Nothing beats the light, flaky homemade biscuits; hot, steaming fresh from the oven served with a generous amount of butter. My favorite way to have them.
Biscuits are a common feature of Southern cuisine in the United States and are often made with buttermilk. Living in Texas for about 4 years now, I have procrastinated it long enough and it was time that I gave it a try.
There are a zillion recipes around. I have been trying out a few from different places and finally I have settled to what I have here. I have added honey, which makes it very mildly sweet – the sweet gives it a good balance. If you are using herbs or if you want to make it spicy or savory you can omit the honey.
Buttermilk Biscuit
Ingredients: (makes about 8-10 small ones)
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1.5 teaspoons baking powder (make sure it is fresh)
- a pinch of baking soda (make sure it is fresh)
- salt
- 4 tablespoons chilled butter
- 2 tablespoons honey
- A little more than 1/2 cup buttermilk
Note: A make a variation to this regular biscuit try adding some dry herbs, like rosemary, oregano or your favorite one to the dough. Black pepper, cheese, sun dried tomatoes would make some lovely additions too
PreparationPreheat the oven to 410° F. The oven needs to be completely preheated before the biscuits go in.
Measure flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender, or food processor or with fingers until mixture resembles coarse meal or forms small pea size texture. Do this quickly so the butter does not melt at all.
Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
In the mean time combine buttermilk and honey, and whisk it until well blended. Add buttermilk mixture to chilled flour mixture. Stir the mixture until just combined and starts coming coming it together like crumbles.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead lightly for 3-4 times, just barely for it to come together; over kneading bring out the gluten in the flour and toughen the biscuits.
Roll dough into a 1/2-inch-thick rectangle; dust top of dough with flour. Fold the dough into 3 parts – as if folding a piece of paper in an envelope. Repeat this one more time.
Finally roll out the dough into 3/4 inch thickness. (If you do not want too high rise biscuits, roll them to 1/2 inch thickness; this is what I did, since I had cut my biscuits smaller).
Cut the dough with biscuit cutter/cookie cutter/glass to form about 10-12 biscuits. (Cut sharp. Do not twist, just press down).
You may put the extra dough (the extra cut outs), on the baking sheet and bake them misshapen, or roll them out again and form rounds. If you are re rolling the scraps, the biscuits from this dough will not be as flaky as the other set.
Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. (This will prevent darkening of the underside of the biscuits; I did not use the parchment). Place the biscuits about an inch apart on a baking sheet.
(Make sure the oven is pre heated and really hot) Bake at 410° for 10-12 minutes or until light golden. Remove from the sheet; cool for a couple of minutes on wire racks.
Serve warm and serve immediately.
They came out as flaky and soft as they look. Best served warm and immediately with butter.
What other ways can you eat a biscuit?
Lovely warm way to start a day with some butter, cream or jam. As you can imagine, these are not limited to the breakfast time.
They make great company to a fine dinner, or use them to make a cute little sandwiches during lunch.
For dessert? you might ask: Well you can make some fruit and cream sandwiches with these! Cut them into half, spoon some strawberries or any other fruit/berry on the top of the half biscuit, add a layer of cream, another layer of fruit/berry … keep going till they stand balanced. Eat within a few minutes before the biscuits soak thru’ and get soggy.
Enjoy!
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We make biscuits regularly for breakfast when guests come. Its a quick thing to make. We usually eat it with gravy 😀 just coz I love spicy bfasts 🙂
oh i forgot to tell you that your biscuits are brilliant for shortcakes 🙂 just split and fill with cream and berries. Lovely, Soma!
Biscuits are so delicious and yours look perfect!
Cheers,
Rosa
I remember making Shortcakes last spring with biscuits,strawberry ones..was darn easy and tasty..this one kicked up the craving again Soma..:)
These biscuits look and sound delicious!
Homemade biscuits, hot and just baked with the aroma on the air are awesome! Ideal for breakfast and with a dollop of butter 🙂
Cheers,
Gera
THose look so perfect and tempting….homemade bicuits are always the best to have…thanks for sharing the lovely dish…the snaps are so perfect too….
simple and so perfect
perfectly baked! nothing can beat home-made (Soma’s handmade!!) biscuits. 😀
Very well baked biscuits. Looks so crispy and colourful. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe with us.
Deepa
Hamaree Rasoi
Lovely biscuits. Biscuits always remind me of New Orleans. Don’t know why and it eventually leads to bread pudding! 🙂
These biscuits are so beautifully photographed! They look fluffy and light!
Awesome recipe Soma. I have been looking for a good recipe of buttermilk biscuit myself. The last time I made them, they did not puff much, will follow your instructions the next time around.
Your biscuits look so fabulous! Recipe looks simple and damn good. I would love to make these, not sure if they would come out as great as urs!
Sounds good,I am try my hands in baking these days,would love to try this too with some herbs!
tis looks so delicious,..
The look like the bristish scones and looks so so yumm, totally agree about nothing isbeter than home made biscuits.
look perfect biscuits and eggless too :).
Try to make it on next weekend
I too love these and have made sometime back.Looks Perfect Soma.
Generous amount of butter….hmmm….nice aroma…
Scrumptious biscuits, yum!
never made biscuits but now you have tempted and inspired me to try. looks lovely and can imagine the taste of homemade warm biscuits with a dollop of butter. Heaven!
These look very good. They have a lovely colour!!
Those biscuits look perfect and so delicious, Soma! I would love a dozen with a cup of coffee!
yummy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your biscuits look amazing. I’ve been wanting to make another batch of buttermilk biscuits. Thanks for reminding me and sharing a great recipe!
yummmm!!! i would love to add some oregano into my buttermilk biscuit!! 😀
yers look perfect and delicious with a hot pot of coffee!!
cheers and have a great weekend!!
Never tried those…but it’s early in the morning and I would just love to eat some!
I agree, nothing beat a warm biscuit fresh from the oven! Yours look fantastic!
Lovely baked biscuits! Such wonderful flakey texture. A biscuit, fresh and warm from the oven is pure comfort. I love them with jam or honey. Delicious.
your description is making my mouth water! cant wait to try this!
These look delicious. I wonder if I could substitute buttermilk with yoghurt, as I can’t get any in Greece.
Ivy, try using 1 part of greek yogurt with 2 parts water instead of the buttermilk. It should work.
YUMM! Looks delicious!
They look perfect and very similar to the English scones. Do they taste the same? Beautiful photos!
Love the article. Keep up the good work! Thank you!
Mom and I made these today except we subbed the buttermilk for Promise Land’s Egg Nog and they are just To-Die-For! I’m eating one as I type this…Mmm, mMm, mmm, Yum! Great recipe that makes fluffy, flaky, golden brown bicuits, perfect for this upcoming Christmas season.