The Best Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
So easy to make, these are the best flaky buttermilk biscuits EVER! I always thought making light, tender biscuits at home was impossible. Not anymore!
Light and tender, these flaky buttermilk biscuits are absolute biscuit perfection.
For years I basically considered myself a failure in the biscuit-making department. I’m pretty sure I was over mixing, over kneading, and generally over thinking the whole process. Which is why I’ve largely stuck with these pretty amazing buttermilk drop biscuits as my go-to.
I’ll never turn my back on those drop biscuits. But I knew I wanted…and needed…to conquer classic mile high buttermilk biscuits once and for all. And I can honestly say these really are the best flaky buttermilk biscuits EVER. Ever.
They are a go-to bread side dish for us, because unlike breadsticks or rolls, you don’t need to plan ahead at all to account for rising, kneading, etc.
If you would have told me years ago that I would be making biscuits-not-from-the-can several times a month AND actually getting requests to bring these famous biscuits to family gatherings, I probably would have rolled my eyes (I have a talent for rolling my eyes).
What else can you do with homemade biscuits?
Since falling in love with these biscuits, I’ve used the base recipe for everything from chicken pot pie to biscuit cinnamon rolls (holy moly, these are lifechanging).
And while I will probably reinvent chocolate chip cookies until the day I die, I don’t forsee ever needing to experiment with another classic, super flaky buttermilk biscuit. This is the one. The only biscuit recipe I’ll ever need.
Secrets to perfect flaky buttermilk biscuits
One of the keys to me finally conquering homemade biscuits was when I started using my food processor to mix up the dough. Successful, flaky biscuits rely on not overworking the dough (similar to pie crust). You want the butter pieces to stay really cold as they are being worked into the dry ingredients.
The cold pieces of butter begin to melt and sizzle as the biscuits bake which creates the pockets of steam that in turn make for ultra-flaky layers. And trust me, you want ultra-flaky.
However, if you don’t have a food processor, never fear, you can still make these babies! The trick is to grate the cold/frozen butter into the dry ingredients with a box grater, toss together quickly, and then stir in the buttermilk without overworking the dough. You can do it, I promise.
Over the years of making this recipe again and again and again, I’ve gone from cutting the biscuits out in a classic round shape to instead patting the dough into a thick rectangle and using a bench scraper or knife to cut squares. You can see both examples above.
Guess what? Square biscuits taste just as delicious as round biscuits and you don’t have to reroll the scraps and keep cutting out with a cookie cutter. (Also, the rerolled and cut biscuits are never as flaky and tender as the first batch).
I hope you give homemade biscuits a try! Whether you’re a biscuit beginner or someone who has perfected the art, I think this recipe might quickly become your go-to like it is for me!
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Three Years Ago: Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding Pie
The Best Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients
- 3 cups (426 g) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ tablespoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 9 tablespoons (128 g) very cold butter cut into pieces
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk, more or less
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, or in the bowl of a food processor. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture is like coarse meal and the butter is in small, pellet-sized pieces (slightly smaller than a pea). This will take a few short pulses in the food processor.
- Pour in the buttermilk and mix/pulse only until just combined. The dough should start to come together but you don’t want to overmix the dough. If there are lots of dry patches throughout the dough, add a bit more buttermilk, just a tablespoon or two at a time until the dough comes together.
- Scrape the dough out of the food processor or bowl onto a lightly floured counter. Gently pat (do not roll with a rolling pin!) the dough to about 1/2-inch thick. Gently fold the dough in half or in thirds, repeating for a total of 4-5 times and pressing it gently to 1-inch thick after the last fold. These folds, combined with the cold butter, are what help to create flaky layers in the biscuits.
- Use a round biscuit or cookie cutter to cut into circles. Do not turn the cutter while pressing into the dough, just press firmly enough to cut all the way through the dough.
- Line a large, rimmed cookie sheet with a silpat liner or parchment paper. Place the biscuits on the pan with the sides barely touching each other. This helps the biscuits rise up instead of out. If you like crustier sides to your biscuits, space them further apart. They won’t rise as high but they’ll have golden edges.
- Bake for about 10-12 minutes until the biscuits are lightly golden on top and bottom, taking care to not overbake. Serve immediately.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from this recipe at southern.food.com
Recipe originally posted April 2013; updated May 2019 with new pictures, commentary, recipe notes, tricks and tips
This is now my go to biscuit recipe. Mixing in the food processor makes it very easy. Thanks Mel!
I pulled out my food processor to make these this morning, and they turned out fantastic! It was the first time I’d made biscuits this way, and it definitely won’t be the last. When folding over the dough, I sprinkled with dried blueberries. Yum! Next time, we’ll have to try them with sausage gravy.
Mel, you are my favorite ever. It’s like having a best friend that I go to for recipes! For several years, you’ve been my go-to for everything. I’ve made these biscuits – they are great – I am wondering if you could pretty-please ever add a recipe for sausage gravy that would make these some killer biscuits and gravy?? In all your spare time…I know…I have 5 kids, too, from ages 10-4. Thanks! 🙂
Thanks for the comment, Katie – happy you are loving the recipes. I’ll add your request to my to-try files!
Hi Mel,
I am planning to make these biscuits. They definitely look melt in your mouth flaky. I love how they maintained their height. I am curious, and although I realize the question is probably redundant because, well because you are Mel… But do you freeze these to bake at whim later?
Thanks again, M
Good question! I haven’t done that but I think it could work really well.
Well that’s shocking. I plan to freeze them on a tray first before bagging them in freezer bags. I also often pat biscuit dough into a square 9×9 baking pan and then cut it into 12 biscuits using a bench knife to prevent over handling the dough. And of course it’s handy when I am pressed for time.
Thanks Mel
Tried a few other recipes…and they never came out right. This recipe is amazing. They came out perfectly.
Do you think these could be made the night before and just pop them in the oven in the morning?
I just made these for the first time tonight and my husband could not stop eating them. He was so excited that we finally found a light and fluffy biscuit recipe after twenty years! Thanks for your explanation about not overworking the dough and keeping the butter cold.
I made these last night with half whole wheat(King Arthur’s) and half all purpose. I thought I was going to need all the buttermilk so I just poured it all in. Turns out I did not need it all so I did as the previous poster, Courtney, and heavily floured my work surface. They came out great!! I would never have thought to fold the dough as I would think I would over work it and it would become tough. Didn’t happen. I make your cream biscuits all the time but now I can add this since they rise nicely.
These were absolutely heavenly! I poured the whole 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk in before realizing that it could be more or less. The dough was too wet and sticky, so I just pulled it out onto the floured surface and worked in extra flour as I did the folding and it worked great! I also grated the cold butter with a cheese grater so that I could just add it to the dry ingredients in the stand mixer without getting out my food processor. Had this with chicken and rice soup! It made 9 large biscuits for me! So so good!
These are seriously awesome! Just tried one straight from the oven and am trying not to eat 5 more!!
These are MAGICAL! The BEST homemade biscuits I have ever made or eaten. So fluffy, so tender, and moist! I definitely didn’t need the whole 1 1/2 cups of milk. Glad I didn’t just pour it all in! Thank you for this!
A simple question which I never know for sure..salter or unsalted butter? And the real thing right not margarine?
Kerry – Definitely use butter (you won’t get the same results with margarine) and I always use salted butter. If using unsalted, increase the salt in the recipe a bit.
Oh my goodness! For the first time ever I made biscuits that can’t be used as trebuchet ammo! Thanks, Mel.
Mel!! Thank you!! My husband and dad, both southerners living in the north, YEARN for a good biscuit. I stopped trying b/c mine turned out tough and flat (hockey pucks!). Found this recipe today and we are so excited! Easy and delicious, especially with beef stew (and below zero temps outside)! Thank you!!
Thanks Mel! I just made these biscuits and they came out perfectly! This is exactly what I was looking for. The food processor is key.
Thanks,
K
Made these tonight and loved them! The grating butter method worked just fine for me- thanks for the tips on folding and another great recipe. So glad I don’t have to buy pop-can biscuits ever again!
I’m so very excited about this post. I’m from the South and I have a very high biscuit standard. I can’t seem to meet it no matter how hard I try. I will try these tips. They sound like just what I’ve been looking for.
Mel, love your website! Have made these biscuits 3 times now and LOVE them. I had been looking for the perfec biscuit recipe and now I’ve found it! Thanks so much! I’m excited to try out more recipes of yours!
These were the best biscuits! I have tried a few other recipes and have not been impressed but these were amazing! I also used the frozen butter/grating method and it worked great, thanks for the tips on folding the dough, it was so flaky and perfect!
Just wanted to let you know your site looks good in Safari on a Mac too.
Made these this morning to serve with sausage gravy and they were fabulous. I only have a small food processor so I worked in batches. I mixed all the dry ingredients together and put a little more than a cup in the food processor, added about a third of the butter, gave a few quick pulses, then added a third of the buttermilk. I then would dump that into a large bowl and repeat until it had all been through the food processor then a few quick stirs in the big bowl to get all the batches to come together.
First time making and they were perfect!
I just made these this morning with whole wheat flour. I added a bit more butter because the dough seemed a little dry, not sure I needed to though because after baking there were little pools of butter on the pan! But boy, are they good!
Thanks Mel! Love your site. It is my #1 go-to recipe place. 🙂
Boy do I love biscuits.
I love them, and I made them without calling my Mama:)Thank You Mel
I just found your website and LOVE all the recipes!!!
Swooning over the new website! Love how you can click on a category and see every thing with a PHOTO! Have already tried out 3 things this week that never caught my eye in ‘word form’ only before. LOVED the Cuban Street Tacos, Chicken Hoagies and the Magical Layered Brownies are best thing I think I have ever made. .Ever. AND in the last few months- have finally mastered your Best Chocolate Chip Cookies- finally did the measuring flour thing with a knife and . what do you know?. .no more flat cookies- huh! Who knew that made such a huge difference?? THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I would like to have dinner with you and your family. I think it would be a blast!!
The new design looks great! Congrats!
Your bread is the best! But the pumpkin bars were what sucked me into your blog.
I love to eat. That means I better be able to cook. Which I can! And thanks to tried and true recipes from Mel’s Kitchen, life is even better!
Hi Jenni – I have a Cuisinart Food Processor (I’ve never had one until a few months ago; my husband surprised me for my birthday) and I believe it is 12 cup capacity.
YUM!!
Awesome, these look delicious!
These sound yummy!! Is there a Sausage Gravy recipe that goes with these biscuits?
I am so making these this weekend. Made some Lemon curd to go over them.
Mel, I’m going to have to start calling you the food psychologist. You draw me in with your descriptions and before I know it, I’m making something I had no intentions of making – and loving it.
Will make these biscuits tonight. Am Spring cleaning and need a treat!
These look very good! The recipe is similar to a recipe I have been making from Bobby Flay that he used on his show “Throwdown”. He actually won against a lady from the south known as “the biscuit lady”. It is very good. Mmmm. Makes me want one now. 🙂
You have one of the best sites out there, and I LOVE coming here and reading,…yes, reading your recipes. Better than a good book,lol. Thanks for making it such an enjoyable place!
A food network kitchen with lots of counters pace and pantries
These look fabulous!
Mel- I love making biscuits and my family loves eating them. I bought a quart of buttermilk this week to make the rosemary and buttermilk marinated chicken this weekend. However, I wanted to ask if you have ever used (or heard of) Bakewell Cream. It is a product made in Maine and makes fabulous biscuits. I would be happy to send you a can of it so you can give it a try. A little website redesign and 5th anniversary present. Just email me and let me know.
These biscuits look terrific. I am definitely going to have to try these because I too have had a problem making biscuits-mine never rise that much and get super fluffy. I’m excited to try while wheat biscuits now too!
You are right, the secret is in the temperature of the biscuits before they go in the oven. I work by hand then put the biscuits in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking. Perfect rise every time. No hockey pucks! 🙂
I was going to send you a message this week asking if you would PLEASE make a post on biscuits! They have been the one thing that I can’t seem to master, and I just continue to go to the bag of frozen Pillsbury biscuits in my freezer….thank you so much for this post. I think I’ll try them tonight!
Hi Mel: Can you tell me how big your food processor is? The last time I tried a recipe using a food processor for a dough, I had to make it two batches. I guess mine is on the small end? It’s a Cuisinart Blender/Processor duo.Thanks for the recipe!
These look great! You have never let me down in the carb department!
I love biscuits but haven’t been able to make good ones. Living in the South, a good biscuit is important and my grandmother made the best biscuits. I was never able to duplicate her biscuits, even though she showed me how many times. She said it was all in the way you handle the dough.
We love biscuits … our recipe uses much less butter. I’m going to try your recipe and since butter is one of my main food groups, I’m sure I’ll love them! YUM!
I started being able to make awesome biscuits without a food processor a couple years ago when I learned to freeze & shred my butter. Just put the amount of butter on a plate, freeze for ~15 min (or longer), and shred it like you would cheese directly into the flour mixture. Perfect little cold bits of butter! And then just handle lightly and quickly from there. Much less cleanup than a food processor too 🙂