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 Land O Lakes® 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 made here in the US. Extra creamy and more fat makes for extra flakey biscuits. We’re going to use salted butter in these biscuits for that alluring, extra-salty bite.
This post is in collaboration with Land O Lakes®. Photographs by Jon Melendez.
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.
In with the beaten egg and buttermilk.
Egg for structure. Buttermilk for always.
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.
Buttery Layered Buttermilk Biscuits
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 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 salted Land O Lakes® European Style Super Premium Butter, 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.
I Say Nomato (@ISayNomato)
We lived in the south for a while and now I have DREAMS of buttermilk biscuits! These look amazing, I’ll have to make them!
Maja
They look amazing! :) But I seriously must not bake anymore while I am pregnant. I eat all the time. everything around me :P
x M.
https://nevermindnm.blogspot.com/
D
fantastic!
jjbegonia
The biscuits look and sound phenomenal, but I am dying over those red plates too; such a pretty contrast!
madeline
This looks amaze-balls. I LOVE biscuits that are buttery + flaky. Fantastic!
https://madelinemarieblog.com/
cateinthekitchen
I’ll never get over the fact that you guys call ’em biscuits, even though that is so old news on the Internet.
I’m definitely coming back for this recipe next time I’m planning a homemade afternoon tea.
Words We Women Write
Have you tried Kerry butter? It’s the real deal from Ireland. Tub, stick, wow. A swoon per spoon. Takes these biscuits up a notch.
kmarieclemons
Yum, yum, yummmmmmmm. I have been searching tof a good biscuit recipe and of course, I found it with you. Question – at some point can the dough be frozen or refrigerated? As a mama of three I wo appreciate being able to make this entire recipe during nap time and then bake the biscuits for dinner.
Ellen
@kmarieclemons – I literally just baked some of the biscuits that I froze after cutting them, and they turned out great! I baked them at the same temperature (400) and left them in a little longer than the recipe calls for.
Joy, thank you for this recipe! New go-to for flaky biscuits.
Pedantic Foodie
Great butter makes all the difference! These biscuits look fantastic. I’m intrigued by the layering technique, I’m definitely going to have to try these out!
Eliza
Biscuits and butter, biscuits and jam, biscuits and gravy – oh the many reasons to try this recipe, let me count them!
Warm Vanilla Sugar
Buttery and delicious indeed! Yum!
DessertForTwo
The South is so lucky to have you :) PS you can totally capitalize ‘South’ now, hehe :)
Sharon
Iexpect you already know this but this side of the pond such ‘biscuits’ are known as scones – and there are almost wars over how you pronounce that. They can be made plain, as you did, or with sultanas or currants, or omit the sugar and add some cheese (and chives), or even slivers of cooked bacon. The cheese ones are particularly good. And the best thing? You get to eat them with more butter, or jam and cream (more discussions as to whether you jam or cream first. I say you butter first!)
On the other hand biscuits are more like Oreos but wiithout the creme filling (though we do have biscuits with creme fillings) and are more like the ‘twice cooked’ nature of the original name.
Give me a scone, preferably a cheese one, any day!
kristinaradin
Lovely. They look so crispy and fluffy. I want them on my breakfast table! Will try this!
Annie Reeves
I’m drooling. They look amazing!