These Easy Homemade Biscuits with buttermilk use simple ingredients to create flaky biscuits that can be served as an easy side dish with your favorite soup recipes and chilis!
There’s just something about a buttery, flakey biscuit fresh out of the oven that makes me swoon. Freshly baked breadstuffs are the surest way into anyone’s heart, in my opinion.
I also love that biscuits are so quick and easy to make – I may not have time to make fresh bread with our soup for dinner (yeast breads like this Italian White Bread need time to rise), but I always have enough time to make some biscuits!
🤍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Versatile: Whether you serve them with sausages and white gravy for breakfast, with jam as a snack, or as a side dish for dinner this easy homemade biscuits recipe is always a hit!
- Simple: You probably have all the ingredients you need to make biscuits in your fridge and pantry.
- Quick: You can have these biscuits ready to eat in less than 30 minutes.
Jump to:
🧾 What Goes Into This Recipe
You’ll only need a handful of basic ingredients (which you probably have in your fridge and pantry already), to make this easy biscuit recipe!
- Cold Butter & Margarine: You want to make sure that your butter and margarine are as cold as can be when you incorporate them into your biscuits to create the flakiest biscuits possible! Nice cold butter/margarine will hold its shape in the dough. Then when it bakes it will melt and release steam, resulting in a nice pocket of air and a flakey texture!
- Buttermilk: We use buttermilk instead of plain milk or cream in this recipe for a few reasons. First, the acidity of buttermilk works with the leaveners in the recipe to create a fluffier biscuit. Second, the slight tang of buttermilk adds a delicious flavor!
* Make sure to see the full recipe card below with the exact quantities of ingredients listed and step-by-step instructions to make these delicious biscuits! *
📖 Substitutions
These fluffy, flaky homemade biscuits are so good warm out of the oven (and just as good at room temperature or reheated the next day). If you were excited to make this recipe but realized you are missing something, maybe these substitutions can help!
- Buttermilk – Did you know that you can make a buttermilk substitute with items you likely have on hand? You can! Add ¾ of a tablespoon of white vinegar to a measuring cup and then fill the cup with regular milk until it reaches the ¾ cup mark that is needed for this recipe. Let it sit for 5 minutes (you’ll notice that the milk starts to curdle a bit – this is what you want to see). Now you can use it in the recipe in place of buttermilk!
- Honey: If you don’t have honey, you can use 1 tablespoon of white sugar in this biscuit recipe.
- Butter/Margarine: If you are out of one or the other of these, you can make this easy biscuits recipe with just one (all butter or all margarine). Butter adds more flavor to your biscuit and creates a flakier end product, but margarine helps to make your biscuits soft. I’ve also used avocado oil as a substitute for margarine in a pinch!
🔃 Variations
We love making these flaky buttermilk biscuits just as they are, but here are a few variations you can try if you’re looking to get creative…
- Garlic & Cheddar: Garlic and cheddar cheese is a delicious combination, especially when you add it to a biscuit! Try adding ½ a teaspoon of garlic and ½ cup of shredded cheddar cheese to these biscuits to create a delicious garlic cheddar biscuit.
- Bacon & Chive: Adding bacon and chives (or green onions) creates a savory biscuit that’s perfect to serve with soups or chilis! You can use chopped bacon or bacon bits, and chopped chives or chopped green onions. Add to your taste preference!
- Sweet: If you prefer a sweeter biscuit, you can add an extra tablespoon of honey or sugar to your biscuit dough. Sweet biscuits would be delicious to serve with some tea or coffee!
🧑🍳 How to Make These Easy Homemade Biscuits
This easy homemade biscuit recipe isn’t complicated, there are just a few simple steps.
- combine your dry ingredients together
- cut in your fat (in this case, butter and margarine)
- add the liquid ingredients.
Since these are rolled biscuits, we’ll need to roll the dough out and cut our biscuits from it as well.
If you are looking for easy biscuits to make that skip this step, you can try something like our Bisquick Cheddar Biscuits which are drop biscuits. (You scoop the dough out and drop it onto the baking sheet – no rolling required).
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 390 degrees. Place parchment paper over your cookie sheet and set aside.
Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients (all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt) and whisk together.
Step 3: Grab your cold butter (do NOT use room temperature butter) and coat it with your flour mixture to make it easier to grate. Then use your cheese grater to grate it into your large bowl. Once all the butter has been grated, mix a bit until combined.
TIP: Make sure your butter is very cold. If you want, you can even pop it into the freezer for 15 – 20 mins before grating. This can also make it a bit easier to grate without smushing. Cold butter is the secret key to making perfect biscuits!
Step 4: Add in the margarine and mix until combined using your fingertips.
TIP: Be sure not to overmix. If you mix the dough too much, it will overdevelop the gluten, and it can result in biscuits that are tough or unpleasantly chewy.
Step 5: Make a well in the middle of your mixture and add in the milk and honey. Mix with your hands until you form a dough. Once again, try not to overmix.
Cutting the Biscuits
Step 6: Place your dough onto your lightly floured work surface. Extend it using a rolling pin until your dough is about 1 inch thick. If you want thicker biscuits, you can make them 1 ½ inches. Just keep in mind you will probably have fewer biscuits from your dough.
Step 7: Using your round biscuit cutter (I used 2 ½ inch in diameter) cut as many biscuits as possible. Once they are cut out, place them on your baking trays.
TIP: If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, you can use a cup! Simply dip the mouth of your cup into some flour and use it as a cookie cutter. If you find that the dough gets stuck in the cup, give it a gentle whack on the side and the dough should pop out.
Step 8: Gather what is left of the dough, and repeat this last step until you have finished all of your dough.
Step 9: Once you are done, place biscuits on your cookie sheets. Whisk your egg and then with a pastry brush, brush some egg on the tops of the biscuits. (This will help your biscuits to reach a nice golden brown when they are done). Alternatively, you could use melted butter if you want the tops to be a bit softer and less brown.
Step 10: Place the trays in the oven and bake for 12 – 15 minutes until well risen and the top is golden.
Once your biscuits are golden brown, remove them from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack until they are cool enough to handle. Serve and enjoy! Top them with a flavored butter, and try serving them alongside this oven-baked pot roast!
❓Recipe FAQs
Any leftover biscuits can be kept at room temperature for 1-2 days as long as they are stored in an airtight container.
Yes! You can freeze your biscuits raw or baked!
For raw biscuits, place them in a single layer on a freezer-safe tray and let them sit in the freezer until they are frozen through. Remove them from the tray, place them in an airtight, freezer-safe bag, and store them in the freezer for up to a month. When you want to bake them, you can either let them thaw on the baking tray before baking according to this recipe or simply add a few extra minutes to the baking time.
For baked biscuits, let them completely cool on a wire rack. Once they are cool, place the biscuits in an airtight, freezer-safe bag and store in the freezer for up to a month (if you want to be extra sure they stay fresh, you can wrap each biscuit in plastic wrap before putting in the freezer bag). When you want to eat them, simply let them thaw at room temperature. You can also warm them up in the oven at 390° if you want a warm biscuit!
Cold fat! The secret to making sure your biscuits are nice and fluffy is to make extra sure that your butter/margarine is cold. If it is soft it will become incorporated into the dough instead of remaining in little chunks. We want those little chunks in the dough because when they melt during baking they give off steam and help create lots of flaky layers. Yum!
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a “star” rating below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
🥯 More Biscuit Recipes
If you’re making biscuits, give this Chorizo Gravy or this Jalapeno Sausage Gravy a try! If you’re looking for other delicious biscuit recipes, try these…
Recipe
Easy Homemade Biscuits
Video
Ingredients
- 2 ⅓ cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 Tablespoons cold butter + extra melted butter for brushing on after baking (optional)
- 2 ½ Tablespoons cold margarine (for best results) or butter or oil, if needed
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1 small egg
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 390 degrees. Place parchment paper over your cookie sheet and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients and whisk together.
- Grab your cold butter and coat it with your flour mixture to make it easier to grate, and then with a grater, grate it into the bowl. Once all the butter has been grated, mix a bit until combined.
- Add in the margarine and mix until combined using your fingertips.
- Make a well in the middle of your mixture and add in the buttermilk and honey. Mix with your hands until you form a dough. Once again, try not to overmix.
- Add some flour onto your work surface and place your dough on top. Extend it using a rolling pin until your dough is about 1 inch thick. If you want thicker biscuits, you can make them 1 ½ inches, just keep in mind you will probably have fewer biscuits from your dough.
- Using your pastry cutter (I used 2 ½ inch in diameter) cut as many biscuits as possible. Once they are cut out, place them on your baking trays.
- Gather what is left of the dough, and repeat this last step until you have finished all of your dough.
- Once you are done, place biscuits on your cookie sheets. Whisk your egg and then with a pastry brush, brush some egg on top of the biscuit (this will help your biscuits to reach a nice golden brown when they are done).
- Place the trays in the oven and bake for 12 – 15 minutes until well risen and the top is golden.
- Once your biscuits are golden brown, remove them from the oven, and brush melted butter on tops if desired, and let them cool on a wire rack until they are cool enough to handle. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Olivia says
These biscuits were amazing! I had them with chili for dinner and my family loved them! Thank you for sharing
Kristyn says
Homemade biscuits are the best!! This really is an easy recipe that goes with anything!! We make them all the time!
Kristen says
These biscuits were the best I have ever had, they were so fluffy and flavorful.