Southern Buttermilk Biscuits: 3 Ways with One Recipe
Buttermilk Biscuits: a Staple in the Southern Home
In the South, we eat buttermilk biscuits for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (or supper if that’s what you grew up saying for the last meal of the day). Most Southern women learn this recipe by heart during childhood. It’s simple, easy and extremely versatile.
Watch me make these homemade biscuits on the Outdoor Channel:
Perfect Biscuits – Three Different Techniques
Southerners like their biscuits light and fluffy for breakfast. The key to light fluffy biscuits is using the right flour (White Lily) and not overworking the dough…let me say that again here, don’t overwork the dough. If it’s overworked, you will end up with dense, tough biscuits.
If you want a less delicate biscuit for recipes like Biscuits and Gravy or Sausage and Biscuits, a higher protein flour such as King Arthur flour is a great choice. Both the light fluffy biscuit and less delicate biscuit are delicious and grace the Southern table just about at all times.
Along with buttermilk, butter and Crisco rank very high in importance in this recipe. The butter gives a light, airy texture to the dough, creating layers in the biscuits. Butter is about 80% fat and 20% water, which creates steam and rise. Crisco, on the other hand, is 100% fat, which brings the dough nicely together; it also creates flakiness because it melts quickly, leaving no or few chunks in the dough. While you can use one without the other, I like to use both for that perfect biscuit.
Time to Get Cooking
Once you master this recipe, the sky is the limit to biscuit heaven. I love a Savory Cheesy Buttermilk Biscuit as a conduit for ham, turkey, or fried chicken with pepper jelly!
Wow, I’m salivating. For dessert why not bring a little cinnamon and sugar to the party?
I hope you’ll get out the few ingredients this recipe requires today and give these biscuits a try! I’ll show you how to make all three recipes in the video in this post. I’ll have the other 2 recipes on the blog shortly!!
You can find this recipe along with jellies, jams, fried venison, homemade sausage and more in my latest book, Stacy Lyn Harvest Cookbook.
How to Reheat Biscuits
Here are some tips and tricks for freezing, storing, and reheating your biscuits.
Can I Make Biscuits Ahead and Freeze the Dough?
Absolutely! Here is how to do it:
- Roll the dough to about 1 1/2 inch thickness, then cut the dough with a biscuit cutter or small mason jar into 3 to 4 inch rounds.
- Place the rounds an inch apart on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze until completely frozen, about 5 hours.
- Place the frozen biscuits in a gallon sized freezer safe bag, place back in the freezer and pull them out as needed.
To bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place the frozen biscuits 1-inch apart on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and bake for about 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden.
How Do I Store Leftover Biscuits?
Leave leftover biscuits covered in foil, or in an airtight container out for a few days at room temperature, or put cooled biscuits in an airtight container and place in the refrigerator. They will last for a week in the refrigerator.
How Do I Reheat Biscuits in the Oven?
Yes, you can reheat biscuits! This is perfect for make-ahead meals. You can make them Thursday and have them ready to serve on the weekend.
- Allow the biscuits to return to room temperature if you have been storing them in the refrigerator.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place biscuits on a parchment lined baking sheet about 10 inches apart. Bake biscuits for 5-7 minutes.
- Remove from oven and brush with butter.
Southern Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour plus enough for dusting
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) butter, cold
- 3 tbsp shortening, cold
- 1 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a cast iron skillet in the preheating oven.
- In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients together.
- Cut butter into pea-size pieces. Work shortening and butter into the dry ingredients until incorporated. It should resemble an oatmeal texture. Be careful not to over mix or the texture will be affected.
- Pour buttermilk into mixture and mix with a wooden spoon or your hand until the flour is wet. The dough isn’t going to have form or shape at this point. Place dough onto lightly floured surface and fold on top of itself for about 1 minute. Roll or press dough to 1½ inch thickness. Cut into 3 to 4 inch rounds using a biscuit cutter or small mason jar.
- Remove hot skillet from oven and place biscuits in the skillet, making sure the biscuits are touching each other. Put a light thumbprint in center of each biscuit to keep them even when rising.
- Place in oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Halfway through baking, lightly brush with melted butter and bake for the remaining 10 minutes. Serve immediately.
Oh, how I love biscuits. I could live off of them. These look delish!
Same here. Every meal. I’m used to that here in Alabama. I can’t do it now though if I want to keep fitting into my clothes!
Without a doubt these are the very best of the many, many revipes I’ve tried.
Have you ever made them with a food processor? It takes so long to cut the butter up, I’ve been tempted to try it. I know it would be touchy not to overmix. How do you cut your butter?
I’m so happy you liked them. That just makes my day. Yes, it takes a while to cut in the butter and the fat, but I feel like it is worth it to do it by hand. I have a pastry cutter that works well and I put very small pieces of the butter in. That helps a little. I have used the food processor and when it a pickle it works just fine, but my biscuits are much more tender when I do it by hand.