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Table of Contents
Since I started learning to cook, one of my favorite things is making breakfast on Saturday and Sunday morning. I still prefer to keep it simple, but a no-hassle breakfast is so much more soothing than a hectic dinner at the end of the day.
There’s no time constraints, no elaborate prep, no stopping what you’re already doing – with breakfast you just wake up, cook, and eat.
That’s a schedule I can work with.
But as much as I love making breakfast, I’m still experimenting with what qualifies as an “easy” way to do it.
I know I want there to be minimal dishes, a short prep time, and it should cook to perfection in 30 minutes or less.
That’s not asking for much, but you’d be surprised just how many (delicious) breakfast recipes just don’t fit in that perfect little box.
But you know what does?
Buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy.
Yeah, that shocked me, too.
This post will focus just on the biscuits, and I should have the gravy post out some time next week (update: it’s posted!). They were both so good that they really deserved their own places to shine.
As for the biscuits, I gotta be honest:
I was pretty nervous going into this. Maybe because I read the words “flaky layers” and immediately wanted to close my browser because I still have residual laminating shock from making homemade croissants a few weeks back (which are amazing, really, but they definitely do not fit in my easy-to-make requirements for breakfast.)
However, these buttermilk biscuits are far less fussy when it comes to laminating. You still need to work with super cold butter, but there’s very minimal layering and you do not need to let the dough rest in the refrigerator multiple times. You only have to grate the butter (I froze mine for a few hours), mix it in, and you’re ready to bake.
That’s a type of laminating I can work with.
The end result were fluffy, flaky biscuits that were cooked to perfection in less than 30 minutes.
They’re just aching to be made into a breakfast sandwich or smothered with sausage gravy (which we totally did, and I promise that the recipe is coming for that soon!)
Buttermilk Biscuits
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter, frozen
- 2 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for working dough
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Prepare work area by generously flouring a flat surface for working dough. Place roughly 1/4 cup flour in a nearby cup for dusting your hands. Set aside for now.
- Grate frozen butter like you would cheese. Keep grated butter cold by placing it in the freezer while preparing the next step.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
- Remove butter from freezer. Using a fork, mix frozen butter in with dry ingredients. Mix and fluff mixture so that grated butter is thoroughly covered by the dry ingredients.
- Create a well in the center of the dough and pour in buttermilk. Using your hands, kneed and work dough until all the dry ingredients are absorbed. Dough will be very sticky - use nearby 1/4 cup of flour to dust your hands and pat the outside of the dough to form a ball.
- Place dough ball on work surface. Add more flour to your work space or hands as needed. Flatten dough into a 9x5 inch rectangle, then fold dough in thirds f(like an envelope). Flatten dough into another 9x5 and fold in thirds again. Repeat the process one more time. This is the process that creates flaky layers in the biscuits.
- Flatten the dough so that it is about an inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter, press straight down (do not twist or turn) to cut biscuits. To get last few biscuits, gently pinch dough together - do not roll or it will ruin the dough folds. When finished, place cut biscuits on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake biscuits for 15 minutes. Serve as desired.
Nutritional Information
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Have you made this recipe?
Tag @homemadehooplah and hashtag it #homemadehooplah so I can see what you whipped up!
Erin Piette
Can you freeze the biscuits for later use?
Becky
Fantastic biscuits!!!! I’ve been trying different recipes. This one is the best I tried! Followed the recipe exactly. Only thing I did different was i cut the biscuits into squares. My family loved them. Thanks for a great recipe!!
Paula
I made these for the first time tonight. They were good, however, I think I made them to thin because I got 8 biscuits. They were not as flakey as yours. I don’t quite understand what you mean when you say fold like and envelope. Can you describe in more detail?
Chrisy
Hey Paula! For the folding, image a standard letter size (8.5×11) and how you would fold it to fit into a standard envelope (about 4×9). You’d make 3 creases – one near the top and one near the bottom, which would divide the page into even thirds, and then you’d fold the top and bottom pieces toward the middle. This is essentially the same process you’d use for the dough. If my explanation is still lacking (which it totally might be! Somehow this is harder to put into words than I expected) this video might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5gelIkXXLg It’s about folding a letter, but it’s the same concept you’d use for the dough 🙂
Guest
Can you make the dough the night before and bake in the morning?
Chrisy
Hey there! For this recipe, I don’t think I could recommend preparing the dough the night before. In order to get the flaky and buttery layers in the biscuits, you need to keep the butter cold while the rest of the ingredients are close to room temperature. This makes it so the butter stays “separate” from the rest of the ingredients – you don’t want the butter fully incorporated like you would with a cake. If you froze or refrigerated the dough, the butter would come to room temperature at the same time as the rest of the dough. Unfortunately the biscuits wouldn’t bake with the same flaky texture with room temperature butter.
paul johnson
I’ve tried many recipes and they all come out the same. Hockey pucks! Three were no different. Crusty on the outside, no rise, and still uncooked in the center. I have no idea what I’m doing wrong, but where in the oven should they be, to or middle? Does gas or electric make a difference? Does butter type matter? An I pressing to hard when mixing or patting out? Recipes never mention this kind of info.
Chrisy
Hey Paul! Sorry they didn’t turn out right. To answer some of your questions: Most recipes are fine to bake on the center rack (unless otherwise stated in the recipe). The type of oven is tricky, as every oven might perform differently, but electric tends to give a more “even” heat for cooking. This means you might need extra bake time with a gas oven, but typically only 1-3 minutes. As for the butter, using unsalted is a taste preference, but it should still be real butter, not margarine. Also, the butter should be as COLD as you can get it – this is probably the most critical piece for creating the “fluffy” bread you typically see in croissants and biscuits (and avoiding the hockey puck syndrome). This also means that you should spend as little time as possible handling the dough, as your hands will warm up the butter if you spend too much time kneading, so try to keep mixing minimal (stop right when you no longer see any powdery dry ingredients). When cutting the biscuits, I also used a lot of flour on my hands and work surface so I wouldn’t have to spend extra time wrangling the dough. Just gently shake or pat the excess flour off when baking.
Sorry for the novel response – I really hope some of this may help!
Marye
Yep, refreezing makes all the difference. These look fantastic. 🙂
Chrisy
Thanks Marye! I even wondered about chilling the bowl or cooling my hands first… butter can be such a temperamental little thing.
Sabrina @ Dinner, then Dessert
These biscuits look amazing! I love that you 1. grated the butter and 2. refroze it! GENIUS. I always worry about how soft my butter gets when making biscuits.
Chrisy
Thanks Sabrina! The butter can be so tricky to work with.
Katie @ Recipe for Perfection
Buttermilk biscuits are always a good idea! I love how these come together quickly. Now I’m hungry, and need to go make some…
Erin
I’ve got 5 kids staring at me right now, looking for a rainy morning project. I see butter grating in our future. 😉 I am SO EXCITED to make these.
Chrisy
😀 I’m a little late responding, but if you made these, I hope they turned out great!
Lindsey | Lou Lou BIscuit
REFREEZE THE BUTTER?!! I thought that I was smart for always grating the butter into biscuits and scones, but I never thought to refreeze it! Thanks for that amazing tip…can’t wait to try it!
These are like the poster child for perfect biscuits.
Chrisy
Thank you Linsdey! 😀
Christie
I’ve been trying to perfect the biscuit for probably 7 years. I think the key is re-freezing the butter after you grate it, just like you did. That and the buttermilk really does something magically. You have gorgeous biscuits.
Chrisy
Thank you Christie! 😀