These are the best buttermilk biscuits ever: soft, flaky and incredibly tender! Look no further for your new favorite biscuit recipe!
You might not have guessed it if you’re new around here, what with my “midwestern farmer’s daughter vibe” that I have going on, but I spent over 13 years living in the South. For me, flaky, Southern biscuits are inseparable from memories of Bojangles biscuits at college tailgates or slow brunches in Atlanta.
Let’s take a full moment and give The Flying Biscuit in Atlanta its proper due, mmkay? Atlanta is not like NYC where we will stand in a line for food for hours like it’s our job. {I’m looking you cronut.}
No, no. If you see a line outside of a restaurant in Atlanta, you should stop whatever you are doing and stand in it, because I can guarantee that it will blow your mind! The Flying Biscuit (TFB) is no exception! This inauspicious café changed my mind about what a biscuit and brunch should be.
First of all, every brunch should have biscuits (and, let’s be honest, mimosas ?). And Second of all, true happiness can be found in a plate of TFB’s Southern Scramble eaten with friends. With a side of biscuits, of course!
If you follow me on Instagram (??), then you know that these biscuits are much anticipated! I have been testing and retesting them for weeks. In fact, I tested this recipe 3 times just to make sure the perfect ratio of butter had been achieved. Oddly, more is not more as I expected.
But what makes these THE BEST Buttermilk Biscuits?
So glad you asked! My inner pastry nerd was dying to come out and play! ?
- Let’s start with the most important: the flakiness! Lamination is what makes these biscuits several steps above of even the best drop biscuit. If you want to pull apart your biscuits Pilsbury Grands Style, then you need to laminate your dough. You may remember lamination from here or here. The same rules apply but it’s easier! You still cut the butter into the dry ingredients but then after you add the buttermilk you do a series of folds to make the butter and dough create natural sheets.
- Cut in your butter just enough! Cutting the butter into the flour shortens the gluten strands (or cuts them ?) and this will make for a more tender, soft biscuit! If you don’t cut your butter in enough, then you won’t have as tender a biscuit and also you’ll need more buttermilk to create the dough. More moisture means more gluten, which mean tougher biscuits! If you cut it in too much you won’t have flaky biscuits, but don’t despair if you do this! Just add a little less buttermilk and your biscuits will still be delightful!
- The perfect ratio of butter to dry ingredients is crucial. My working hypothesis was to see how much butter I could get into these biscuits while maintaining the texture and lightness. The answer: not as much as you would think! Too much butter made the final biscuits dense and heavy. Not even additional baking powder could get those hockey pucks to puff!
- It’s a lot of baking powder. Yup, just use it all! All that butter and buttermilk is heavy and you need some leavening to fluff it up!
- A little bit of salt and sugar goes a long way! Over the years, I have tested adding more sugar and, like butter, more is not always more! It changes the texture of the final biscuit and they aren’t as fluffy and soft.
- Don’t overbake them. Even the most amazing biscuit will be dry if left in the oven too long especially if you are baking in a cast iron pan! The cast iron retains heat and will continue cooking the biscuits long after they are out of the oven.
The Methods for the best buttermilk biscuit:
- Cutting in the butter: I use a combination of cutting in with a food processor and then finishing by hand. You can also cut in the butter with a stand mixer, a bench scraper or even two knives if you are so inclined and have a spare half hour! When using a food processor especially, it is crucial to pulse only and stop often to check! It is super easy to over cut in the butter. It took me less than a minute of pulsing and checking!
- Adding the buttermilk: I prefer to do this by hand. I dump all my butter-studded flour on my countertop, pour some butter milk on top of the mound, and gently toss with my left hand to hydrate the dough. I stop when I have a shaggy collection of dough.
- Lamination: We are just going to gather the shaggy mass and roll a rectangle about ¼ inch thick and then fold each end towards the center third like folding a letter to go in an envelope! It seems like it shouldn’t work and that it is too dry, but trust me and power through the folding two more times!
- Chillax: Wrap that laminated dough in plastic wrap and let it chill for at least an hour. Let that gluten relax and the buttermilk hydrate! You can totally do this the night before. You can also wrap it really well and keep it in the freezer for up to a month! Some mornings you just need a biscuit. You know what I mean?
- Roll & Cut: Roll it out to a little fatter than ½ inch (I like fat biscuits!) then cut circles with a biscuit cutter or get a perfect yield and cut squares with your bench scraper!
- The honey topper: This is totally optional but they do it at TFB and they are my gold standard. About 2 minutes before the biscuits are done, pull them out of the oven and drizzle some honey on top of each one. Bonus points if you pre-warm your honey and then brush it on with a pastry brush. But your fingers also work just fine ? just don’t burn them!
If you read all of that, just know I am super proud of you! ?That was a lot! My inner pastry nerd is so happy that I let her out for so long!
Without further ado, let’s make some biscuits!
The Best Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients
- 255 g All Purpose Flour
- 6 g Kosher Salt
- 18 g Sugar
- 21 g Baking powder
- 100 g Butter (7T)
- 192 g Buttermilk
- 1 T Honey
Instructions
- Add flour, Salt, Sugar, baking powder to a food processor and pulse to distribute. Cut in butter using a food processor until only pea sized pieces remain.
- Dump out onto clean work-surface. Drizzle the cold buttermilk over the dry mixer while tossing to coat the flour with the other hand. Create a shaggy mass and then begin to press into a mass.
- Roll out about ½ inch thick and do an envelope fold. It will not actually be a cohesive dough at this point. Repeat twice more. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Roll into ¾ inch thick and then cut into square or circles using a ring cutter.
- Place in baking dish or cast iron pan. Bake 350°F until golden brown around the edges. Pull out about 2 minutes before it is done and brush the tops with honey. Continue to cook until done, approximately 16-18 minutes. They will be golden brown and have a slight resistance to the touch in the center.
- Serve immediately or rewarm in oven before servings
Video Instructions
Notes
Leave a Comment!