Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe (2024)

Freeze the butter first then use a box cheese grater. You'll get a better incorporation.
Also put the biscuits touching each other, you'll get a higher rise out of them.
I find using a cast-iron skillet works best but any sheet pan will do.
Do NOT overwork the dough - when they say knead only 2-3 times, they mean it! You'll get a hockey-puck otherwise.

Cooks Illustrated has a great hack for flaky biscuits. Put buttermilk in a measuring jar big enough to hold buttermilk & butter, which you'll add later. Put jar in freezer for 10-15 minutes to get it super cold but not frozen.Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside. Melt butter. When buttermilk's COLD, stir the melted butter in so that it forms globs. Stir into dry ingredients & proceed with recipe directions. Colder buttermilk = bigger butter globs = better biscuits!

I didn't have any cultured butter so I substituted good quality salted butter and it was still delicious.

I have some beautiful late-summer strawberries, so had to make biscuits. Strawberry sandwich. I used your recipe and they came out picture-perfect--coming apart layers. I have Southern roots so had to use the max amount of sugar. Didn't have any buttermilk, and didn't feel like going to the store, so I used the old standby, milk mixed with vinegar as a sub for the buttermilk.

Made a half recipe without cake flour, salt, sugar and egg wash. Used cultured butter. Barely touched the dough, baked them snuggled in a 10 inch cast iron skillet (thanks to previous notes) and they were amazing. Light as air.

I regularly use a tsp per cup of vinegar or lemon juice added to whole milk as a buttermilk substitute. I also use this method with cream to make sour cream.

I cheated. I made a double batch in a mixer, faked the cake flour with a combo of 1/8 cornstarch and 7/8 all-purpose flour, skipped the egg wash, patted them into a large rectangle and cut them into squares. And they were still delicious.

*Freeze the butter first then use a box cheese grater to get a better incorporation. *Also put the biscuits touching each other, to get a higher rise out of them. *Try using a cast-iron skillet, works best but any sheet pan will do. *Do NOT overwork the dough - when they say knead only 2-3 times, they mean it! You'll get a hockey-puck otherwise.

I had to bake around 20 minutes total. these are VERY tender, and tasty! But I prefer something with a little more heft. I will maybe try without the cake flour. I use cultured butter all the time but not in baking, just because it’s more expensive so I only use it to butter things I’m eating directly. To me the buttermilk is enough for a nice tang, the cultured butter makes these fancy but it’s unnecessary. flavor wise I think regular butter works just fine.

A straightforward way to get buttermilk is to make butter. A Kitchen-Aid with a whisk beater and a splatter guard turns cream into buttermilk in about 15 minutes--and you get some butter as a byproduct! It's admittedly a mess. My wife puts a towel over the mixer and it helps to have a dishwasher for the clean up. We always have buttermilk available--enough to wash a pig at fair time. (Full disclosure: I've only read about washing pigs in buttermilk.)

Left out the sugar by mistake and they were fine!

Look for whole milk buttermilk, not low fat. It's in most stores in the South. Walmart sells what is labelled gourmet whole milk buttermilk by the quart, which is a good size.

White Lily flour works in place of cake flour, as any true Southern biscuit maker can tell you.

Thought these were fabulous! Used Italian number 1 flour instead of cake flour. Also, followed the idea of frozen butter and using the box grater! That worked perfectly. Forgot to put an egg wash on top. Biscuits were uniformly golden brown despite this, as I had grated more butter into the dough than was called for in the recipe. Yum!

You need a lard or lard substitute. I'd suggest cream cheese if you're not comfortable with lard. Butter isn't enough. Also if you use a Tennessee winter wheat flour such as White Lilly.... it simply makes a better biscuit. Also... if you get the self rising type, you save a few steps.

I only had 70g of AP flour, so I used that along with bread flour up to the 335g or what the recipe says. Used same amount of cake flour and they turned out great! These are my go to biscuits and i’ve made a metric ton of biscuits

The texture and loft were nice, but although I cut the salt in half, they were still too salty. I will try again with 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt.

I tried this recipe for the first time yesterday. I found that the dough was really wet and had to correct by adding more flour. I also used 4 oz of salted cultured butter and 4 unsalted. The biscuits didn’t rise as I might have liked (I suspect that I overworked the dough) but they were delicious. I would make this again; however I would measure the dry ingredients instead of weighing them.

Great recipe. One important note: the egg and milk at the end DO NOT go into the dough but are the egg wash. I’ve made this mistake several times. Melissa, please separate the ingredients into “Dough” “Eggwash”Also I substitute 65grams flour plus 10 grams cornstarch for the cake flour

Texture and structure was very good (even using purely all purpose flour). I baked them in a cast iron till they had good color on top, which was around 18 or so minutes. They taste … fine…. on the bland side. Paired with homemade strawberry jam, scrambled eggs, and roasted tomatoes for a very enjoyable brinner.

I added a tablespoon and a half of fresh rosemary and a sprinkle of dried parsley plus 1/3 cup grated Parmesan and it was delicious!!

The point of cutting shortening into flour is to protect the flour particles from moisture, so that not so much of the gluten-forming enzyme is released at the beginning. The Cook’s Illustrated hack risks making a tougher biscuit. I always cut the shortening in if the directions say to. It would be fascinating to try it both ways. Hope Kenji is listening…?

Best eaten immediately. Very good, but a LOT of butter in these. No regrets, but....

This is what a Popeye’s biscuit yearns to be

We wanted a whole grain version which is always a fraught effort. But it worked! Our grains: 2c all purpose flour3/4c whole wheat pastry flour1/3c almond flour1/3c oat germWe also cut the butter by 3 TBSP, chilled all ingredients in the fridge over night, and let the dough rest in the fridge for 30 min before baking.

Made as written — superb! They’re so buttery in flavor, no need to butter them at the table. Do follow the directions to for very light handling, as this is essential for a tender, flaky biscuit.

I froze the butter and then grated it using the food processor - delicious!

Update to freezing cut but unbaked biscuits. Worked great. Took vacuumed sealed, cut biscuit dough and transferred to refrigerator the night before. Baked the next morning @ 425 for 15 minutes. If anything, better than baking freshly made biscuits.

Great biscuits! Did do the buttermilk in the freezer and add melted butter idea, which worked like a charm. Good rise, great taste. Took a number of the cut biscuits, put them on a plate and placed in the freezer till they were frozen. Then put the frozen biscuits in vacuumed sealed bags to save for later. We'll see how that goes.

Mix a little more than suggested. Turned out slightly clumpy.