Now, you know I love a biscuit! Now that I live in the south, I take my biscuits more seriously than ever. Buttery and tender, up for just about any pairing from coffee to chicken. I hold my biscuits to very high standards, they must be buttery and rise tall, the perfect balance of salty and sweet, with just a hint of crunch on top and a doughy tenderness inside.
Because I hold my biscuits to very high standards, I’m always looking for ways to enhance the magic. The answer: better butter and a fold or two.
Let’s go back to basics and make a better biscuit!
The fewer the ingredients in baked goods, the more important it is to use really quality ingredients.
We’re using European Style Super Premium Butter for these biscuits.
You guys, this butter is fantastic! European-style butter extra creamy and higher in fat than traditional butter. It’sextra creamy and more fat makes for extra flakey biscuits.
Sugar, baking powder, and baking soda into the flour with a quick stir.
Our butter moment!
We want it cut into small cubes and cold.
Cold butter broken down into the dry ingredients will help make the flakey in our flakey biscuits. Don’t go thinkin’ you can sneak around with warm butter. That just won’t do.
Butter is tossed into the flour with a spoon.
Now would be a great time to admire how golden and lovely the butter is… that’s what I did.
Fast hands!
I like to make biscuits with my fingers instead of a pastry cutter. It’s like playing with my food, but totally allowed.
I press the cold butter into the flour mixture, creating small flecks of butter throughout.
Butter bits, large and small. Add the beaten egg and buttermilk. We add egg for structure and buttermilk for tenderness.
Quick stir. One two three. Not too many. The biscuit dough will come together feeling rather shaggy. Moist but shaggy. And you’ll see lots of butter bits studding the batter. That’s exactly right!
Flour for the counter. We don’t want stuck biscuits. Once the dough is on the counter, we’re going for more of a gather than a knead. We don’t want to work the dough too much, just bring it together.
We gently roll the dough to a 1-inch thick oval.
This dough doesn’t require much push. It’s malleable and easily suggested into shape.
For extra flakeyness, we fold. The bottom half of dough goes up toward the center.
And the top half of dough gets folded over the first fold.
Once folded, we roll out the dough again.
And give the dough another fold treatment!
The dough folding will add to the flakey layers in each biscuit because we’re literally adding layers to our dough.
We’ll roll the dough in a 1-inch thickness after the folding and use a round biscuit cutter to cut our biscuits.
This is my happy place. There’s butter everywhere!
Before going in the oven, we give the biscuits a bit more of the butter treatment but brushing the tops with melted butter. Why not?
Baked for 20 minutes, these biscuits will rise mile-high and be super layered and flakey! They pull apart beautifully.
Best served warm from the oven with extra butter and sweet jam.
Back to basics with beautifully delicious butter and flakey layered biscuits.
Print
Buttery Layered Buttermilk Biscuits
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: about 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup cold unsalted buttter, cut into small cubes, plus 2 tablespoons melted to brush the biscuits, plus 2 tablespoons melted to brush the biscuits
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup cold buttermilk
Instructions
- Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using your fingers, quickly work the butter into the dry ingredients until some bits of butter are the size of oat flakes, some the size of small peas. Chunks of cold butter is what we want in our dough.
- In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, combine egg and buttermilk and beat lightly with a fork.
- Create a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the egg mixture all at once. Stir into a shaggy mixture. The dough will be moist, but not overly wet.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and use a floured rolling pin to gently roll the dough into a into a 1-inch thick oval. At the short end of the dough closest to you, fold the dough over until the edge of the dough meets the center of the dough. Fold the top edge of the dough towards the center over the first fold. Gently roll the dough into a 1-inch oval and repeat the folding process again.
- After the second fold, again roll the dough out to a 1-inch thickness and use a 2-inch round biscuit cutter to cut biscuits. Press any dough scraps together to make a few more biscuits out of the remaining dough.
- Place 1-inch apart on the prepared baking sheet and brush lightly with melted butter.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown on top. Serve warm with extra butter. Biscuits are best the day they’re made, and though they can be frozen and lightly reheated in the oven if you need a future treat.
Joy the Baker has partnered with Land O’Lakes for an exclusive endorsement of Land O Lakes® European Style Super Premium Butter. This post is sponsored by Land O’Lakes.
52 Responses
Tried it. Perfect!
Can you make ahead and freeze?
I made these today to have with some summer peaches and other fruits – they’re so so good. Thanks for the awesome recipe, Mr. Wilson! So special that we get to share this family gem.
Joy, I love these biscuits! Much thanks to you and your Dad. I’m bringing them to Thanksgiving, minus at least one. ? I’ve never made buttermilk biscuits before and was kinda scared of all the folding but they came out beautifully!
These turned out tall, flakey and beautiful! Tasted wonderful and I liked the smaller 2 inch size. A total winner!
I make these all of the time and love them. Would it still work if I added gruyere cheese and rosemary? Trying to switch it up for the holidays.
These biscuits are fantastic. I made he mistake of putting them really close together. I thought that putting biscuits close together helped them rise, but much to my chagrin I really just ended up steaming the biscuits. When I realized that, I moved the biscuits to a cookie sheet so that they would have room to bake. In the end, they turned out absolutely fantastic, although because I had to leave my biscuits in the oven for a bit longer than directed (and because I turned the oven temp up to 425) they turned out quite crispy, like a savory scone, which I thought was fabulous.
I made a few alterations to the recipe. I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten free biscuit mix for the dry ingredients, and replaced the egg with a flax egg.
Do you think it would be okay if I replaced the egg in the recipe with a flax egg?
My family raves about these! I couldn’t get mine as high as the ones pictured but in new to biscuit making! Great recipe!
Sister, these are some dang fine biscuits. I made them for Easter brunch, then a second time this week with a little sugar on top for strawberry short cake! Yummy, flakey, and so good.
N00b baker here! I made these last night and they turned out great! I did need to add more buttermilk as my dough was a little dry and not picking up all the dry ingredients. I cooked them in 2 separate batches – the first, immediately after rolling, cut them out and put them in the oven; the second, i put the unused scraps of dough in the fridge for 20 mins while the first batch cooked. The first batch came out perfectly and the second batch came out tasting perfectly but didn’t get nearly the rise as the first batch. Can anyone let me know why? Thanks in advance!
Joy! While looking around for a salted butter biscuit recipe, I found this one! Looks great and will try it out. Hope you are well, if you are ever back in Asheville, I’d love to see you again. Cheers!
Joy! Can I modify this recipe to make it a drop biscuit? I just had the MOST AMAZING delectable drop biscuits from Hivolt Bakery in New Orleans and I must recreate them! Also, have you been there? oh em gee.
I have been making biscuits for 38 years never have I used an egg. maybe I need to try putting an egg in the mix of self rising flour, butter and buttermilk. My husband used to rave about for my biscuits when he was alive. Neighbors would visit and ask if we had biscuit left over from dinner. O yes, I must try an egg in the mix!
I made these biscuits this morning, and they turned out really well. I’m not an expert baker, but I was thrilled with the results. Thanks–great recipe, and easy to follow!
Hi i’m leaving in Tahiti and unfortunately we don’t find buttermilk here… can i replace it by anything else… looking forward for your reply.. i really want to give a try to those biscuits
Try these! https://joythebaker.com/2013/11/baking-101-the-best-buttermilk-substitutes/
My husband and I made these this morning and we loved them! We’re happy there are leftovers and we’ll definitely be making them again. Thanks, Joy!
right on!
Made these this morning with the featured butter, and they were spectacular. Used 3/4 cups half and half and added 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar to make buttermilk, as I didn’t have any on hand. So good! Will for certain make these again soon for the upcoming holiday season.
these biscuits (aka scones) are amazing! kept coming back to the recipe and when i eventually made them – deliciousness!
thank you!
just made these and they turned out fantastic. plan on making them again soon as a side to southern fried chicken. It would be cool if on sponsored posts the brand sponsoring gave you a special coupon for your readers.
We love biscuits at our house! They’re faster than rolls and almost as good! Great recipe!
Yes yes yes, these look amazing! Biscuits always remind me of middle school. The only way my mother could get my sister and I to wake up was if she made biscuits, letting the buttery smell waft into our bedroom doors and pull us into the kitchen. Such trickery! But probably not the worst plan ever..
If anyone can convince me to use fancy pants butter–it’s you! I can’t wait to make these heavenly biscuits!! & I’ll definitely look for this butter on my next trip to the grocery store. Thanks Joy!!!
I’ve been looking for a biscuit recipe — this looks perfect. Can I also say that I love your step-by-step photos?