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These southern-style homemade biscuits are made from scratch with only three ingredients and can be made in under 30 minutes from start to finish. 

How To Make Homemade Southern Biscuits

The first thing you need to do is to gather your ingredients.  The French call this mise en place.  You need the following three items:

1. 2 cups of self-rising flour
2. 6 Tablespoons of cold butter
3. 1 cup of buttermilk

Self-Rising Flour and Buttermilk Substitutions

If you don’t have self-rising flour on hand, don’t worry. Here is a handy recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour: place 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1  ½ tablespoons baking powder, and enough flour to fill up a one-cup measuring cup.   

For this recipe you will have to double those ingredients:  1/2 teaspoon salt, 3 tablespoons baking powder, plus enough flour to total 2 cups along with an extra 1/4 cup of flour.

Whisk the ingredients well to get the ingredients mixed thoroughly.  You can use organic flour and make a nearly-organic option. (You will not find organic self-rising flour in a store or online.)

I recommend using organic buttermilk if you are able.  If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make a buttermilk substitute by place 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice in a 1 cup measuring cup.  Fill the remainder of the cup with milk, stir well, and let it sit for 5 minutes before using it.

Shortcuts

I like to take shortcuts when I can and so for these homemade buttermilk biscuits, I used to use my food processor to incorporate butter into the flour mixture.  It was so much easier than a fork, knife, or a pastry blender.  All one had to do is pulse butter in flour a few times until the pieces were about pea-size.  If they were, then you could stop.

However, I discovered that an even easier way to make them is to use melted butter.  Yep.  That’s right.  Melted butter. 

You see, when you pour COLD buttermilk over melted butter, it often causes the butter to re-harden.  Just stir the buttermilk, melted butter, and flour together while you are pouring in the buttermilk.

After you have mixed the biscuit dough together, pat it out on a lightly floured surface.  You want the dough to be about 1-inch thick.

Next, use a biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits from the dough.  My tip for cutting biscuits without a biscuit cutter:

Use a drinking glass.  You can dip the open end in a little flour to help prevent sticking.  Then when you are finished, rinse it off and then you can put it in the dishwasher to get clean. 

I was able to cut 9 biscuits out of this batch of dough.

All that is left is to bake them in a 450-degree oven for 11-12 minutes.  Carefully remove them when they have a nice, golden top.  I like to brush a little bit of butter over the top while they are still warm.

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They’re freezable!  That’s right – you can freeze uncooked biscuit dough.  Simply follow the directions through step number 3.  However, instead of baking them, place them in the freezer for 3-4 hours. Once they are frozen solid, remove them from the baking sheet and place them in a freezer ziptop bag.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Remove the desired number of biscuits and place them on a baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

Yield: 9 biscuits

Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

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Good old fashioned southern biscuits made with self-rising flour, buttermilk, and butter- just like your granny used to make (if you're from the South!).

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes

Total Time 22 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups self-rising flour, plus additional 1/4 cup for dusting the work surface
• 6 Tablespoons cold butter
• 1 cup buttermilk

Instructions

1. Place approximately 1 cup of flour in food processor. Cut butter into pieces and add to flour. Pulsate until flour is in pea-sized pieces.
2. Combine mixture with additional 1 cup of flour. Add buttermilk and mix with spoon. Mixture will be "sticky."
3. Pat out mixture on floured surface until about 1 inch thick. Cut with biscuit cutter (or drinking end of cup). Place on baking sheet.
4. Bake at 450 degrees for 11-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

9

Serving Size:

1 biscuit
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 180

Nutrition information is an approximation.

Did you make this recipe?

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If you’re from the South, these are sure to remind you of your grandma’s buttermilk biscuits. All you need now is some red-eye or cocoa (chocolate) gravy to top them with.

For an elegant treat, serve them with Chocolate Cherry Jam.

Click here for 9 more delicious biscuit recipes.