Old Fashioned Buttermilk Biscuits
These Easy Homemade Biscuits are buttery, soft, and have tons of flaky layers! Ideal for family dinners, holidays, and the perfect side dish!
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
- 2 3/4 inch Biscuit Cutter
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups (313 g) All-Purpose Flour
- 1 cup cup (127 g) Cake Flour , (see notes)
- 1 1/2 tbsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 2 tbsps (25 g) Sugar
- 2 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1 cup (227 g) Butter, (cold)
- 3/4 cup (180 g) Buttermilk, (cold)
- 1/3 cup (80 g) Heavy Cream, (cold)
Egg Wash
- 1 Egg
- 1 tbsp Heavy Cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- Mix together the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl - all-purpose flour, cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and kosher salt. 2 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour 1 cup cup Cake Flour 2 tbsps Sugar 1 1/2 tbsp Baking Powder 1/2 tsp Baking Soda 2 tsp Kosher Salt
- Cut the butter into small cubes OR Grate the butter with a box grater and add it to the flour mixture. Pinch and turn the butter into the flour together until pea sized morsels form. (when you can squeeze everything together and it holds shape in your hand, you're ready to proceed) You can also use a pastry cutter or food processor to do this. 1 cup Butter
- Create a well in the center of the mixture, then pour in cold buttermilk and heavy cream. Mix together until a shaggy crumbly dough with coarse crumbs forms. The dough may seem very crumbly, do not add more buttermilk/cream! 3/4 cup Buttermilk 1/3 cup Heavy Cream
- Remove biscuit dough from the bowl and turn the dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Gently work and pat the dough until the dough is no longer crumbly. Use your hands to press the pieces together and then use a rolling pin to flatten dough until it’s 1 inch thick.
- Shape dough into a square and cut the dough into 4 pieces and place on top of each other. Repeat this 3 times. (this creates those flaky layers!)Press a 2 3/4 inch round biscuit cutter into the dough in one motion. Press down, then pull up - do not twist and turn, this disturbs the flaky layers. Fold any excess dough back together and repeat until all of the biscuit dough is used, about 8-10 biscuits.
- Place biscuits onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Add to the freezer and freeze for 10 minutes.
- In a small bowl, whisk together an egg and 1 tbsp of heavy cream. This will be for the egg wash. 1 Egg 1 tbsp Heavy Cream
- Brush the tops of the biscuits with the eggs wash, liberally, and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Fresh out of the oven, brush the warm biscuits with melted butter and serve.
Notes
- If you don't have cake flour, you can use all purpose flour in its place. If you can find White Lily Flour, you can use that entirely.
- Freeze the butter for at least 20 minutes prior to slicing it into the flour mixture. Also, leave the buttermilk in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it. The butter and buttermilk should be as cold as possible - this is key to getting that nice flaky fluffy texture! Do not use room temperature butter.
- Use a wooden spoon to mix the dry and wet ingredients. This will help to keep the biscuit dough cold as your hands are warm and will lower the temperature of the butter. We want to keep the dough as cold as possible to ensure we get fluffy biscuits.
- Do not overwork your dough. There's no need to knead the dough, just press it together until it's no longer crumbly, then stop. Overworking the dough will result in tough biscuits.
- When cutting the biscuits, do not twist the biscuit cutter. Simply press down and then pull it straight up. When you twist the cutter, the layers collapse on each other and the biscuits won't cook evenly.
- If you would like to use a food processor to incorporate the butter into the flour, you can absolutely do this. It does help save time. However, just be sure to pour to add the butter/flour mixture to a large bowl prior to adding the buttermilk. The dough becomes thick and could break the food processor once the milk is added.
- Oven temp is also very important. Not all ovens are calibrated the same way so be sure to use an oven thermometer to ensure your oven's temperature is accurate.
Nutrition
Calories: 381kcal, Carbohydrates: 37g, Protein: 6g, Fat: 23g, Saturated Fat: 14g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 6g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 78mg, Sodium: 885mg, Potassium: 91mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 4g, Vitamin A: 760IU, Vitamin C: 0.1mg, Calcium: 147mg, Iron: 2mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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