Simple fluffy biscuits made from scratch are a favorite for most anyone. Right? If you’ve been intimidated by the mess and lack of confidence, you have to try this one out!

Making biscuits used to overwhelm me

When Michael and I married, he didn’t exactly get Martha Stewart as a homemaker. I was fully capable of preparing hot food for us and thankfully he was very easy to please. In fact, he was the kind of college student that could make a monster batch of mac and cheese with ground beef for protein and be happy to eat it all week. This was probably the best thing I had going for me as a young wife. You see, I was the oldest of four children. So, I had grown up helping prepare meals for a family of six. This resulted in me always making way too much food for two people. Thankfully, Michael had no problem eating the same thing for several meals in a row.

One thing that he did love, though, and never got, was good ol’ southern fluffy biscuits from scratch. No ‘whamp biscuits’ would do (you know, the kind in a can that you whamp on the counter top to open?). His grandmothers and aunts were all excellent cooks. You know the type that never measured anything. During visits with them in the kitchen, Michael tried his best to write down their recipes and follow their instructions. It just never worked. He didn’t have their ability to ‘just know’ how much of each ingredient to add. So his attempts fell flat.

When our daughter was twelve years old, she decided to give her dad the best Christmas present ever! A plate of homemade biscuits. At the time, she was baby-sitting for a family blessed with a wife who knew all the things in the kitchen. Kaley swapped her services for baking lessons and learned to make biscuits from scratch for her dad. How precious is that? He LOVED it!

Well, Kaley grew up and moved away to finish school and with her went those weekend biscuits. 

I finally stepped up my game

Eventually, I decided that biscuits were worth the mess on my kitchen counters. I began my own journey to find a simple recipe for fluffy biscuits from scratch. Here I am sharing the result of that adventure. 

This recipe is a mixture of several that I have tried over time. I am pleased to say that it is easy and isn’t all that messy. Plus, the ingredient list is short:

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 ½ tbsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ cup butter (cold and diced)

1 cup buttermilk

Instructions:

Start by preheating your oven to 450 degrees.

Step 1: Dice your butter into small cubes and place it in the freezer for a few minutes. This will assure that it is super chilled.

Step 2: In a large bowl, add the 2 cups of flour (I use all purpose flour). To that, add 1 ½ tablespoons baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda and ½ teaspoon salt. Mix thoroughly with a fork or whisk. 

Step 3: Combine the cold butter with the dry flour mixture and incorporated it into the mixture. I use a pastry blender for this step, but you could also simply use a fork.

Step 4: Add your buttermilk to the bowl and mix with a fork or spoon until it is combined. The batter will still be sticky and clumpy. 

Step 5: Dust the surface of a cutting board or a clean countertop. Now scoop your biscuit mixture out onto the surface. Dust the top of the mixture as well as our hands with more flour. Now shape the dough into a square roughly an inch in thickness. 

Step 6: Now start forming your biscuits. You can either use a biscuit cutter (or a glass) to cut out circles. You can also divide the mixture by cutting and separating into eight or so sections. I cut my square into nine sections and form each little square into a round biscuit. 

Step 7: Place your biscuits in a cast iron skillet (or a parchment lined baking sheet). They should be almost touching, and brush the tops with additional buttermilk. Place in your preheated oven and bake for 12-15 mins. Remove from oven when they are golden on top. 

Tips

• If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make your own by adding a tablespoon of white vinegar to regular milk. Allow it sit for a few minutes and it will begin to curdle.
• Avoid using your hands to combine the butter and dry mixture. This will keep the butter from getting warm.
• Don’t have a skillet? You can also use a baking sheet or even a glass casserole dish that is lined with parchment paper.