There’s nothing quite like the comforting taste of warm, homemade buttermilk biscuits fresh from the oven. Fluffy, flaky, and buttery, these biscuits are made from scratch with simple ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen.
Whether you’re baking a small batch for breakfast or serving them alongside dinner, this easy recipe delivers perfect biscuits every time.
Baked in a cast iron skillet or on a baking sheet, these golden beauties have the perfect balance of crisp edges and soft, pillowy centers. Get ready to impress your family with the best homemade buttermilk biscuits—no mixer required!
Buttermilk biscuits are the quintessential Southern staple. They accompany fully half the meals served in the South.
Is it even really breakfast if there’s not buttermilk biscuits on the table?
Feuds have started and relationships have ended over the rise and tenderness of these golden discs of dough. The meanest thing you can do to a Southerner is to insult Nana’s biscuits.
But fear not, gentle reader!
I come bearing the gift of perfectly fluffy and flaky buttermilk biscuits!
These buttermilk beauties are excellent to split and smother with sausage gravy. Another Southern staple.
They are the perfect size for breakfast bacon sandwiches, or buttered and slathered with your favorite jam, jelly, or honey. And they are the bread of choice for both a fried chicken dinner or a breakfast skillet.
Leftover biscuits find their way to the top of hamburger stew, or are simple eaten as a snack.
So, are you ready to make Nana proud?
Grab an apron and let’s get started.
Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe
NOTE: These biscuits can be baked in a cast iron skillet or on a baking sheet.
Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 5 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup buttermilk Learn to make your own buttermilk here
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 8 Tablespoons very cold butter (1 stick), divided
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 425°F.
Using a whisk, combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Using a pastry cutter or 2 forks, cut 6 Tablespoons of the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
If you start with your butter in chunks, it’s easier to cut in.
OR you can use frozen butter and grate it using a box grater and them mix it into the dry ingredients.
Make Ahead Tip: At this point, you can cover the bowl and refrigerate the flour mixture until you are ready to use it.
Put a depression in the middle of the flour mixture to pour the buttermilk into. Then start stirring from the middle out. Less buttermilk on the sides of the bowl that way.
Add the buttermilk and stir just until the dough comes together. DON’T OVERMIX or the biscuits will be tough.
You might need to get your hands in there it get it to come together completely. Is it even home baking if you don’t get your hands dirty?
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat or roll the dough into a rectangle roughly 3/4 inch think.
Gently fold the dough into thirds, like you would with a letter. Turn the dough a quarter turn (90 degrees) and pat or roll it out again into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle. Fold the dough in thirds again.
This folding is what gives the biscuits their flaky layers. You can do this step several times if you want to.
After folding the dough at least twice, pat or roll the dough one more time into a rectangle 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick.
Using a 3 inch biscuit cutter, out put as many biscuits as you can and place on a baking sheet or in a cast iron pan. For easier clean up you can line your baking sheet with parchment paper OR you can use my favorite brand of non stick baking sheets.
Gather up the dough scraps and pat them together 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Cut out additional biscuits. Gather any remaining scraps and press together for the last biscuit. You should have 7 or 8 biscuits in total.
Melt the remaining 2 Tablespoons of butter and brush it over the tops if the biscuits.
If you like your biscuits to have a crunchy bottom, dip the biscuit in melted butter before putting it on the baking sheet. You’ll need to add another tablespoon of butter for that.
Place in preheated oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden brown.
Remove from the oven, split, add butter, and serve warm.
If there happen to be any leftovers, store them in an airtight container at room temperature.
There you go! The perfect fluffy, flaky, buttermilk biscuit.
And when your friends ask, you can tell them it’s Nana’s secret recipe!
More breakfast breads you might like:
Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 5 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 8 Tablespoons very cold butter 1 stick, divided
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425°F.
- Using a whisk, combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Using a pastry cutter or 2 forks, cut 6 Tablespoons of the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
- OR you can use frozen butter and grate it using a box grater and them mix it into the dry ingredients.
- Add the buttermilk and stir just until the dough comes together. DON’T OVERMIX or the biscuits will be tough.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat or roll the dough into a rectangle roughly 3/4 inch think.
- Gently fold the dough into thirds, like you would with a letter. Turn the dough a quarter turn (90 degrees) and pat or roll it out again into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle. Fold the dough in thirds again.
- This folding is what gives the biscuits their flaky layers. You can do this step several times if you want to.
- After folding the dough at least twice, pat or roll the dough one more time into a rectangle 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick.
- Using a 3 inch biscuit cutter, out put as many biscuits as you can and place on a baking sheet or in a cast iron pan. For easier clean up you can line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Gather up the dough scraps and pat them together 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Cut out additional biscuits. Gather any remaining scraps and press together for the last biscuit. You should have7 or 8 biscuits in total.
- Melt the remaining 2 Tablespoons of butter and brush it over the tops if the biscuits.
- Place in preheated oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden brown.
- Remove from the oven, split, add butter, and serve warm.