These homemade buttermilk biscuits are soft and buttery with hundreds of flaky layers. This biscuit recipe only requires 6 simple ingredients and they’re ready in about 35 minutes. I originally published this recipe in 2017, and it’s been a consistent reader (& personal!) favorite since.
One reader, Marcia, commented: “Finally, a biscuit recipe that worked for me. I especially appreciated the notes which, in fact, had me change some things I had been doing. The detail at all levels, both visual and written, is very helpful. ★★★★★“
Another reader, Maggie, commented: “One of my favorite biscuit recipes! They are so consistently flaky and delicious, every single time! ★★★★★“
Biscuits. Let’s do it BIG. Big as in mega flaky, mega fluffy, mega layers, mega golden brown, and mega buttery. It’s quite serendipitous that this “side dish” may taste even more remarkable than the main event. No, no… it WILL taste more remarkable. Just look at these buttery layers! Nothing can compete.
What are Biscuits?
The term “biscuits” has different meanings depending where you live in the world. In the U.S., biscuits are similar to a dinner roll, but are denser and flakier because they aren’t (typically) made with yeast. Since there’s usually no yeast involved and the rising agent is either baking soda, baking powder, or both—biscuits are considered a quick bread, like banana bread and no yeast bread. In other parts of the world, “biscuits” are more like cookies or scones.
6 Key Ingredients in Buttermilk Biscuits
You need just 6 basic ingredients for my homemade biscuits recipe:
- All-purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Cold Butter
- Cold Buttermilk
- Honey
With so few ingredients, it’s important to reach for quality ingredients and avoid any substitutions. Notice the emphasis on cold? See tip #1 below.
Success Tips for the Best Homemade Biscuits
Let me share what I’ve learned in the world of homemade buttermilk biscuit recipes. I’ve made plenty of mistakes so you don’t have to. These tried-and-true tricks will turn your flat, dry biscuits into the best biscuits ever. And that’s a guarantee.
- Cold Fat: For flaky layers and pockets, use cold butter. When little pieces of butter melt as the biscuits bake, they release steam and create little pockets of air–this makes the biscuits airy and flaky on the inside while remaining crisp on the outside. It’s the same thing that happens when making these ham & cheese scones.
- Buttermilk & Honey for Flavor: Real buttermilk and teeny drizzle of honey balance out the salt. Buttermilk creates the most tender biscuit!
- Don’t Over Mix: Never overwork biscuit dough. Overworking and over-handling biscuit dough will result in tough, hard, and flat biscuits. Mix the ingredients together *just* until combined. Dough will be crumbly; that’s normal.
- Flatten & Fold Method: The most important step of all is folding the dough together. Turn the scrappy dough out onto a work surface and flatten it with your hands. Form into a rectangle. More below.
- Don’t Twist the Biscuit Cutter: When cutting the dough with a biscuit cutter, do not twist the cutter. Press the cutter down into the dough firmly. Twisting it will seal off the biscuit edges, preventing the biscuits from rising.
- Bake Close Together: Biscuits rise up nice and tall when they are touching, pressed snuggly against one another in the oven.
How to Fold Biscuit Dough
Flattening and folding biscuit dough creates multiple flaky layers, just as it does when we make homemade croissants, rough puff pastry, mille-feuille, and croissant bread. This step will take you no more than 2 minutes and you’ll be rewarded with the flakiest biscuits in the world. First, shape dough into a rectangle:
Then fold one side into the center:
Then the other side:
Turn the folded dough horizontal, gently flatten, and begin that folding process 2 more times.
The dough should be about 3/4 inch thick and the biscuits will rise as they bake.
Honey Butter Topping
The honey butter topping is optional, but it will set your biscuits apart from the rest. When the biscuits come out of the oven, brush with a mix of melted butter + honey. You use both ingredients in the biscuit dough, keeping the count at 6 ingredients total.
Serve your homemade biscuits with jam or homemade raspberry sauce, or biscuits and gravy—I love this particular recipe!
Biscuit Variations
I bake biscuits often, and use the same process and success tips when making all of my favorite variations including cheddar biscuits and everything bagel biscuits. I also make biscuit-topped vegetable pot pie and biscuit breakfast casserole. And you can absolutely turn these into dessert with my recipes for biscuit-topped berry cobbler and homemade strawberry shortcake!
I make these biscuits on almost a weekly basis, and what makes them a hit every single time, is the combination of very cold butter and buttermilk. Also, be sure to use the amount of baking powder in the recipe below, or try the baking powder and baking soda combination I explain in the recipe Note.
Bake the biscuits in a cast iron skillet, which helps the edges crisp up beautifully. Additionally, use a pastry brush to coat the tops of the biscuits with a little buttermilk before baking.
You can use a food processor to cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients, but if you do not own one, you can use a pastry cutter instead. A pastry cutter is an extremely helpful baking tool!
If you enjoy biscuits, try homemade ham & cheese scones and/or my easy no yeast cinnamon rolls.
Even More Biscuits
Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits (Popular Recipe!)
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 biscuits
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These homemade buttermilk biscuits are soft and buttery with hundreds of flaky layers! This biscuit recipe only requires 6 simple ingredients and they’re ready in about 35 minutes.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/2 cups (313g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed for hands and work surface
- 2 Tablespoons aluminum free baking powder (yes, Tablespoons)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, cubed and very cold (see note)
- 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons (270ml) cold buttermilk, divided
- 2 teaspoons (14g) honey
- optional honey butter topping: 2 Tablespoons melted butter mixed with 1 Tablespoon honey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C).
- Make the biscuits: Place the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl or in a large food processor. Whisk or pulse until combined. Add the cubed butter and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or by pulsing several times in the processor. Cut/pulse until coarse crumbs form. See photo above for a visual. If you used a food processor, pour the mixture into a large bowl.
- Make a well in the center of the mixture. Pour 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk and drizzle honey on top. Fold everything together with a large spoon or spatula until it begins to come together. Do not overwork the dough. The dough will be shaggy and crumbly with some wet spots. See photo above for a visual.
- Pour the dough and any dough crumbles onto a floured work surface and gently bring together with generously floured hands. The dough will become sticky as you bring it together. Have extra flour nearby and use it often to flour your hands and work surface in this step. Using floured hands, flatten into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle as best you can. Fold one side into the center, then the other side on top. Turn the dough horizontally. Gently flatten into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle again. Repeat the folding again. Turn the dough horizontally one more time. Gently flatten into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle. Repeat the folding one last time. Flatten into the final 3/4 inch thick rectangle.
- Cut into 2.5 or 3-inch circles with a biscuit cutter. (Tip: Do not twist the biscuit cutter when pressing down into the dough because this seals off the edges of the biscuit which prevents them from fully rising.) Re-roll scraps until all the dough is used. You should have about 8-10 biscuits. Arrange in a 10-inch cast iron skillet (see note) or close together on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Make sure the biscuits are touching.
- Brush the tops with remaining buttermilk. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until tops are golden brown.
- Remove from the oven, and then brush warm tops with optional honey butter, and serve warm.
- Cover leftovers tightly and store at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Baked biscuits freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature or in the refrigerator, then warm up to your liking before serving. You can also freeze the biscuit dough. Prepare the dough in steps 2 through 4. Wrap up tightly in plastic wrap (plastic wrap is best for freshness) and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then continue with step 5. Also, after step 4, you can wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days before continuing with step 5.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Pastry Cutter or Food Processor | 2.5- or 3-inch Biscuit Cutter | 10-inch Cast Iron Skillet (or Baking Sheet with Parchment Paper) | Pastry Brush
- Baking Powder: To avoid a chemical aftertaste, make sure your baking powder is labeled aluminum free. I usually use Clabber Girl brand and though the ingredients state aluminum, I’ve never noticed an aluminum aftertaste. Alternatively, you can reduce the baking powder down to 1 Tablespoon and add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.
- Butter: Cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Keep butter as cold as possible until you need it. I recommend placing the cubed butter in the freezer for about 15 minutes before you begin.
- Buttermilk: You can substitute whole milk for buttermilk if desired. However if you’d like the tangy flavor, which I highly recommend, you can make your own sour milk substitute. Add 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice or white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup. Add enough milk to make 1 cup. (You need 1 cup in the recipe, plus 2 Tbsp for brushing–you can use regular milk to brush on top.) Whisk together, then let sit for 5 minutes before using in the recipe. Whole milk is best for the DIY sour milk substitute, though lower fat or nondairy milks work in a pinch. (In my testing, the biscuits don’t taste as rich or rise quite as tall using lower fat or nondairy milks.)
- Cast Iron Skillet: If your cast iron skillet isn’t well seasoned, I recommend greasing it with a little vegetable oil or melted butter. Brush a thin layer of either on the bottom and around the sides. No need to heat the cast iron skillet before using, though you certainly can. Place in the preheated oven for 15 minutes before arranging the shaped biscuits in it.
- Flavors: Try my flavorful biscuit variations: cheddar biscuits and everything bagel biscuits.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 biscuit
- Calories: 212
- Sugar: 2.4 g
- Sodium: 283.5 mg
- Fat: 9.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 27.5 g
- Protein: 4.1 g
- Cholesterol: 25.4 mg
I made these this morning and they were a hit with my family. Super easy recipe and made 7 big biscuits with a 3.5 inch cutter. Thanks for another great recipe!
So I made these a few weeks ago and they were a complete disaster! I could not figure out what I did wrong, they tasted soo weird. Then I made pancakes this weekend, again tasted gross. Here my usual cylindrical container of baking powder was actually baking soda! Oops, let’s chalk it up to pregnancy brain, I’m sorry I doubted you Sally!
These tasted awful! I made them twice thinking I had made a mistake the first time. I made buttermilk but followed the recipe exactly otherwise. They rose beautifully, they were flakey and buttery. They chew was great, but then the intense taste of baking powder hit. It was completely inedible and I’m so bummed to have wasted so much flour and butter.
So far I have loved all of the recipes I’ve tested on Sally’s Baking Addiction this one just wasn’t for me.
Wonderful recipe! They came out tall and tasty…thank you!
Sally is a baking genius. I have yet to try something of hers I don’t love. I made these spur if the moment to go with Easter breakfast….they stole the show. Mine weren’t as fluffy, but I rushed and cut a corner or two. Even with that admission, so, so good. I see biscuits and gravy in my future. Not this batch though…we already ate them all.
Thanks that is what I did. They turn out great! Thanks.
Do you grease your cast iron skillet or line it with parchment paper? If you grease it, what do you use?
Hi Becky, I usually use butter on the bottom of my cast iron skillet for these biscuits.
Hi Sally! I tried the recipe and overall it came out well, but the tops of the biscuits were not golden brown or crispy, even after adding buttermilk to the top. Any suggestions on how to fix it?
Hi Gillian! This could easily be fixed by moving up your oven rack or baking for a few extra minutes. So glad you enjoyed these!
Easy and delicious!!!!
This recipe made perfect biscuits. In the past, mine have always fallen apart but not these. The only thing I did different was grate my butter on a flat grater…it incorporated with the dry ingredients almost immediately. I will add this recipe to my “handwritten cook book.” Thank you.
Wow, were the biscuits ever good. We loved them. Crispy, crunchy and delicious. Quick and easy to make with great results. Thank you so much for sharing a recipe that we will enjoy often. BK
Love this recipe! These biscuits are great by themselves, with a little honey or with the strawberry shortcake topping
We love buttermilk biscuits and these delightful beauties do not disappoint. The biscuits were tall, tender and light on the inside, with a crispy and crunchy outer crust. The crumb was perfect. Thank you for sharing this keeper. BK
Turned out amazing!!!
Finally, a buttermilk biscuit recipe I can actually make from scratch – thank you! These turned out great!!!
I just made these as part of my quarantine baking adventure and I can’t believe I had never made a homemade biscuit before! It was so easy! At least with YOUR recipe and guidance it was. It seems that the only recipes I have consistent success with are yours. Which brings me to a request, can you create a recipe for homemade pasta noodles? I have always wanted to try to make pasta, but have been too intimidated to attempt it. I feel if it were your recipe I could do it though! Just a suggestion since we are all having to get creative with our time and pantry staples like pasta are in short supply. Hope you and your family are safe and well!
I froze the Leftover biscuit dough I ended up with on a baking sheet after cutting them into rounds. When I wanted some I pulled it out of the freezer, let it thaw for a while, then baked. Just as amazing and delightfully quick this time!! Can’t rave about this recipe enough.
Southern girl on the West Coast with a bad yearning for buttermilk biscuits. They were fabulous. Directions were easy to follow and I appreciated the great photo’s The only bad thing is I could not eating ! lol Thank you.
Sally,
A near disaster: Not flakey, for sure and didn’t rise much. I used exactly what the recipe called for and measured exactly. I used a pastry cutter to blend the butter in–an old cutter with slightly warped tines, so the butter went in big hunks and it took me quite a while to get it to size. The first mistake? The dough seemed dry, but it could be gathered, so I put in on the floured granite countertop. It would barely come together and big hunks of butter were falling into the flour on the countertop, making a mess. I had to scrape it up with a scraper and try to pat the chunks back in. I even worked in a little more buttermilk. I tried the folding method, but it could’t be done, as the dough fell apart. I finally pounded it into shape with a heavy rolling pin. Probably all the handling ruined the texture, but what was the first mistake? The too large hunks of butter, not enough buttermilk, too much flour on the board.
The taste was very good, so I might try one more time. Any advice welcome. I do enjoy your blog.
Sarah
Hi Sarah! Thank you so much for trying these biscuits and I’m happy to help troubleshoot. It sounds like the butter wasn’t incorporated enough into the dry ingredients. Larger chunks of butter mean there’s more butter-less dough, which would be very hard to bring together and fold. And result in a dough that easily falls apart. Do you have a food processor or blender? That may help cut the butter up a bit nicer. Or just keep working that butter in until you have much smaller chunks and all the flour feels moistened by it. I hope this helps!
Hello again, Thank you so much for responding! I think you’re right about the butter. It may have actually been TOO cold…took it out of the freezer, so it was hard to work into the flour, even cubed. I find food processors to be too much work to set up and clean, so I gave mine away. Never thought about using a blender…seems like it would be hard to get the dough out of the blades! I have also heard of grating the butter into the flour. Or maybe I should just use the newer pastry cutter instead of my sentimental favorite _the old one with the wooden handle and the bent prongs! I will keep trying since I love biscuits and also have had similar problems with pie crust. I am really enjoying your website…cheery and very explicit instructions..Sarah
PS Sorry this was so long…coronavirus quarantine keeping me at home for long hours!
Absolutely perfect recipe! I usually make drop biscuits because they are so much quicker and easier but I tried these because I had some buttermilk to use up. Amazing! Thank you for all the hints and tips too. The additional information was definitely an added bonus! Two thumbs up and 5 stars for sure!
This is a fantastic recipe. Quite possibly the best tasting biscuits ive had, and i live in Texas. They take their biscuits pretty seriously here. Super cold cubed butter and buttermilk are key, and the folding makes all the difference. So tender and flaky.
These are spectacular!!! I didn’t put the dough in a bowl. Once the butter was pulsed in, I pulsed about 12 very quick pulses and then put on board to fold and cut. I baked in the cast iron pan on the lowest rack for 11 minutes. This is now my only biscuit recipe. My butter was frozen and I put the buttermilk in the freezer for a few minutes. I can only gush over these amazing biscuits. Thanks.
Thank you for letting me once again appear to be able to bake! I gravitate towards cooking and have always found baking impossible & intimidating due to the precision and many steps. Your recipes are consistently delicious, always impress and are seemingly manageable. Many many thanks for yet another homerun!
Absolutely perfect recipe!!!! Wouldn’t change a thing.
Hi Being British, American biscuits are a rarity. I have had them twice so thought I would have a go. The recipe was easy to follow and I was hopeful as I popped them in the oven. They rose beautifully but were quite dark, I put this down to my fan oven and maybe I made a mistake with the temp conversion. Both my husband and I really enjoyed them, light and flaky, though next time I might do the book fold a few more times to get better lamination. It was only later that I realised that I had set the cooking time based on the “ready” time at the top of the article rather than the actual cooking time! I have no idea why but rest assured that even if you cook them for twice as long as you should they still taste good! I served with a compound butter made with honey, sweet smoked paprika and hot paprika, yum.
These were easy to make…The texture was perfect, the rise was beautiful, but I can’t get past the overwhelming baking powder aftertaste. 🙁 Came here to see if anyone else had mentioned it, maybe it’s just me.
Good recipe, quick and easy.Got nice and fluffy-flaky biscuits but there was this hint of baking powder that lingered in my mouth long after I had eaten my last biscuit. I know it’s the baking powder that helps make the biscuits so fluffy and flaky. I’ll make these biscuits again but with less baking powder. Perhaps 1¾ tablespoons.
Excellent biscuits. I was careful not to overwork the dough as you suggest and they rose very tall. I couldn’t believe it! Will be making these again.
I’ve made these a couple of times and they are always a crowd pleaser. Most recently baked them in my new love, a countertop convection steam oven. Reduced to a 400 degree oven for 16 min. Perfection.
Thank you for perfect instructions! I’ve been trying to make a simple biscuit since I started baking a year ago and had given up. Until now . Perfect. What’s next? a good pie crust from my kitchen? I bet so!