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Home » Recipes » Easy Southern Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe

Easy Southern Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe

Published: Jan 20, 2022 · Modified: Nov 6, 2022 by Lynda · This post may contain affiliate links.

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Say “good-bye” to tough biscuits that taste like hockey pucks. These southern-style buttermilk biscuits are made from scratch with only three simple ingredients and the end results are light biscuits ready for strawberry jam, ham, or whatever biscuit toppings and fillings you like.

Fresh baked southern biscuits on a baking stone.
Southern Buttermilk Biscuits 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!).

If you have half an hour, you can make a batch of these classic 3-ingredient biscuits from scratch.

Jump to:
  • 🥘 Ingredients
  • 🔪How To Make These Homestyle Biscuits
  • ⏲️ Baking Time
  • FAQs
  • Recipe Notes
  • Self-Rising Flour Substitution
  • Buttermilk Substitution
  • Shortcuts
  • 📖 Recipe

🥘 Ingredients

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 ½ cups of self-rising flour
  • 6 Tablespoons of cold butter
  • 1 cup of buttermilk

🔪How To Make These Homestyle Biscuits

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. You can line a baking sheet with parchment paper or simply use an ungreased baking sheet. To make buttermilk biscuits, place flour in a large mixing bowl and add butter that has been cut into cubes. Using a pastry cutter or forks, “cut” the butter cubes into pea-size pieces or coarse crumbs. It helps to coat the butter in a little flour when doing this.

Add buttermilk to the flour and pieces of butter and mix well with a spoon. The mixture will be “sticky.”  Sprinkle your work surface with flour and then place your dough on top. Mold the flour mixture into a cohesive ball and then pat it into a circle or rectangle so that it’s about an inch thick. There’s no need to pull out your rolling pin to roll the dough like it’s a pie crust.

Biscuit dough patted out into a circle on a baking stone.

Next, use a round biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits from the dough. The number of biscuits you get will vary depending on the size of the biscuit cutter – or cup- that you use. If you use a 2 ½-inch biscuit cutter, you might get 8-10 biscuits. If you use a 3-inch biscuit cutter, you will get fewer biscuits.

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.

Using a glass to cut biscuit dough.

Place the cut biscuits on a prepared baking sheet or baking stone. Be sure to leave a couple of inches of space between the biscuits. You don’t want them to bake together.

⏲️ Baking Time

All that is left is to bake them in the preheated oven for 11-12 minutes. Carefully remove them when they have a nice, golden top. Brush biscuits with butter while they are still warm.

Freshly baked biscuits on a baking stone.

If you are a biscuit lover and just can’t get enough biscuits, check out my other biscuit recipes:

  • Biscuits and Gravy
  • Butter Swim Biscuits 
  • Red Lobster Biscuit Copycat
  • Biscuits without Buttermilk

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. Of course, they are always great with sausage gravy.

FAQs

Can buttermilk biscuits be frozen?

Absolutely! 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 the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the desired number of frozen biscuits and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for 22-24 minutes or until golden.Unbaked biscuits on a baking sheet in a freezer drawer.Frozen biscuits in two rows in a zip top freezer bag.

How do you store baked biscuits?

These fluffy southern buttermilk biscuits can be stored in an airtight container like a freezer bag for a couple of days – if you have any that last that long.

Recipe Notes

If you use unsalted butter, add ¼ teaspoon of salt to the self-rising flour.

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 ¼ teaspoon salt, 1 ½ tablespoons baking powder, and enough flour all-purpose flour to fill up a one-cup measuring cup.

For this recipe you will have to double those ingredients: ½ teaspoon salt, 3 tablespoons baking powder, plus enough flour to total 2 cups along with an extra ¼ cup of flour.

Whisking flour, salt, and baking powder together.

Whisk the dry 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 Substitution

Don’t have any buttermilk? You can make a simple sour milk substitute by placing a tablespoon vinegar into a measuring cup and adding milk so that the combination reaches the 1 cup mark. Stir and let it sit for 10 minutes so that the milk will “sour.”

Alternatively, you can use fresh lemon juice to make sour milk. Just follow the above directions but use 1 tablespoon lemon juice instead of vinegar.

Bottle of Organic Valley buttermilk.

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 has to do is pulse butter in flour a few times until the pieces are about pea-size.

Pea size butter for making buttermilk biscuits.

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. A shaggy dough forms initially, but stir a little more and then you should be able to knead it a little and then roll it out.

Pouring buttermilk into flour mixture to make biscuits.

For an elegant treat, serve biscuits with Chocolate Cherry Jam. While these easy biscuits are great any day, they also make a great addition to weekend brunches with all of the fixin’s like cheesy hash browns, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, bacon, and sausage.

Stack of buttermilk biscuits on a baking stone.

📖 Recipe

Southern biscuit

Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

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!).
4.52 from 37 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Breads
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 22 minutes
Servings: 9 biscuits
Calories: 180kcal
Author: Lynda

Ingredients

  • 2 ½ cups self-rising flour plus additional ¼ 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. Pulse until butter 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

Serving: 1biscuit | Calories: 180kcal
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    Recipe Rating




  1. Pat says

    October 05, 2022 at 7:07 am

    My bisquits were flat and were like hockey pucks. whats wrong. i followed recipe.

    Reply
    • Lynda says

      October 06, 2022 at 5:25 am

      Could your self-rising flour been out-of-date? The leavening agents in it could have been too old and caused it to not rise properly.

      Reply
  2. David says

    September 29, 2020 at 7:57 am

    I also didn’t have much luck with the rising, I added the baking powder to my flour to make the self rising flour

    Reply
  3. Shawna says

    September 15, 2019 at 1:36 pm

    I made these this morning, they tasted great but they didnt rise very much. Have any ideas on what I did wrong?

    Reply
    • Lynda says

      September 15, 2019 at 7:28 pm

      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.

      Reply
  4. Amber says

    June 21, 2019 at 9:30 am

    Can you freeze these before baking?

    Reply
    • Lynda says

      June 21, 2019 at 1:44 pm

      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.

      Reply
  5. Christina | Christina's Cucina says

    November 30, 2016 at 12:26 am

    These look WONDERFUL! I make scones all the time, but have yet to try buttermilk biscuits! YUM!

    Reply
  6. sabihaikhlas says

    November 29, 2016 at 4:05 pm

    Hi, kindly display a chart how many calories these southern buttermilk biscuits carry.

    Reply

    Thanks

    Reply
    • Lynda says

      November 29, 2016 at 7:58 pm

      That would all depend on how large or small your biscuit cutter is.

      Reply
  7. Andy says

    January 03, 2015 at 4:31 pm

    Yummy! I like them hot out of the oven with butter and then take Golden Eagle table syrup, pour it on plate, mix in more butter and sop it up with a hot biscuit! Excuse me, I need a moment alone. 🙂

    Reply
    • Pam says

      June 23, 2017 at 12:50 pm

      Honey is also good with butter and then sop it up with those biscuits……OH MY WORD

      Reply
  8. Jenn says

    September 07, 2014 at 10:47 pm

    I love biscuits warm from the oven, usually just with butter. But they are good with almost anything on them.

    Reply
  9. Marcie W. says

    September 01, 2014 at 10:26 am

    5 stars
    Talk about delicious! I think Southern style biscuits are really the only way biscuits should be baked. YUM!

    Reply
  10. Anne - Mommy Has to Work says

    August 31, 2014 at 9:22 am

    I’ve never made biscuits from scratch. These looks mouthwatering!

    Reply
  11. Melissa says

    August 20, 2014 at 10:13 pm

    4 stars
    These look so wonderfully fluffy and buttery!

    Reply
  12. Ashley @ 3 Little Greenwoods says

    August 20, 2014 at 9:13 pm

    I made biscuits last week too! I was truly surprised at how simple the recipe was to follow. My kids love them!

    Off to see what other yumminess I can find on your blog. 😉
    ~ Ashley

    Reply
  13. Kelley says

    August 15, 2014 at 10:46 am

    These look amazing! And so simple to make! I pinned them so I can try them asap!

    Reply
  14. Bayou Andy says

    August 13, 2014 at 4:55 pm

    5 stars
    Your recipe is correct and very good!!!
    We use White Lily Flour down heer (southern
    for here) where I’m from. If you can get it, it’s a soft
    wheat flour that you will really love.
    You did good!!!

    Reply
    • Lynda says

      August 13, 2014 at 8:06 pm

      Thank you!

      Reply

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Lynda and Johnny statue

My name is Lynda and I am a recovering sugar addict and travel junkie. I'm also a mom of two children & 2 dogs, wife of 1....and a messy cook taking life one bite at a time.

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