I know it’s not hard to find a recipe for Buttermilk Biscuits on the internet. But I worked on this recipe for quite some time to get just the right combination of fluffiness and flakiness. I’m happy to share it with you in case you haven’t found your perfect biscuit recipe yet.

I’ve tried many biscuit recipes over the years. Some make a very, very wet dough that could almost be scooped like a muffin rather than cut with a biscuit cutter. A very wet dough that is minimally handled produces a super fluffy and moist biscuit.

I’ve tried other recipes that make a firmer dough that is rolled and folded to create flakiness. I found some of those recipes produce a biscuit that is flaky, but too much of the fluffiness is lost.

I want the best of both worlds so I tinkered with this recipe until I got a result that was both light and flaky. I make a fairly wet dough that holds it’s shape well enough to be folded. The gentle folding will develop layers of dough that will bake into lovely, buttery layers in the final biscuit.

It’s easy to create flakiness by layering the dough. The trick is to handle the dough gently so you don’t develop the gluten, which will toughen the dough. I start the recipe with a mixture of 1/2 all purpose and 1/2 cake flour. The all purpose flour gives the biscuit dough enough body to create layers, and the cake flour has a lower protein content to keep toughening gluten at bay.

I use my hands from start through finish to avoid over-working the dough. This dough is so tender you don’t need a rolling pin. You can easily pat it into shape using your hands.

Click through the slider to see step-by-step how to make Buttermilk Biscuits:

The biscuits are best eaten still warm from the oven. Leftovers (I doubt they’ll be any leftovers!) can be frozen and rewarmed in the oven or buttered and toasted on a griddle.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Yield: 12

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 32 minutes

Buttermilk biscuits that are both fluffy and flaky. It's all about how you handle the dough!

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Ingredients

• 2 cups (10 oz, 280g) all purpose flour
• 2 cups (8.5 oz 240g) cake flour
• 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 oz (2 sticks, 225g) unsalted butter, cold and cut into 16 pieces
• 2 cups (16oz, 450g) buttermilk plus more for brushing

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F convection or 400°F regular.
2. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.
3. Whisk the dry ingredients to combine
4. Mix the butter into the flour with your fingers until it's broken down into bits slightly larger than a pea
5. Add the buttermilk all at once and mix until about 2/3 of the dry ingredients are absorbed.
6. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead together just to incorporate the remaining dry flour (this should only take about 6-8 kneads).
7. Gently pat dough to a 1/2" thick, brush off excess flour and fold the dough in 1/2.
8. Pat gently to stick the dough together and and fold again
9. Pat to 3/4 " thick disc and cut with a 3" biscuit cutter.
10. Gather scraps together, pat to 3/4" thick and continue cutting
11. Set the biscuits onto a parchment lined baking sheet and brush the tops with buttermilk
12. Bake until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes
13. If the bottoms of the biscuits are browning too fast set another sheet pan under the biscuits after 5 minutes of baking.

Nutrition Information:

Serving Size: 12
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1120 Total Fat: 6g Carbohydrates: 226g Protein: 36g

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