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

How To Make Homemade Southern Buttermilk 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:
- 2 cups of self-rising flour
- 6 Tablespoons of cold butter
- 1 cup of buttermilk
To make buttermilk biscuits, place flour in a large bowl and add butter that has been cut into chunks. Using a pastry cutter or forks, “cut” the butter chunks into pea-size pieces. It helps to coat the butter in flour.
Add buttermilk and mix well with a spoon. The mixture will be “sticky.”
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.
I like to 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 clean.

I am able to get about 9 biscuits out of a 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.

Southern Buttermilk Biscuits
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
- 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.
- Combine mixture with additional 1 cup of flour. Add buttermilk and mix with spoon. Mixture will be “sticky.”
- Pat out mixture on floured surface until about 1 inch thick. Cut with biscuit cutter (or drinking end of cup). Place on baking sheet.
- Bake at 450 degrees for 11-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Video
Nutrition
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.
Tips and Tricks For Making Buttermilk Biscuits
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.
Self-Rising Flour Substitution

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.)
Buttermilk

I recommend using organic buttermilk if you are able.
If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make a buttermilk substitute by placing 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.

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

Hungry for more biscuits? Be sure to check out the post for 9 more delicious biscuit recipes at Southern Kissed.
David
Tuesday 29th of September 2020
I also didn’t have much luck with the rising, I added the baking powder to my flour to make the self rising flour
Shawna
Sunday 15th of September 2019
I made these this morning, they tasted great but they didnt rise very much. Have any ideas on what I did wrong?
Lynda
Sunday 15th of September 2019
Hi, I am glad they tasted great. Any idea of how old your self-rising flour is? If it is too old, perhaps the leavener has lost some of its oompf.
Amber
Friday 21st of June 2019
Can you freeze these before baking?
Lynda
Friday 21st of June 2019
That's a great question and I have wondered that myself. I imagine that you can, then bake them the way you would any other frozen biscuit dough.
Christina | Christina's Cucina
Wednesday 30th of November 2016
These look WONDERFUL! I make scones all the time, but have yet to try buttermilk biscuits! YUM!
sabihaikhlas
Tuesday 29th of November 2016
Hi, kindly display a chart how many calories these southern buttermilk biscuits carry.
Reply
Thanks
Lynda
Tuesday 29th of November 2016
That would all depend on how large or small your biscuit cutter is.