Seriously Good Buttermilk Biscuits

My family loves this buttermilk biscuit recipe. They’re flaky, tender, and delicious. If there’s buttermilk in the fridge, you can bet we’re making a batch.

Thanks to the buttermilk, these biscuits bake up soft and tender in the middle with a delicious tangy flavor. I love them for breakfast (especially with sausage gravy) or for making biscuit sandwiches. They’re also a fantastic side for dinner, and I cannot wait for you to try them.

There’s no shortage of biscuit recipes on Inspired Taste. We’ve shared our go-to fluffy biscuits (made with milk), easy drop biscuits, cheese biscuits, and these incredible homemade buttermilk biscuits.

Key Ingredients

• Flour: I usually stick with all-purpose flour for my biscuits, but if you want that super tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture, try soft white wheat flour. Brands like White Lilly, Martha White, or Bob’s Red Mill Fine Pastry Flour are great options.
• Buttermilk: Use regular part-skim buttermilk and shake it before measuring. If you don’t have buttermilk, no worries! Mix 1 teaspoon white vinegar with ½ cup of whole milk and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Real buttermilk is still the best, but this substitute will get you some solid biscuits.
• Butter: Cold, cold, cold! That’s the secret. The cold butter melts quickly in the oven, creating those little pockets of air that make the biscuits puff up perfectly. I use salted butter here, but unsalted butter is fine. Just remember you need to add an extra ¼ teaspoon of salt.
• Sugar: The sugar (just a tablespoon) balances the butter and flour without making the biscuits too sweet, so they work for both savory and sweet dishes.
• Baking Powder and Baking Soda: These are our leavening agents, so they make the biscuits rise and get that golden-brown color. I always use aluminum-free baking powder in my recipes, preventing a metallic taste.
• Egg: Now, I usually don’t add eggs to my biscuits, but for this recipe, it’s a game-changer! It adds tenderness and flavor and plays so well with the tangy buttermilk.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make Buttermilk Biscuits from Scratch

Tip 1: Start with the dry ingredients. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a food processor and pulse to combine. This evenly distributes the leaveners before adding any liquid ingredients. You can make these by hand (whisk the dry ingredients, then use a pastry cutter to work in your butter later).

Tip 2: Keep the butter cold. Pulse in cold butter cubes until you see tiny bits of butter throughout the mixture. Those cold butter pieces melt in the oven, creating steam and giving the biscuits their flaky layers. It’s the same strategy used for the best pie crust or scones.

Tip 3: Mix gently. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in the buttermilk and beaten egg. The dough will look shaggy and a little wet. If it feels too sticky, you can sprinkle in a bit more flour later.

Tip 4: Fold for flaky layers. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and gently bring it together with your hands. Pat it into a rectangle, fold it like a letter, and repeat two more times. This folding builds layers of butter that help your biscuits rise tall and flaky.

Tip 5: Skip the biscuit cutter. You can cut the dough into rounds, but I usually cut it into squares, meaning there are no scraps or rerolling, and the biscuits turn out just as delicious.

Tip 6: Bake biscuits close together. Arrange the biscuits close to one another on a baking sheet. Nestling them together helps them puff higher and bake with soft sides and golden tops. Then serve warm from the oven with butter, or even better, this homemade honey butter.