Easy Butter Biscuits

With just six essential baking ingredients, you can make buttery, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits with incredibly soft centers. Such a delightful treat with irresistible melt-in-your-mouth goodness with every bite.

Makes 8-10 biscuits

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Resting Time 10

Total Time 35

Servings

Calories 462kcal

Author Imma

Ingredients

2½ cup (300g) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon (15g) baking powder
2 tablespoons (25g) granulated sugar
1½ teaspoon (9g) salt
12 tablespoons (168g) very cold unsalted butter, reserve ¼ cup for brushing
1 cup (237ml) buttermilk or whole milk

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, and salt.
Quickly grate frozen butter into the flour mixture. Grated butter ensures the fat is evenly distributed throughout the dough, making it light and fluffy. Alternatively, quickly cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender until you see coarse crumbs (pea-size chunks); it might take about 5 minutes. Let the bowl rest in the fridge if there is any wait time before making the biscuits.
Make a well in the center of the bowl, add buttermilk or whole milk, and stir until it barely comes together. PLEASE DO NOT OVERMIX.
Let it rest in the fridge for about 10 minutes while you preheat the oven and prepare the kneading surface.
Sprinkle flour onto your clean work surface. Remove dough from the fridge and place it on the board; knead 3-4 times, just enough to come together. You'll still see flakes of butter in the dough. Again, do not overmix.
Gently, gently pat the dough or roll it to about ½″ thick.
Fold the dough, repeating the folding process 6-8 times to ensure flakiness, but go easy on the rolling process. After folding, gently press the dough to 1-inch thick so it's ready to be cut.
Use a 2- or 3-inch, round cookie cutter or the rim of a glass to cut out the biscuits. Firmly push it straight down, then pull it straight up. Use your fingers to gently loosen the dough from the cutter and space them out equally on your greased baking sheet.
Knead leftover dough scraps and repeat until it's all used up. The last few might not look as pretty as the rest, but they will pass the taste test.
Lightly brush with buttermilk or cream.
Bake at 400℉ (205℃) for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. While it's baking, melt the reserved ¼ cup of butter.
Remove the biscuits from the oven, immediately brush them with melted butter, and serve with honey if desired.

Notes

Freeze the butter and refrigerate the milk for at least an hour before starting for fluffy biscuits.
Chill the dough after kneading to keep the butter cold.
Please don't overmix! The butter may melt and the gluten will develop for not-so-tender biscuits.
A pastry cutter, two knives, or forks help mix the butter into the flour mixture without your hands warming the butter.
Folding the dough creates beautiful flaky layers to our homemade biscuits.
Please remember that the nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary significantly based on the products used in the recipe.

Nutrition