Breaking biscuit news, friends!
A few weeks ago I was in Charleston, SC for the Charleston Wine and Food festival and I’ll tell you what – Charleston might have the best food in the country. Every meal was a banger.
But the biscuits? Y’all, I was not ready for the biscuits. If you’re in or near Charleston, you’re very well familiar with the pillow biscuits that are Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits. They’re the most soft and tender buttermilk biscuit. Basically the perfect vehicle for jam, honey, gravy, pimento cheese, slices of ham – you name it, I’m into it.
I watched Carrie (the creator of Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits) make these biscuits during a hands on festival class we taught together and I knew I was making these biscuits the second I got home. They’re so different from Dad’s Buttermilk Biscuits in that the dough comes together more like a thick cake batter – really wet and sticky. I had to feel it for myself and… it’s always biscuit season, right?
Because we bake together, you’re in the mix with me. Here’s a step-by-step of these very no-fuss, cream cheese laden cloud biscuits with the full recipe detailed below! xo
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits:
• salted butter (which is different from the unsalted butter I swear by. It’s nice to have an excuse to by salted butter because it’s so much better on charred tortillas than the unsalted variety.)
• Self-Rising White Lily Flour and there is no substitute, my friends. White Lily is a soft winter wheat flour and it really is like a cloud. Think: cake flour. The light texture and low protein content of the flour makes all the difference in these biscuits. I can find the green-labeled (aka bleached) Self-Rising White Lily flour at my local grocery store (god bless HEB), but there’s also a rather elusive red-labeled (aka unbleached) Self-rising White Lily flour to keep an eye out for.
• cream cheese for an added layer of richness and a hint of tangy flavor. You never have to convince me to put cream cheese in something. It’s always a good idea.
• whole milk buttermilk because wow what a difference some fat makes! But – if reduced fat buttermilk is all you can find, It’ll absolutely do!
• optionally, granulated sugar. I think these biscuits are even better with a tablespoon of sugar to balance the salt from the butter and self-rising flour. But also, maybe that’s just my sweet tooth talking. If you like a straight up savor biscuit, skip the sugar.
Side note: my favorite pan for this recipe is a quarter sheet pan (and NordicWare is super affordable and resilient). The recipe below will fill a quarter sheet pan. Cut the recipe in half if you only want to make half a pan’s worth.
There’s ease in these biscuits. We don’t have to worry about the temperature of the butter, cream cheese, and buttermilk. The way that I’ve fussed at you about cold butter, and cold cold buttermilk – you can ignore all that here.
Use your fingers to work the butter (room temp is fine just… not melted) into flour until the butter and flour is nearly like grated parmesan cheese. Worked into tiny bits. Once the butter is worked in, drop in chunks of cream cheese and work into pea sized bits. Create a well in center of the dry ingredients and add the buttermilk.
Use a rubber spatula to gently fold the buttermilk into the dry ingredients. You’ll find that this is a VERY wet batter. More a cake batter than a biscuit dough. Fold the batter just until you’ve found and incorporated all of the dry ingredients. Overmixing will make a tough biscuit and that’s not what we’re going for here.
Sprinkle the top of the biscuit batter and a clean counter space with a generous amount of the White Lily flour.
Push the batter out of the bowl and onto the floured surface. I had my rolling pin ready, but honestly I didn’t need it. With floured hands, gather and pat the dough into a 2-inch thick disk. Thick! A thick shaping will create a thick biscuit.
Flour a 2-inch round biscuit cutter and press straight down into the dough. Don’t twist the biscuit cutter, just pull it out of the dough sideways. Gently shake the biscuit out of the cutter and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. These biscuits bake side-by-side on the baking sheet. The biscuits are so tender that they need the support of one another to rise.
Use a bench scraper (truly my favorite baking tool) to scrape the excess flour and dough off the countertop. Brush each biscuit top with melted butter.
Bake the biscuits for 16-18 minutes until lightly golden, risen, and cooked through. When they just come out of the oven, brush again with salted butter.
A fluffy, tender, SOFT CAKE OF A BISCUIT. I’m just so smitten. I immediately want strawberry jam. I immediately want a pat of cold butter and honey. Sausage gravy? Absolutely yes.
Are they better than Dad’s Buttermilk Biscuits? I can’t say they’re better, but they’re different in the best way. These feel like my springtime biscuit – so pillowy. I’m folding blueberries into the dough next round and sprinkling them with cinnamon and sugar. Dad’s biscuits are more of an autumn and winter carb – a little more sturdy and layered.
These biscuits are a delight. Highly recommend you add them to your spring bake list – especially with Easter just around the corner. This about these biscuits next to a serving of Easter ham. Even yet, with leftover Easter ham and jam!? Done.
Here’s how!
Print
I Made Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits and You Really Should, Too!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 16-18 minutes
- Total Time: nearly 40 minutes
- Yield: 18-24 biscuits 1x
- Category: bread, biscuits
- Method: baking
Description
The most soft and tender buttermilk biscuits baked by the sheet.
Ingredients
- 4 cups (495 grams) White Lily Self Rising Flour, plus more for flouring the counter and biscuit cutter
- optional: 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (113 grams) salted butter cut into chunks, plus an additional 4 tablespoons (56 grams) salted butter melted
- 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups (336 grams) whole milk buttermilk
- You’ll Need: A rimmed quarter sheet pan, 2-inch biscuit cutter, and parchment paper
Instructions
Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a rimmed quarter sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar, if using. Add 1/2 cup salted butter chunks into the dry ingredients and use your hands to work the butter into the flour. Carrie says to “mix in a snapping motion with your fingers.” Once the ingredients are the consistency of grated Parmesan cheese, add cream cheese in the same snapping manner. The cream cheese portions should be about the size of dimes.
Make a well in the center of the dough. Add buttermilk and combine with a rubber spatula until the dough is wet, sticky. and there are no hidden dry pockets. Be careful not to overwork the dough.
Generously dust the dough, countertop, your hands, and the 2-inch biscuit cutter with the flour. Flip the dough onto the dusted surface. Pat the dough using using your hands until it is 2 inches thick. It’s okay if there are cracks across the top.
Cut the biscuits and place them on the prepared baking sheet. The biscuits should touch. Bring the remaining dough back together into a mound. Roll, cut, and place the biscuits in the same manner. Continue with all of the dough.
Brush the biscuit tops with melted butter. Bake for 16-18 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
Remove from the oven and brush with the remaining melted butter. Cool slightly and serve warm.
Notes
Depending on the thickness of your biscuit dough, this recipe will yield 18-24 biscuits.
35 Responses
LOVE this recipe, make it ALL THE TIME, also make biscuits square like Callie’s. THANKS for the great recipe!
Am a senior and can’t afford to buy them made but appreciate your sharing the recipe for those of us who want to make our own.
I made this! My first batch of biscuits ever!
My favorite biscuit! I’ve made these 20 times at least since your first post. Made many variations and we love these! The only thing I change is the temp to 425. Delicious!
Help, I am from Australia and have no idea how big a dime is.
Hey there! A dime is about a 1.7cm circle!
What would happen if you just laid the whole thing in the pan and baked it? Could you score it first? Maybe cut them in the pan and then space them a little? They do end up being square.
My mix was like pancake batter, I used the metric measurements and since have weighed the buttermilk and it is only 300 grams approxamately.
Love that you use gram measurements on your recipes, but I think the gram amount listed for buttermilk is wrong. The first time I made these I didn’t look at the cup measurement just the grams and ended up with buttermilk soup. Google tells me 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk is right around 340 grams. Used this for my second batch and these were perfection!
Do NOT make these with all purpose flour. They don’t rise and are tough little bricks. I’m excited to try again with the correct ingredients.
Make your own self rising flour. 2C All Purpose Flour, 1T Baking Powder, 1/2 t salt sift or mix well. There you have Self Rising Flour.
I made these for Easter and they were great. Easy recipe and turned out amazing! Thank you! ( I did substitute King Arthur cake flour for White Lily since it was out of stock at the grocery store)
These didn’t work for me either – followed recipe to a T. Dough was very wet, not able to cut it properly even after adding more WLSR flour. I dropped them into large biscuits instead – they tasted ok but definitely weren’t tall and fluffy as pictured. Bummer!
Can someone confirm that a cup and a half of buttermilk is 980 g?
Ah! It is 336g and it has been updated!
Unfortunately, my biscuits didnt come out as I expected I used all the specified ingredients. However I substituted the butter milk for low fat-milk and I used 3 cups of self rising flour instead of 4 cups. The dough came out perfectly, but I only managed to make 6 biscuits from the dough. The biscuites came out very dense and puffy. Could it be I made the biscuits too big or I didn’t ‘knead the dough enough?
Help!
Sadly my biscuits turn out as nicely as yours. I made two batches, the first batch wasn’t done after 18 minutes, they weren’t even cooked through after 22 minutes and I checked my oven temperature. The second batch took longer to bake as well, but they weren’t light and fluffy like I had hoped. They tasted great though. I’m not sure what I did wrong but I’m willing to try one more time because the third time must be the charm, right?
I had a similar experience! My troubles started with the dough, it was nowhere near cake batter, I could barely gather it together in a dry ball. I only had sixteen biscuits and they took over twenty minutes to bake. They are tasty but definitely not fluffy.
Try the recipie using cups of flour (be sure to level the cups and dont pack them) then try it using grams.(get a kitchen scale) see which come out better. From your comment I feel like youre using too much flour
It sounds like you needed to add more butttermilk, and don’t be afraid to do so if you find that your dough is very dry.
These sound amazing! I can’t find White Lily flour in my area and it is sold out on their website, so I might have to travel to Texas to make them. Not a bad reason to visit your area.
Come on down! I’m sorry White Lily is so elusive up north. I need to try this recipe with King Arthur Baking’s Cake Flour. I have a sneaking suspicion that will work but need to give it a run in my kitchen.
Hi Dottie and all. I’m up in Illinois but I found the White Lily flour on Amazon. Hope this helps!
love biscuits, but my recipes are fairly boring compared to these, cream cheese, the unique flour, must try, thank you!
Hi! I was wondering what brand of butter would work best in this recipe.
Thanks!
Hello! The answer is yes. any salted butter you may find, Aldi, Albertson’s, Land o’ Lakes, HEB, the answer is yes.
I was there just after you & can’t agree more. Who would have thought a biscuit could taste so heavenly! Did you try the cinnamon ones? I must make those!
Hello! I’m not from the US. I wonder if cake flour will work. I want to make this because I’ve never eaten a biscuit with cream cheese.
Thanks
Yes! Give these a try with cake flour! I hope they come out beautifully for you!
I didn’t try the cinnamon biscuits but I can’t think of a thing wrong with them! :)
QTY EDIT NEEDED!!! Sad to say I only confirmed the grams in 1.5c buttermilk (336 grams) after absolutely drowning my dough in the 980 grams as written, ignoring my better judgement. Wasted a stick of good butter in the process and had to wait until I could get back to the store for more self rising flour. Second attempt turned out great, but frustrated by the discrepancy in the instructions.
I’m so sorry about that – it has been updated. Thank you for the call out!
I’ve never made -or eaten- biscuits but you make a pretty convicing case. I’m not from the US, though, so I’ll give them a try with the closest equivalent to the flour called for I can find. I’ll update with the results!
So, for those of us with less time…what do you think would happen if you patted out your dough in the pan and cut them into rectangular biscuits with a bench knife and baked without moving them?
H. Ok I did this tonight and enjoyed it. I felt distracted and caught myself pouring it into the pan and considered to redo but nah. I enjoyed them although they were thin since I used the word pan that Joy recommended. They took longer to cook. Next time I will put in a 9×13 pan and expect longer cooking time. Google “slab biscuits”- I learned it’s a thing.
Oh interesting Diane! These would definitely take a bit longer as a slab biscuit but Chelsea – it can be done!