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Biscuits - the best homemade biscuits recipe with high, buttery, flaky and crumbly layers. Easy step-by-step recipe with three ingredients only.
Biscuits Recipe
I have tried many biscuits recipes and this is the BEST homemade biscuits recipe ever, with high, flaky layers that are buttery and crumbly.
This Southern Buttermilk Biscuits recipe is from Leite’s Culinaria, a trusted source for amazing recipes.
How To Make Biscuits At Home
Homemade biscuits are so easy to make as this recipe calls for only three (3) ingredients:
- Cold, unsalted butter
- Self-raising flour
- Buttermilk
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
The method is very easy. You just basically mix all the ingredients together, knead and then cut the biscuit dough into round shapes. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes for the best homemade biscuits.
The recipe is without additional baking powder in the recipe. The taste is absolutely delicious; there is no after taste of baking powder or baking soda, which I find unpleasant in many biscuits recipes you find online.
Baking Tips
- Use cold butter. It’s very important because cold butter will make sure that the biscuits are crumbly after baking.
- For the lightest and airy texture, please use Whitelily Flour self rising flour.
- Cut the cold butter into the flour with a pastry blender. The pastry blender is a great tool to make the dough mixture crumbly.
- Do not over mix the dough. It should be dry looking and resemble small peas.
Frequently Asked Questions
Buttermilk is the key ingredient in the recipe. You can turn milk into buttermilk by adding vinegar to the milk. For every 1 cup of milk, stir in 1 tablespoon of vinegar to make buttermilk.
Biscuits are great with gravy and you can try out my gravy recipe here.
This recipe yields 18 biscuits and each biscuit is only 118 calories.
What To Serve With Homemade Biscuits
Serve biscuits with a main entree. For a healthy meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Homemade Biscuits
Ingredients
- 1 stick cold unsalted butter
- 2 1/4 cups self-rising flour, Whitelily Flour brand (more for dusting and work surface)
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk, low fat or full fat
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Slice the cold unsalted butter into 1/4-inch (5 mm) thick slices (about 6 slices). In a large bowl, add the self-rising flour and toss in the butter slices. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture is crumbly and resembles small peas. Cover and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Lightly butter a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.
- Add the buttermilk to the flour mixture, gently stirring with a fork until the flour is moistened. The dough will be very sticky. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead it 3 or 4 times, gradually adding more flour as needed. Using floured hands, press and pat the dough into a 3/4-inch (2 cm) thick rectangle, measuring about 9 by 5 inches (23 cm by 12 cm).
- Sprinkle the dough with a little more flour. Starting at a short end, fold the dough over onto itself in three sections, as if folding a letter-size piece of paper. You should end up with a rectangle shape. Press the dough into a 3/4-inch (2 cm) thickness again and repeat the entire process two more times, adding additional flour as needed.
- Press and pat the dough to a thickness of 1/2 inch (1 cm) on a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough with a floured 2-inch (5 cm) cutter. Place the biscuits on the baking sheet. Gather the dough scraps and cut out more biscuits until all the dough is used up.
- Bake the biscuits for 13 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Brush the tops with melted butter and let them cool slightly. Serve warm with your favorite preserves.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Rasa, to me that Chef that I would say bad mouthed you, he needs to comment elsewhere and stop thinking he knows it all. I wished these type would shut up.. Keep up the good work!! CHEFS DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING!!!!!!
I’m confused. A stick of butter is 8 oz. and a half stick is 4 oz. Should I use a whole stick or a half stick?
Hi Tonya – in the US, a stick of butter equals to 4 ounces, 8 tablespoons, or 113 gram.
You’re right. I was thinking tablespoons, not ounces.
Just a bit of advice from a true Southerner, but if you want to make proper Southern biscuits, you need White Lily flour. They make self rising and regular. It’s a different kind of wheat and milled finer than normal AP flour, which is required to get the lift and lightness needed. If you use regular AP flour, you should try mixing around 2/3 AP flour with 1/3 cake flour to get something similar to White Lily.
Hi Sev, thanks for your advice. That’s very helpful! :)
My mistake, 3 parts AP flour to 1 part cake flour. It works, but if you can get White Lily flour at the store or someplace like Amazon, it’s the traditional approach that works well. A local place here has always made the most incredible fried shrimp, crispy, light, just amazing. Not a tempura batter, but not a normal batter. Turns out they use buttermilk and White Lily flour, nothing else, as their batter.
Thanks Sev. Appreciate your information. I will have to try!
they look nice, but there not biscuits there scones, Ive been a chef for 42years and that recipe is scone mix
cheers Neil
Hi Neil, then what is a scone mix? Scone and biscuits are so similar. This recipe is from Southern Living magazine.
Rasa ,
I disagree with Neil ( the Chef).
Scones have Sugar in them.
You are correct Rasa .They are biscuits. ?
Yes, they are biscuits! :)
i dont put sugar in scones, i always make mixed cheese scones
Mixed cheese, sounds yum. Please give me the recipe!!!
3 cup self-raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
45 g butter
50 g cheese grated
30g Parmesan cheese grated
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter softened
Preheat oven to 180C
Sift flour and salt into bowl. Rub in butter, stir in cheese.
Make a well in center and pour in milk, mix to a soft dough, if mixture not soft enough add a little more milk. Place on floured surface, knead lightly.
Pat dough out to approximately 2 cm thickness. Cut into rounds using a floured cutter.
Spread the softened butter onto top of scones with a knife and then sprinkle with extra grated cheese.
Place on greased oven tray and bake in oven for approximately 15-20 minutes or until tops are golden and cheese melted.
Scones or biscuits depends where you come from … what the rest of the world call scones, for some unfathomable reason are called biscuits in the USA. Your recipe is consistent with the basic buttermilk scone recipe. Buttermilk is less easily available and can be substituted with regular full-fat milk or soured milk or diluted yoghurt. Additions of sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, raisins, dates, cheese, sauteed onions, pumpkin puree etc are all optional variations. Avoid overworking the dough.
https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/basic-scones/12d869d1-2ac9-44ae-a88d-11354729fcb5
I can’t see the recipe
Hi Tanya, it’s there, please scroll down for the pink recipe card.
Hi Rasa,
You are aware that self-rising flour contains both baking powder and salt so the biscuits do contain baking powder – anyway, the biscuits do look good
Yes but it’s minimal compared to those that you have to add 1 tablespoon on top of the flour.