls apart and it’s really lovely to eat.
The first fold is from top to bottom so it’s long on the sides and short on the top and bottom. Take the bench scraper and slide it underneath the top edge of the dough and fold the dough down from top to bottom.
Press the dough out again until it’s just about an inch thick. This time your rectangle will be the other direction, long from side to side and short on the ends. Perform the second fold by using the bench scraper to fold the dough from right to left.
Press it out again and repeat this step folding from bottom to top and then from left to right, pressing it out in between each fold.
At this point you can continue to press the dough out with your hands or you can use a rolling pin. The rolling pin will create a really nice smooth surface on the top. Using your hands will just make the process quicker and less equipment to clean. So, you decide what works best for you.
If you’re making this with kids, sometimes it’s fun for them to press the dough out with their hands. It really does make for a fine tactile experience.
Press the dough out into a rectangle that is about ½” thick. The thickness is really more important than the size. You don’t want them to thin for a couple of reasons. Rolling the dough too thin can over compress the layers that you’ve created. And the biscuits won’t puff up as well, you won’t really get a nice tall biscuit. Bottom line, just don’t roll them too thin.
There are a couple of ways to cut your biscuits. You can absolutely do round cutters, like cookie cutters or any other shapes that you like. My preferred method is to just cut it with straight edges with my bench scraper, but a knife would do the job also.
If you just use the bench scraper it’s one less tool for you to have to clean later on. Which is always a nice idea to simplify the process. It’s really quick too.
If you cut the biscuits with a round cutter you’re going to end up with excess bits that you then have to reform and press together. Reworking the dough like this is essentially compressing those layers again and you might get less lift and flakiness from your biscuits.
This dough should make 12 biscuits total. You can gently score the dough to get an initial idea of how to divide the pieces. Those little scores will show up in the final baked product so you could also set a ruler next to the dough if you want to be really accurate.
Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper. Place the cut biscuit dough on the prepared pan.
I don’t always do this next step but it does give a nice finish to the biscuits. Brush the top of each biscuit with a little bit of milk. If you do this step, just be sure that you use the middle rack and your oven. Putting it on the top rack with a little bit of milk on the top might burn the edges.
Bake the biscuits on the middle rack for 12 to 16 minutes. Check them after 12 minutes. They should be golden brown on the top and nicely puffed. If they don’t quite look completely done on the top. Put them in for an additional few minutes. Once they’re done baking, remove them from the oven and put them on a rack to cool down.
You can absolutely serve these hot or warm and enjoy! I really hope you’ll enjoy this recipe for biscuits from scratch.
Check out this Recipe for Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
Interested in starting a kitchen garden? Read this post about How to Start Seeds at Home
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Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoons
- Fork
- Bench Scraper
- Rolling Pin
- Cast Iron Pan or Baking Sheet
Ingredients
- 3 Cups AP Flour*
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Sea Salt
- 6 tbsp Butter Frozen
- 1/3 Cup Lard or Vegetable Shortening or bacon grease
- 1 1/4 Cups Buttermilk (or 4 tbsp buttermilk powder + 1 1/4 cups whole milk)
Instructions
- Put butter in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 425°.
- Line cookie sheet with parchment. Set aside.
- In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. (Add buttermilk powder if using, see recipe notes). Set aside.
- Remove the butter from the freezer. On the large holes of a box grater, grate the butter. Add the butter to the flour mixture and toss gently until evenly distributed. Try not to smash the butter too much.
- Create a well in the center of the flour mixture, add the lard and pour in the buttermilk (or milk or water, see recipe notes).
- Using your hands, smash the lard and buttermilk together until loosely combined.
- Using your fingers as a whisk in a circular motion, slowly begin to incorporate the flour into the liquid, pulling the flour into the center from the sides of the bowl. The dough is done when the mixture looks shaggy, and some dry spots of flour remain. Do not overmix!
- Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface. Remove the dough from your fingers by grasping each finger with the thumb and forefinger of the other hand, dragging down from knuckle to tip.
- Using a bench scrapper to keep the dough in a rectangle, pat the dough down to about 1 inch thick.
- With the bench scrapper fold the dough in half from top to bottom. Pat down to 1 inch again. Fold in half from left to right. Repeat patting and folding 2 more times folding right to left and finally bottom to top. The order of the folds doesn't matter too much, just be sure to do 4 folds in a full round.
- After the last fold pat (or roll with a floured rolling pin) to about ½ thickness using the bench scraper or your hands to square up the edges. Flour the edge of the bench scraper (pizza cutter or knife) and use it to cut the dough into 12 even pieces.
- Transfer the cut pieces onto the prepared pan leaving about 1/2 inch between each piece. Be sure to place smaller, thinner pieces toward the center of the pan, large, thick ones to the outside.
- Optional: Brush the top of each biscuits with milk.
- Bake on the middle rack for 12 – 16 minutes until top and bottom are golden brown. Transfer biscuits to a cooling rack for about 5 minutes before serving.
