Rich and Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits are sure to impress. Soft and buttery. A perfect choice to serve along side soup, have with cream and preserves, or, my favourite, with a dollop of butter, hot out of the oven!

Buttermilk Biscuits are a real time saver. If you have ever found yourself without enough bread to serve with a meal and you don’t have hours to make a new loaf of bread. Even if you find you don’t have time to run to the store. Biscuits whip up in about 30 minutes!

Biscuits can also be used in place of pie crust in casseroles like, chicken pot pie!

Little girl holding rich and flaky buttermilk biscuits with butter and preserves.

What makes a great biscuit?

We do not have biscuits very often. If we are making biscuits they have to be beautifully golden on the outside have a soft, buttery inside, with a ton of flaky layers that pull apart and melt in your mouth! These biscuits are just that!

You can use biscuits, pretty much, any place you would normally use bread. As a side for soup, in a sandwich, even with your eggs in the morning for breakfast! I find they are a nice change of pace from bread every now and then.

What if I don’t have buttermilk?

I know, buttermilk isn’t exactly a staple in ever kitchen. If you are in the mood for these biscuits and find yourself without access to buttermilk, never fear! I have a few options you can try. I have used all of these options, and to be quite honest, no one has ever noticed a difference.

Option 1

Add some vinegar to your milk. This recipe calls for 2 cups of buttermilk. So you would get out your 2 cup glass measuring cup (or whatever you normally use to measure liquids). Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar (I have used white vinegar as well as apple cider vinegar and both work equally well.).
Then fill the rest of your glass measuring cup up to the 2 cup mark.
Stir the mixture to make sure it is evenly distributed.
Let is sit for about 5 mins. The milk should start to sour. That’s it! It is now ready to use in your recipe!

Option 2

Add lemon (or lime) juice to your milk.
This process is exactly the same as Option 1, except you are using citric acid to sour your milk!

Option 3

Use runny yogurt in place of milk.
If your yogurt is thick, don’t fill it all the way up to the 2 cup mark. Leave a little room for some added milk and thin the yogurt out to a more pourable consistency. That is it! it is ready to use in your recipe!

Ingredients

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus dusting

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 cup fridge cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

2 cups buttermilk

Method

Preheat your oven to 375ºF (190ºC).
In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients.
Cut your butter in to small cubes. Sprinkle them into the flour. I add a little bit at a time. Then mix the cubs around into the flour. That way the cubes don’t stick back together again.
Pinch and rub them into the flour with your finger tips, until they resemble a course meal.
Mix in the buttermilk, until it just comes together. Do not overmix. I used my hands for this.
Tip out onto a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle with flour. Pat out with your hands until it is about 1 inch (2½ cm) thick.
With a biscuit cutter, a large round cookie cutter, or (what I use) an upside-down mug, cut into biscuits. Collect and reshape the dough until it is all used up.
Place biscuits on a cookie sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden.
Remove from oven, cool slightly. Serve warm!

*If you overmix, or kneed the dough, it will become tough. The least amount of time you handle the dough, the more tender the biscuits will be!

Variations

To this base recipe for Buttermilk biscuits I like adding herbs, like rosemary. Adding cheese can really elevate your biscuits. I have also tried adding dried fruit and cinnamon and using them for sweet breakfast treat.

This recipe, as it is, is the perfect biscuit dough for casseroles that call for a biscuit topping. For example a chicken pot pie using biscuits in stead of pie crust to top the chicken filling. The thing I remember most growing up is my grandmother using them in strawberry shortcake!

Strawberry Short Cake

My grandmother would add extra sugar to the original Rich and Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits recipe. She would then served them open faced, with mounds of cut strawberries she had soaked overnight in a little sugar water. To finish it off, a dollop of whipping cream! Strawberry shortcake! So decadent and just looks like the dream dessert of summer!