How To Make Buttermilk Biscuits
(Originally published July 1, 2008) I told my mother I was going to do a web tutorial on how to make buttermilk biscuits, a staple in the south. She said “Oh, you HAVE to do that new recipe!”. Now, admittedly, these are awfully good. So good, in fact, that my mother has abandoned the long taught family method in lieu of this one. The finished product is lighter and more tender than our usual biscuit and it is worth the effort. If you have had problems in the past with your biscuits turning out to be more like hockey pucks than our beloved southern staple, this recipe is the one for you.
The cast! Featuring milk from Piggly Wiggly, butter or margarine, a tablespoon of lemon juice added (because I rarely have buttermilk in the house so this is a homemade concoction), and self rising flour. That’s it! (The actual recipe is at the bottom of this page)
For those of you who have no idea what self rising flour is….
You’ll also need salt and baking powder to make your biscuits rise 
.
This is only IF you don’t have self rising flour available where you live.
Put your flour in a bowl (With the salt and baking powder stirred into it if you don’t have self rising) and toss in the margarine. Now you need a pastry cutter or just fork with long tines , which is what I use.
Reckon I’m just not fancy enough for the pastry cutter.
I actually own three of the dern things. They’re floating around here somewhere…
Begin by simply cutting the butter into the flour.
Sit down and turn on the tv, this will take a few minutes (make sure your butter is cold).
When it looks like this and you can’t find any lumps of butter, you’re good to go . Stick this bowl in the fridge for ten to fifteen minutes. If this is your first time making biscuits with this method, I recommend fifteen. The colder it is, the easier the next step is going to be.
Add a tablespoon of lemon juice to your milk before you go get your bowl out of the fridge.
Stir it around and let it sit a minute or two.
Pour milk into flour mixture and stir until just moistened.
This is gonna be much looser than your typical biscuit dough, but it should look something like this.
Flour a surface.
I like to roll out waxed paper or do this on a large baking sheet so I don’t have such a hassle with the counter top.
Most folks just use the counter top though.
Be generous with the flour, you’re going to need it.
Dump out your dough onto the floured surface and sprinkle more flour on top of it.
Brush some flour on your hands and then wipe down your rolling pin really well. This is a family heirloom. My great grandmother bought it with green stamps for my mother when she was twelve. Once you have flour on your dough and on your hands, knead the dough with your hands two or three times. Don’t over knead your dough!
I always say: In dough, as in relationships, it is never good to be too (k)needy.
How do you knead your biscuit dough? If you’ve never done this before. Just place your dough ball (or wad as I call it. Attractive term, huh?) on a flat surface and then press down on it with the heel of your hand. Then fold it over into a bit of a ball again and repeat with the heel of your hand once more. You’ve just kneaded your dough twice. Stop there because we really don’t want to over knead and that is the most common mistake I’ve encountered in people’s biscuits turning out flat.
The second most common mistake I’ve encountered when biscuits turn out flat is someone who has accidentally followed the recipe for self rising flour biscuits using all purpose flour.
Roll it out until it is about 3/4 of an inch. Then lightly square it off with your hands. It should be about 9×5 inches at this point. You are going to have to stop after rolling it the first time and wipe down your rolling pin with flour again, as well as sprinkle some more on the dough to keep it from sticking.
Here is where these little suckers take on a bit of arrogance in my book. Normally, you would just roll it out and cut them, but in this recipe we want tender little pillowy biscuits, so we’re going to put a little more effort in them. Take one side of your dough and roll it over to the middle. Repeat with the next side until you have something like this.
I know this is awfully wet but go with me here……
Now pat or roll that out with your hands back to the original 3/4 inch and gently shape it back into a rectangle.
Repeat this process of folding over and patting out two more times. Don’t be afraid to dust your surface and your dough with a little more flour if need be. Oh, and you didn’t really have to use the rolling pin, you could have just patted it out all along with your hands, but I wanted to show you my heirloom rolling pin!
Now we’re ready to cut our biscuits. Most folks would use a biscuit cutter for this, but diehard southerners know one of the best way to do it is to use a swanky swig! Tin can is also acceptable as is a drinking glass. I used a smaller mouthed swanky swig because I prefer a bit smaller biscuits. I have small people in my house.
What is a swanky swig? Typically, it is a jelly jar which was decorated by the company to add charm and flair, thereby making it “swanky”.
Cut out your biscuits by pushing straight down with your glass, don’t twist it. I didn’t really waste all of this dough but I was trying to make it look a little more uniform for the picture. Normally, we cut them suckers one right on top of the other, then wad up the leftovers, pat it out, and cut again.
A lot of readers have said that they cut their biscuits with pizza cutters and just do a grid pattern. This ends up with square biscuits but no wasted dough! I do this every now and then myself.
Place these on a well greased baking sheet and make sure the sides touch, This helps them rise evenly and higher.
Bake at 450 for thirteen to fifteen minutes.
Until they look like this.
While still hot, brush with melted butter.
Now you’re done!
Alrighty, here is the actual recipe and I promise I will put an easier one up on my blog eventually but after doing all of this work to get the tutorial posted, I’m thinking these aren’t that pretentious after all.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cold butter or margarine
- 2 1/4 c self rising soft wheat flour *
- 1 1/4 c buttermilk (or whole milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice added)
- flour for dusting
- melted butter for brushing baked biscuits
Instructions
- Cut butter with a into 1/4-inch-thick slices.Put butter slices on top of flour in a large bowl. Cut butter into flour with a long tined fork until crumbly. Cover and chill 10 minutes. Add buttermilk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead 3 or 4 times, gradually adding additional flour as needed. With floured hands, press or pat dough into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle (about 9 x 5 inches). Sprinkle top of dough with additional flour. Fold dough over into itself, like you are folding a piece of paper into a letter, in three sections. Repeat entire process 2 more times, beginning with pressing into a 3/4-inch-thick dough rectangle (about 9 x 5 inches).
- Press or pat dough to 1/2-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface; cut with a 2-inch round cutter, and place, side by side, on a parchment paper-lined or lightly greased cookie sheet. Try to make sure they touch because this will help them rise higher.
- Bake at 450° for 13 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven; brush with 2 Tbsp. melted butter.
Print This Recipe
*For instructions on how to make your own Self Rising Flour, please see the FAQ section of my site by clicking here.
VOILA!! I’m done!!!!
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on May 4 2009. Filed under Breads, FEATURED Southern Favorites!, Southern Classics.
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so good makes your tongue wanna slap your brains out ! thank you so much
LOL, I just love you Judy~!
Thanks Christy for the awesome buttermilk biscuits recipe. I have made three batches in the last 5 days. They are light as a feather! I looovvveee Southern Plate!
@ Judy…I have not heard that saying since my MoM died. You really brought back memories.
@ Christy…I have never been able to make biscuits from scratch, just hockey pucks! This is what my MoM used to make before “store-bought” biscuits. Gonna hafta give these a try. Many thanks.
Lol they are not as pretty as yours….. But oh how they taste just like moma’s!
Regarding your comment about White Lily flour…
I too have loved using White Lily for many years (taught to me by my mother). However when Smucker’s bought the company I began to notice a decline in the taste and quality of my biscuits. I read an article in a Knoxville TN paper and it turns out that when Smucker’s moved the plant away from the south, they no longer use “SOFT RED WHEAT” to make the flour. Apparently, soft red wheat is the KEY to great biscuits! I now use Southern Biscuit flour or flour from a mill in Virginia called A No. 1 biscuit flour and now my biscuits are tasting and looking great again!
I was just heart-broken when they did that. Thanks for the tips!!
Very well written, and I would loved to have found out how good they really are. However, you failed to include how much salt and baking powder is suppose to be used with all-purpose flour.
Usually, the bag has a recipe on it. I use Gold Medal Unbleached Flour. It makes the biscuits fluffy with a crisp crust. ( It is plain flour.)
I would also like to know the answer to Roberts question as well.
I’m not at my computer and afraid I can only see your comment so I’ll have to look up to see what the question is and answer when I get back to a regular work schedule where I have all my devices
Christy,
Can you freeze these? I try to keep frozen ‘store bought’ biscuits in the freezer, but I am sure these are better and probably less $$
Well I’ll be darned! These here buiscuts may be the very best out there.:) However, I made a mess when making them and I was in more trouble then a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs! But still, they were mighty fine worth it!
~giggles~ I am glad you liked them Tina!! Even with the mess you made.
I was checking out this recipe, because your recipe on “how to make chocolate cobbler” said to look here for how to make self-rising flour. I see that I need to add baking soda and salt, but I have no idea how much. Could you please add that information? thanks,
Saddest thing about the buy out of White Lily, we no longer eat strawberry muffins. White Lily made the best blueberry and strawberry muffin nuxes, Jiffy ones are edible, Martha White ones are probably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted. It’s been 2 years and I’m still sad about my White Lily muffins.
mixes not nuxes and how in the world did I miss that typo!?!
I don’t have self-rising flour in the house, and I see that you can use regular flour and add salt and baking powder, but I can’t find the measurements. Can someone help?
Brandy you can find the directions to make your own self rising flour in the FAQ section at the top of the web page, but copying what Christy wrote there for you here: *To make your own self rising flour, simply add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt for EACH cup of all purpose flour.
Sift ingredients well to make sure it is uniform.
These are so so wonderful! Some of the best biscuits I’ve ever eaten. Thank you for another awesome recipe Christy!!!
As White Lily flour has definitely chagned since the buyout, i’ve started using 1/2 regular AP flour and 1/2 cake flour instead…it is very close to the original “white lily”
Just a tip, y’all 
suzanne, hope this isn’t a stupid question, when you mix the AP and Cake flour, does this make the self rising flour or do you still need to add the other stuff to make it self rising? Thanks, can’t wait to try these out, but want to try what you recommended!
Neither of those flours have anything in them to make them rise so you’ll definitely need to add it.
I’ve never used cake flour to make biscuits so I don’t know what the proportions would be for that, I’m afraid. Hope this helps!
Hi! I love your site. What is your favorite Movie?
love this recipe
I am so glad to hear you like it Janet!!
Hi Christi…Remember me…Anita from Catawba smile
I told you that you would make it. Next stop Food Network. I am so happy and proud for you and makes me proud to work in assisting authors with their cookbooks, books, etc.
okay, i have everything except lemon juice do i really need????
Rosie–you can add 1 Tbsp of White Vinegar in place of the lemon juice. I always keep a huge container of White Vinegar all the time. This works too.
Ok.. I tried to make these this morning, following recipe to a tee…and ended up with a literal soupy mix/mess! so.. I added another handful of flour-enough that I could at least work with the dough, and they turned out mouth watering good! I used a vienna sausage can to cut them, usually I use a tuna can so that they turn out like cat-head bisquits ..like my mamaw used to make
…Oh. And @Rosie, if you dont have lemon juice, vinegar works the same way. I use that a lot too.
I am so glad you figured out how to make them work for you Joyce!!
Success! These were GREAT! My last attempt, using a different recipe, were awful so am glad to find this recipe!! Just like I remember from when I was growing up in south Georgia!! YUMMY! Thanks for sharing!
(I made a mess, too, but SO worth it!)
I’m dying to try these, but I have an event I’d like to bring them to on a Sunday. If I make them Friday night will they still be tasty two days later?
These biscuits are to die for, my 3 boys shared no mercy tonight on these mouthwatering biscuits. Thanks Christy!!!!
Because many of our wonderful Southern products, namely our flours, are being gobbled up by large corporations.Then being transformed from what once was a tried and true quality product (not to mention the priceless memories associated with these products) to a less quality product has prompted me to make all efforts to support the remaining Southern family owned mills. I order my flour and other products, they are shipped to my home and I have the GOOD products that are no longer available locally. I hope others will do the same to help save what few U.S. home owned companies we have left.
Can you give us some names of the mills?
I made a huge, sticky MESS during the kneading part, and they weren’t pretty, but these were GOOD!
Great Biscuits! Just like I make them except I don’t even use a swanky cutter, I just roll up in my hand and place in pan and pat down. No need to dirty another dish if I don’t have to!
I like the way you think Renea!!!
Renea, I am with you, too much trouble to roll and cut, I mix mine in a bowl of flour and then pinch them off and roll them out by hand and put them in a pan,the less you handle the dough the more lighter the biscuits, but I have been making biscuits for 50 years!!!!!!!!!!!!
I usually dont post comments but I had to thank you for this tutorial. These look exactly like the biscuits that my grandmom makes. She tried to show me once but she doesn’t use measurements she goes by “feel” and I don’t know what its supposed to feel like so I was unsuccessful. I’ve been searching for a comperable recipe and you have it! can’t wait to try it! Thank you so much
I made the biscuits and they came out pretty good. Had a great taste and pretty good texture. The only problem I had was when I added the buttermilk it didn’t look nearly as wet as yours so I added another cup. Do u think I added too much? Could that contribute to the texture? I can’t wait to make them again and get it perfect!
Hey christy,i’ve been craving my grandmothers buttermilk biscuits for ever but her southern recipes had been lost when we lost her and the word kitchen is’nt in my girlfriends vocabulary,(yes i’m the cook)that’s another story.My question is,can i use 2% reduced fat milk and still be as good as your recipe sounds?.Thank you 4 ur time.
Yes, you can use 2%. I prefer to use whole milk but I have used 2% and they turn out just fine. They won’t be as rich but will still be great.
Oh my goodness! I am not a southern girl and live in Canada’s far north so not an expert on this type of biscuit but these are simply amazing!!!!! I make bannok a lot which is a type of baking powder biscuit and much heavier – these are like little clouds – sooooo yummy. Thanx a bunch Christy. Also the tutorial was really great.
hello, i’m from trinidad and i lov to cook,but i have never made biscuits before and your recipe looks great ,can’t wait to try it but i would like to know if you noy using self raising flour how much salt and baking powder do i have to use?
Hey anu,just in case you have’nt found out yet,its 1 1/2tsp baking powder and1/2 tsp salt for each cup of all purpose flour.Iwould have messed it up if i had’nt seen some girl named jesse tell brandi how to make it
It’s also on my FAQ page if you ever need it, and in my cookbook!
Sorry to hear about White Lily….you have a great site.
I made mine and followed the recipe as directed… Took them out of the oven and they were pretty and golden but the inside was gooey and tasted awful. Could that be from expired buttermilk? I’ve never cooked with it before so I don’t know how it should look or smell :/ really bummed and want to try your recipe again!
It sounds like they cooked too fast. have you checked the temperature of your oven? Mine gets off a little each year! Next time, I would reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees, and add at least 5 minutes to the cooking time, possible ten, that should help. Sorry you had a problem!
These were delicious.
I would like to learn how to make the school biscuits. Yumm.
These were the best! Everyone loved them. Thanks for sharing.
These are the biscuits I grew up on. Mom kept them on the back of the stove in an old fashioned 3pc biscuit warming pan. We ate them all day with everything. The only difference was we called them “cat heads”. Now, living in the North, I make them using half cake flour and half All Purpose. Also the dry buttermilk mix is excellent. We can’t get decent buttermilk here. Thanks for posting this.
I found a shortcut and I think it also makes the biscuits have a better texture. I cut the butter up into little chunks and drop them and the flour into the blender. I have to hold the blender sideways to keep it spinning (which is fun to watch), but the texture of the mix is perfect and the biscuits are lighter and softer. It saves a lot of time in the kitchen in the mornings, too. My family likes them better, so I guess I’ll keep doing it like that.
I want to know you blend it for how long????”?
These are absolutely amazing. (:
My boyfriend ate about 6 of them and told me to be SURE I make them for him every morning from now on. Thanks a bundle Christy!
I am so glad to hear that he liked them so well!!!
Made these this morning with a nice sausage gravy (with bacon grease, I might add… fantastic!). Best. Biscuits. Ever! I found them very easy to do, baked up wonderfully, had an amazing texture that wasn’t dry like so many biscuits I’ve tried, and tasted delicious despite not using White Lily, which I’m not sure where to get in Idaho. I’ll use real buttermilk next time and I’ll bet they’ll be even better.
how much salt and baking soda and flour to use if you dont have self rising flour
WAIT!!! There are people in the world who don’t have self rising flour?! I always knew being from Alabama was as close to paradise as I’m going to get this side of heaven
~giggles~ I just love you Jennifer!
When I was a young bride in Kentucky, we used to make biscuits like these every morning. All we did was add self-rising flour to a bowl, make a well, add water and bacon grease, Stir only until mixed, grab a handful of the dough, pat and shape, place in pan, top with a little more bacon grease and bake. Served with milk gravy or fried apples we got from our tree. We also picked blackberries in the spring and summer, raided peach trees, cherry trees, and paw-paw trees left on abandoned properties, & sweetened it all with honey from our bees.. For extra money we went “sanging”or hunted for ginseng in the woods. Now I’m old and have heart problems, so I don’t eat bacon anymore. It is so hard to get old and have to miss cooking “Southern Style” like my momma did, but maybe that’s why I have C.A.D. now. When I lived in Kentucky, away from my beloved Gulf Coast, Alabama, we bought pinto beans and self-rising flour in 25 pound bags. Had a huge garden, and canned corn, tomatoes, and green beans, made sauerkraut, slaughtered our own hogs, smoked them in our smokehouse for when we were snowed in, in the winter, We lived in the head of the “holler” between mountains,, cooked on a wood stove, got our water out of a coal mine or well. BTW, my son was delivered by a 75 yr old midwife after 3 days labor, she came and stayed in our house & slept with me so she would be there when needed, boy could she snore. She told me stories about hexing by various one’s of the hill people, that I had to quit rubbing my stomach because I would “turn” the baby before birth and that after he was born I had to turn him upside down 3 times a day to exercise his liver! All this was very puzzling to a city girl who had hardly even cooked much less dealt with all the sights, sounds, and customs of my new family.
When you flour your hands and flour the countertop, do you use the self rising flour or go back to all purpose?
I made this recipe a couple of days ago and let me tell you they are fantastic. Easy and yummy!! I bought your cookbook and love it. All of the recipes sound fantastic and I love your family stories and pictures. Thanks for writing such a great book for all of us to share.
I have fond memories of my grandmother’s buttermilk biscuits. I didn’t know about adding lemon juice to milk to replace buttermilk. Great tip!!
My mom taught me how to make buttermilk biscuits, but she made a hole in the flour, added the salt and baking powder in the hole, then poured in the bacon grease, then the milk. Then she just kept drawig flour in from the sides until it was the right consistancy. They were the best! But I keep trying to not use bacon grease for most of my cooking – but it tastes so good!
My grandmother used lard many times but my mother used Crisco but it was in a hole in the flour. that is one reason I didn’t learn to cook from her. I learned some at school. I wish i had some of her recipes. My sister had her make chocolate gravy and wrote down everything, even if she added another tablespoon. Now we have a recipe that comes out every time. But Mom’s didn’t turn out every time. It is too ahrd if we don’t have a recipe.
What do you do if you only have regular all purpose flour and no self-rising flour. What do you add? I thought the recipe for that would be at the bottom of this but it wasn’t.
I found the things to add in one of the posts above.
Ok I have been looking for a GOOD scratch biscuit recipe for a while now came across this recipe and I am happy I did. I didnt have buttermilk but I did have SaCo brand Cultured Buttermilk Blend which is powdered and you just add this in with the dry ingredients. Well I was concerned with the amount of water and continuing to add flour to the dough to that I could handle it. It was a mess but well worth it my BEST biscuits YET. (And I used plain Self Rising Flour) I would recommend this recipe to ANY! Thanks for posting and showing how!
I am so glad to hear that you liked them Angelia!!!
Wonderful recipe! These tasted just like something from a restaurant! I will be using this as my biscuit recipe from now on! Thank you!
how much baking powder and salt do you use? Do you have a basic bread recipe?
[...] I first got the urge when I woke up one Saturday and was just SO determined to make some Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits. [...]
Oh, Christy-Thanks you so much for the wonderful Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe!! This is THE recipe my Granny used for her perfect Sunday biscuits!! I have a few of her recipes and with your help, I have been able to fill in the blanks from my favs that are missing!!
I have a rolling pin identical to that one. My son got it for me when he was just a kid (with green stamps, too)…..he is now 53 years old.