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What makes this strawberry shortcake the BEST is its flakey buttermilk biscuits, sweet homemade stabilized whipped cream, and fresh strawberries. This recipe comes together in less than 25 minutes!

Ingredients

Equipment

These tools will save you a lot of time and make this super easy. A kitchen scale, a sharp metal cutter about 4"-5" round, a cheese grater, and a pastry brush.

Why use a kitchen scale? Read more about using a kitchen scale for baking in this blog post.

Protip - Use a kitchen scale to weigh all your ingredients in one bowl. Shred cold butter directly into the bowl for easy measuring and cleanup! 

How to Make Strawberry Shortcake

To Make Strawberry Filling

The strawberry filling is incredibly easy. So easy, there are only three steps. Perfect for home cooks!

Protip - Use the freshest strawberries you can find. Locally grown strawberries will taste MUCH better than the ones at the grocery store (unless they are sourced locally). 

Step 1 - Cut off the tops of your strawberries then slice them into fourths (or smaller pieces if you desire).

Step 2 - Place strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar into a bowl and stir until sugar is evenly distributed onto the strawberries.

Step 3 - Walk away! The sugar will draw out the moisture from the strawberries and turn the juice into a thick syrup.  So easy!

How To Make The Sweet Biscuits Step-By-Step

Strawberry shortcake would not be complete without the biscuits! Shortcake refers to the way butter is cut into flour and "shortens" the gluten to make a tender, fluffy "cake".

These biscuits are extra-large so they make the perfect-sized strawberry shortcake for one.

Step 1 - Add your flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and whisk to combine.

Step 2 - Place the whole bowl onto the scale and press the tare or zero button to remove the weight of the bowl. Make sure the mode is set to ounces (or grams if that's what you're using). Start shredding in your COLD butter until you reach the right amount.

Step 3 - Toss the flour and butter together quickly to coat all the butter with the flour mixture. Quickly begin breaking the butter pieces into smaller pieces with your fingers until the mixture looks like chunky sand.

Protip - If your hands are very hot, place them in ice water for one minute, dry them off quickly, and then rub the butter into the flour. You can also use a fork. 

Step 4 -  Combine the milk and lemon juice (or use buttermilk). Make a well in the center of your butter/flour mixture and add in your cold milk/lemon juice or buttermilk and lemon zest.

Step 5 - Make a "claw" with one hand and begin mixing the flour into the milk until no dry flour remains. The dough will look chunky and rough, this is normal!

Step 6 - Dump the biscuit dough onto the counter and smoosh it together into a roughly round flat shape about 2" tall.

Step 7 - Take half the mass of dough and fold it over onto itself. This will be really rough at first.

Push the dough down until it's 2" tall again. This is one "turn". This is what develops layers of butter in our dough and causes them to puff up!

Step 8 - Rotate the dough 45º and fold the dough over again and press down. This is turn 2. Repeat this step until you have made 4 or 5 turns. The dough will look slightly smoother and more combined after turn 5.

Step 9 - With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the biscuit dough out until its about 1" tall.

Step 10 - Use a metal cutter to cut out your biscuits. I get about 4 biscuits.

Pro tip - Press your metal cutter straight down and lift straight up to keep your biscuit layers intact. If you twist at all, you will seal the layers shut and your biscuits won't rise. 

I press together the leftover dough to cut two more. They won't be as pretty but they still taste good!

Step 11 -  Arrange your biscuits onto a baking sheet with some parchment paper on top to prevent sticking. I leave about ¼" space between the biscuits to help them rise higher! Biscuits like to be close to each other.

Step 12 - In a medium bowl, whisk together your egg and 1 tablespoon of water. Brush the tops of your biscuits with the egg wash. This promotes browning. *see notes*

Step 13 - Sprinkle the tops of the biscuits generously with sanding sugar or granulated sugar.

Step 14 - Bake biscuits for 25-30 minutes or until they are golden brown on top. I use a thermometer to check the internal temperature. Biscuits are done at 205ºF-215ºF. No one likes under-baked biscuits.

Place the biscuits onto a cooling rack before assembly.

How To Make Stabilized Whipped Cream

Step 1 - Place the gelatin into the water and let it absorb while you start whipping the cream.

Step 2 - Place your cold heavy whipping cream into the stand mixer with the whisk attachment.

Step 3  - Whisk on medium until soft peaks form, and you're just starting to see lines in the whipped cream. Add in your powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Mix on low until combined.

Step 4 - Melt the gelatin in the microwave for 10 seconds. The gelatin should look clear. If it's not, warm it for another 5 seconds. Don't overheat it. Add in the teaspoon of heavy cream and stir lightly to combine.

Step 5 - While mixing on low, pour in your gelatin and mix until you reach firm but smooth peaks. Not crumbly or chunky. Now you have stabilized fresh whipped cream!

Pro tip -  Check out my blog post to see more ways to stabilize whipped cream with cream of tartar, pudding mix, and more. 

Assembling The Strawberry Shortcakes

Time to put our delicious strawberry shortcakes together!

Step 1 -  Use a knife to split the biscuits in half.

Step 2 - Scoop a big helping of those juicy strawberries onto your biscuit. All that syrup is going to soak into the biscuit and will taste amazing.

Step 3 - You can use a piping bag with a 1M piping tip or just use a spoon to layer up some of your whipped cream on top of the strawberries. I like to add about ¼ to ½ cup of whipped cream.

Step 4 -  Place the other half of the biscuit on top, top with whipped cream and a strawberry, and serve!

Because we have used stabilized whipped cream, you can make these strawberry shortcakes up to 24 hours ahead of time and place them in the fridge to be served later. You can also make the biscuits recipe ahead of time and assemble them the next day so that the strawberries don't make them soggy.

Related Recipes

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
Bacon Cheddar Chive Biscuits
How To Make Buttermilk
Strawberry Cinnamon Rolls
Strawberry Cake With Strawberry Buttercream 

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5 from 5 votes

Easy Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry shortcake is the perfect individual-sized summer dessert with loads of fresh strawberries, homemade whipped cream and tender biscuits!

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time35 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer, Dessert, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Servings: 6 servings

Calories: 961kcal

Author: Liz Marek

Equipment

• Cheese grater
• Kitchen Scale
• pastry brush
• 4" Metal Circle Cutter

Ingredients

Sweet Buttermilk Biscuits

• 20 ounces all-purpose flour
• 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 ounces unsalted butter cold, grated or cut into small pieces
• 12 ounces milk cold (or buttermilk)
• 1 whole lemon zest
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 large egg for egg wash or you can use milk
• 2 ounces sanding sugar or crystal sugar for topping biscuits

Strawberry Filling

• 20 ounces fresh strawberries
• 3 ounces granulated sugar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice (from the lemon above)

Stabilized Whipped Cream

• 16 ounces heavy whipping cream
• 1 ounce powdered sugar or more if you like sweeter whipped cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ½ Tablespoons cold water
• 1 teaspoon powdered gelatin
• 1 teaspoon heavy cream

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Strawberry Filling

• Wash your strawberries and set aside 6 pretty ones for garnish. Cut the tops off. Slice the strawberries into 4-5 pieces depending on how big the strawberry is.
• Combine the chopped strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice and stir. Set aside while you make your biscuits.

Biscuits

• Preheat your oven to 425ºF (218ºC)
• Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt
• Combine your milk and lemon juice (or use buttermilk)
• Grate cold butter into the dry ingredients (using a scale makes this very easy)
• Toss the ingredients together to coat all the butter with the flour mixture
• Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and then add in the cold buttermilk and lemon zest. Pull the dry ingredients towards the center and then mix with your hands in the shape of a "claw" or fork until the dough forms a loose sticky ball. Do not over-mix.
• Flatten the dough roughly with your hands or rolling pin to about 2" in height. Fold in half. This will be messy! Flatten dough once again.
• Rotate your dough 45º and fold in half again. Repeat 5-7 times. If the dough becomes stretchy, place it in the fridge for 10 minutes to relax the gluten.
• Use a 4" round biscuit cutter make your biscuits. Press striaght down and lift straight up. Do not twist.
• Place the biscuits on a parchment lined sheet pan with about ¼" of space in between the biscuits and brush with milk or egg wash on top. Do not brush the sides. Sprinkle with sanding sugar for extra crunch and sweetness if desired.
• Bake biscuits for 25-30 minutes or until they are golden brown on top. I use a thermometer to check the internal temperature. Biscuits are done at 205ºF-215ºF. No one likes under-baked biscuits

Stabilized Whipped Cream

• Place the gelatin into the water and let it absorb while you start whipping the cream.
• Add your heavy whipping cream to the bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium until you start to see lines appear in the surface.
• Place the powdered sugar and vanilla into the whipped cream and mix on low until just combined.
• Melt your gelatin in the microwave in 5 second increments until it appears clear. Add 1 teaspoon of cold heavy cream to the melted gelatin.
• While mixing on low, pour in the gelatin mixture and mix until soft but firm peaks have developed. Do not over-mix or your whipped cream will look crumbly and broken.

Strawberry Shortcake Assembly

• Split your biscuits in half with a fork or knife and place the bottom onto a plate.
• Scoop a healthy portion of the strawberries onto the biscuit.
• Pipe the stabilized whipped cream onto the strawberries with a 1M piping tip and piping bag (or you can simply spoon it on top)
• Place the other half of the biscuit on top, top with whipped cream and a strawberry, and serve!

  So pretty!

Video

Notes

1. You can use milk or water in place of egg wash
2. Use a sharp metal cutter for the best layers. Press straight down and lift straight up.  Do not twist. 
3. Grating your COLD butter directly into the flour mixture saves time and prevents the butter from melting into the flour. 
4. Squish leftover dough together to make extra biscuits that look ugly but taste great!
5. Bake biscuits close together for maximum rise 
6. You can store pre-made biscuits in the fridge for up to 24 hours before serving. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 961kcal | Carbohydrates: 103g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 55g | Saturated Fat: 34g | Cholesterol: 203mg | Sodium: 1249mg | Potassium: 455mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 1971IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 227mg | Iron: 5mg

Tender, flaky biscuits loaded with bits of crispy bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, and fresh chives. It's a whole meal in a biscuit and is ready to eat in only 20 minutes. These biscuits are adapted from my master flaky biscuit recipe. 

What makes these biscuits so great!

Easy To Make - You only need one bowl and your hand for mixing! 

Fast - Minutes to assemble and only 20 minutes to bake!

Customizable - The flavor options are endless!

What ingredients do you need?

Buttermilk - Southern recipes often use buttermilk because of the addition of flavor and also it's tenderizing qualities. 

Cold Unsalted Butter - Cold butter is extremely important to this recipe. Cold butter holds its shape in the dough and creates those beautiful layers. We're using unsalted so we can control the salt level of our biscuits. 

Baking Powder - Gives our biscuits a fluffy and soft texture

Baking Soda - Reacts with the buttermilk to provide lift, color, and flavor

Shredded Cheddar - I like Colby jack cheese but you can use any hard cheese you prefer like pepper jack, white cheddar, or even parmesan. Stay away from soft cheeses. Shred your own since packaged cheese contains cornstarch which is drying. 

Chives - I love the garlicky flavor of chives but you can leave them out or switch them out for another herb like rosemary or thyme. 

Cooked Bacon - Bacon adds tons of flavor. Pre-cook your bacon before mixing into the dough to keep it crisp. Switch out the bacon for ham or prosciutto! 

Useful Tools & Equipment

Kitchen Scale - Makes measuring incredibly easy and fewer dishes to clean. This is my favorite kitchen scale. You can learn more about how to use a kitchen scale for baking here. 

Cheese Grater - I have tried many many different types of cheese graters but for whatever reason, I love this one the most. It makes huge chunky pieces of butter when I grate it cold and produces the best flaky biscuits. No cheese grater? Use a fork to "cut" the butter into your flour or use a pastry cutter. 

Metal Cutter - A sharp metal ring cutter is going to produce the flakiest and tallest biscuits. If you don't have a metal cutter you can use a drinking glass or even a soda can cut in half. 

Pastry Brush - A pastry brush is great for applying egg wash evenly for a beautiful golden brown biscuit. No Pastry brush? You can use a clean, unused paintbrush, paper towel, or even your fingers. 

Pro Tip -  Preheat your oven for at least 30 minutes. Perhaps the secret to the flakiest biscuits is using COLD butter and a HOT oven. A hot oven immediately causes butter to melt, water to evaporate lift those layers.  

I honestly love making fresh biscuits for breakfast. It feels like you get a lot of reward for very little effort involved. I have broken down my process of making tall flaky biscuits below so you can follow along.

I've also included tons of tips for getting biscuits with a perfectly browned top, how to easily measure butter and ideas for more mix-ins to customize your biscuits. 

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 - Prepare your mix-ins. I learned this trick for cooking bacon in pastry school. Arrange the bacon on a cooling rack (heat safe) and place that onto a sheet pan. Bake in a 400ºF oven for 15-20 minutes until it's nice and crispy. Let it cool and chop it up! 

The cooling rack drains the fat away from the bacon and everything cooks evenly. Super easy.  

Step 2 - While the bacon is cooking, chop your chives, and shred your cheese. How much you use is up to you. I just grabbed a handful of chives (about ¼ cup) and shredded about a cup of cheese. 

Step 3 - Once your bacon has cooled and has been chopped, you can start making your biscuits. Begin by placing the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into a large bowl. Whisk to distribute everything evenly.

Step 4 - Turn on your kitchen scale, place the bowl of ingredients on top. Press the zero or tare button to remove the weight of the bowl and ingredients. The display should say zero. 

Step 5 - Start grating your COLD butter directly into the bowl. So easy and such a time saver. No transferring butter from a separate bowl to the flour and getting soft. Halfway through I toss the butter and flour so I don't end up with a huge ball of butter. Then I continue grating until I have added the right amount. 

Step 6 - Toss the flour and butter together until all the butter is coated with flour. Do this quickly and lightly to avoid warming the butter up with your hands. You can also use a spoon if you have really hot hands. 

Step 7 - Add in your chopped bacon, chives, and cheddar cheese and toss to combine. 

Step 8 - Make a well in the center of your ingredients and add in the COLD buttermilk. Straight from the fridge if you can. Again, you can place the bowl of ingredients onto your scale, press the tare button to zero out the weight of the bowl, and add in the milk until you reach the correct amount. 

Step 9 - Make a "claw" with one hand and mix. The goal is to get rid of all the dry flour, not to make a smooth dough. The dough will look rough and should look rough. Ugly dough makes delicious biscuits. (I didn't have a photo of this so I used the photos from my master biscuits recipe or you can watch the video in the recipe card for a visual)

Step 10 - Once the dough looks like this, pour it onto a lightly floured surface

Step 11 - Press the dough into a rough circle shape. Don't worry if it's not sticking together. 

Step 12 - Now we will begin folding the dough over onto itself. It will be rough and messy at first. This fold is called a "turn". 

Step 13 - Now press the dough down until its about 2" tall. Then turn the dough 45º (so the top of the dough is rotated until it's facing your right hand) Now repeat the fold once again and press flat to 2" tall again. This is turn 2. 

Pro Tip - Folding butter into dough this way is also called lamination and is the process of creating layers of butter between layers of flour. This butter expands during baking and is what causes flaky layers of butter to form. 

Step 14 - Repeat this process 4-5 times to create layers. If the dough ever feels stiff or stretchy, put it in the fridge for 10 minutes to let the gluten relax and continue folding. After the last fold, roll your dough out with a lightly floured rolling in until your dough is about 1" tall. 

Pro Tip - Press straight down and pull straight for the best layers. Twisting will cause the dough to seal and stop your biscuits from rising.  

Step 15 - Cut out your biscuits using a sharp metal cutter. I can usually get about 12 biscuits at first. Cut as close together as you can.  Arrange them on a parchment covered sheet pan with about ¼" of space in between the biscuits which helps them rise evenly. 

Step 16 - Press the leftover dough together. It will look ugly, it's ok. Get as many biscuits as you can out of the leftover dough. These generally don't rise as much because the layers are now misaligned but they will still taste great. 

Step 17 - Brush the tops of your biscuits with egg wash. ONLY the tops. Any drips down the sides will seal your layers together and prevent them from rising. 

Step 18 - Preheat your oven to 375ºF. Bake the biscuits for 20-25 minutes. I rotate mine halfway through to promote even browning. 

Step 19 - When your biscuits are done, take a moment to appreciate those gorgeous layers!! so pretty! Then immediately brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle on some flaky salt (optional).  

FAQ

Related Recipes

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
How To Make Buttermilk
How To Use A Kitchen Scale For Baking
Fast Bread Recipe

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4.50 from 2 votes

Easy Bacon Cheddar Chive Biscuits

Fluffy bacon cheddar chive biscuits come together in one bowl and only take 20 minutes to bake. The perfect easy breakfast.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer, Dessert, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Servings: 15 biscuits

Calories: 316kcal

Author: Liz Marek

Equipment

• Kitchen Scale
• Cheese grater
• pastry brush
• Metal cutter

Ingredients

Bacon Cheddar Chive Biscuits

• 20 ounces all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 ounces unsalted butter cold, grated or cut into small pieces
• 12 ounces buttermilk cold
• 8 pieces bacon about ¼ cup baked and chopped
• 6 Tablespoons fresh chives about ¼ cup finely chopped
• 2 ounces melted butter for the tops of the biscuits
• 1 Tablespoon flaky salt for topping (optional)
• 4 ounces cheese shredded

Egg Wash

• 1 whole egg
• 1 Tablespoon water

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 375ºF. Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Butter and buttermilk should be very cold, straight out of the fridge. Pre-measure the rest of your ingredients so mixing goes as quickly as possible.

For The Egg Wash

• Whisk the egg and water together until no egg white remains

For The Biscuits

• Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
• Grate the cold butter into the dry ingredients (using a scale makes this very easy) Halfway through, toss the butter into the flour and then continue until you've grated the total amount of butter into the flour mixture.
• Toss the ingredients together to coat all the butter with the flour mixture. Work quickly so you don't melt the butter with the heat of your hands.
• Add in the chopped bacon and chives and toss to combine
• Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and then add in the cold buttermilk. Pull the dry ingredients towards the center. Make "claw" with your hand or use a fork and mix the dough with the intention of getting rid of all the dry flour. The dough will look rough and shaggy. Don't over-mix it or try to make it smooth.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop
• Flatten the dough roughly with your hands or rolling pin to about 2" in height. Do your best to lift half the dough and fold it in half. This will be messy! Flatten dough down to 2" again.
• Rotate your dough 45º and fold in half again. Repeat 4-5 times. If the dough becomes stretchy or tough, place it in the fridge for 10 minutes to relax the gluten. Then continue folding.
• Roll the dough out to 1" thick with a rolling pin dusted with flour.
• Use a 3" round biscuit cutter or sharp knife to make your biscuits. Press straight down and lift straight up. Do not twist.
• Place the biscuits on a parchment-lined sheet pan with about ¼" of space in between the biscuits. Brush the biscuits egg wash *see note. Do not brush the sides.
• Bake the biscuits at 375° F for 15-20 minutes or until they are golden brown. Rotate the pan halfway through baking for even browning.
• Immediately brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter and sprinkle on flaky salt. Serve warm. Store leftover biscuits in an airtight container in the fridge. Re-heat to refresh them before serving.

Video

Notes

1. Use COLD butter and buttermilk straight from the fridge for the best results. No buttermilk? Make your own homemade buttermilk
2. Use a cheese grater to measure out your cold butter directly into the dry ingredients
3. Preheat your oven 30 minutes ahead of time to give the biscuits the best lift
4. Use a scale to easily measure all your ingredients into the same bowl. Learn more about how to use a kitchen scale for the best results in baking. 
5. You can use milk instead of egg for the wash
6. Use a sharp metal cutter and press straight down into your biscuit dough and lift straight up for the tallest, flakiest biscuit layers. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1biscuit | Calories: 316kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 43mg | Sodium: 587mg | Potassium: 181mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 472IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 71mg | Iron: 2mg

Making flaky buttermilk biscuits from scratch is so much easier than you think and uses only a few simple ingredients! The secret is in how you add the butter! Read on to learn how I make perfect flaky buttermilk biscuits from scratch. 

I have loved flaky buttermilk biscuits all my life. Growing up, we always made them from the can (that blue one that pops when you open it). I used to peel each layer one by one and eat it to make them last longer. I had no idea that you could make them so easily from scratch and they taste 1000 times better!

Customize this recipe with your favorite additions like bacon, cheese, rosemary or blueberries and make biscuits your whole family will love! These biscuits are also perfect for strawberry shortcake!

What ingredients do you need for buttermilk biscuits?

Buttermilk - The magic ingredient. It brings a nice tang to your biscuits while adding very little fat. It also reacts with the baking soda and helps the biscuits rise better. Don't have buttermilk? Make your own!

Baking Powder and Baking Soda - For that ultimate rise, fluffy texture and flavor.

Salt - I like to use pink Himalayan sea salt for a little extra fun flavor, but table salt is fine too! 

Sugar - Sugar not only adds a little sweetness to the biscuits but it also makes them more tender and lends to that crispy top layer. 

Cold Unsalted Butter - Arguably the most important ingredient because of how you use it. If your butter is too warm, you won't get any layers. The bigger the pieces of butter, the more visible the layers. Smaller pieces result in a finer and more tender crumb in your biscuit. I find grating cold butter to be the best of both worlds.

Shortening or Lard - Just a little bit to coat the flour mixture reduces gluten development and helps those biscuits reach maximum fluffiness!

All-Purpose Flour - Just enough protein for good gluten development but not so much that you end up with hard lumps for biscuits. Also called plain flour (not self-rising). 

How To Make Perfect Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

I'm using a kitchen scale to weigh everything. It makes this recipe super simple and you only need one bowl (yay less dishes!)

Place your empty bowl onto the kitchen scale and press the tare (or zero) button to remove the weight of the bowl. Add your flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, and salt and lightly mix with a spoon to make sure all the ingredients are distributed evenly throughout the flour. 

Add in your shortening or lard and work it into the dough with your fingers until it resembles a sand texture.

Press the tare button again to bring everything back to zero. Then grate the cold butter directly into the flour until your scale says you have added the right amount of butter. This is much easier than measuring the butter out and trying to grate out the perfect amount before the butter melts in your hand or you grate your fingertips!

Also, grating directly into the flour means you don't have to touch the butter so less chance of it melting from the heat of your hands. 

Cold butter is the most important part of this recipe! So starting with one big block of cold butter and only grating what you need makes this step super easy. 

Lightly toss together the mixture to coat the butter in the flour. There shouldn't be any pieces of butter stuck together, everything should be coated in flour. Try to do this quickly so that you don't transfer the heat of your hands to the butter and melt it. 

Then make a well in the center of the mix. 

Pour COLD buttermilk into the center well and push the flour on the outside towards the center.

If you want to add in any mix-ins like chopped chives, rosemary, bacon, ham, blueberries, nuts, raisins, now is the time. Or you can leave them plain and they'll be delicious!

Make a claw with your hand (or use a fork) and lightly mix until you have a rough looking sticky ball. DO NOT OVER-MIX! Sorry to go all-caps on you but this is a mistake many people make. Ugly biscuit dough is delicious biscuit dough.

Lightly flour your surface and gently press your mixture together on the counter until it roughly flat. 

Take your shaggy, rough dough and fold it over onto itself. Then gently press down on top to make it flat again and about as thick as it started. It will be very messy and that is normal. Just go with it. That is one fold.

Now turn your dough 45º and repeat the same process of folding and flattening. 

Fold it 4-5 times, rotating after each turn. This is going to make those beautiful fluffy layers of buttery biscuit. You don't want to go any more than 5, though, or it could get really tough. And we're going for fluffy. 

If at any time your dough feels very stretchy and won't fold, place the whole thing in the fridge on a plate or sheet pan and let it relax for 10 minutes. Gluten gets stretchy when you handle it but will relax if you leave it alone. 

After you're done folding, go ahead and press the dough down with lightly floured rolling pin and roll it out to be about 1 inch thick. Time to cut our biscuits!

You can use a round biscuit cutter or you can just cut your dough into squares using a sharp knife.

When you're cutting your biscuits, it's really important to press straight down and lift straight up when cutting. If you twist at all, it will seal off those layers of butter and your biscuits won't rise evenly.

You might not think 1" is thick enough but look at all those layers! They are going to get TALL when we bake them. 

Try your best to have as little waste as possible, I'm using a 3" wide cutter and got about 12 nice biscuits out of one batch. You can squish together the leftover dough to make the last few biscuits, but don't completely re-knead it, or it'll be super tough.

These biscuits look a little ugly but still taste good!

Line 2 baking sheet pans with parchment paper and then arrange about 8 biscuits on each pan. You want your biscuits to be fairly close together,  just so they're about touching each other. This will help them rise up evenly and straight up.

Brush the tops of your buttermilk biscuits with an egg wash (1 egg + 1 tablespoon water whisked together.) DO NOT brush the sides, or it will seal those beautiful layers. If you don't add egg wash, you won't get that nice brown on top, so don't skip this step. You can also use milk if you don't want to use an egg wash.

If you want to make these ahead of time, you can freeze them before egg washing. Then you don't even have to defrost them, just take them out, egg wash and bake them up! 

I couldn't resist taking a photo of these baking in the oven! Look how tall they are after only 10 minutes! Each one of those buttery layers is letting off a ton of steam which makes the biscuits rise as they bake.

Bake in the center rack for 10 minutes, then rotate and bake for another 5 minutes or until the tops of your biscuits are nice and golden brown!

When the biscuits come out of the oven I like to brush them with MORE melted butter! So good!

Obviously, buttermilk biscuits are best enjoyed the day they are made but you can put them into a ziplock bag at room temperature and store leftovers. Refresh them for a few minutes in the oven at 350º. I love using leftover biscuits to make egg and cheese sandwiches! 

Related Recipes

Cheddar Bacon Chive Biscuits 
How To Make Buttermilk 
Keto Biscuits

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4.84 from 6 votes

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

Flaky, buttery, tender buttermilk biscuits taste the best when they are homemade! No fancy ingredients, just a few simple techniques and tips will make these the best buttermilk biscuits you've ever had!

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer, Dessert, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Servings: 15 biscuits

Calories: 240kcal

Author: Liz Marek

Ingredients

• 20 ounces all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 ounces shortening or lard
• 12 ounces buttermilk cold
• 6 ounces unsalted butter cold, grated or cut into small pieces

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 400ºF
• Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt
• Work the shortening in to the flour mixture with your fingers until it resembles a sandy texture.
• Grate cold butter into the dry ingredients (using a scale makes this very easy)
• Toss the ingredients together to coat all the butter with the flour mixture
• Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and then add in the cold buttermilk. Pull the dry ingredients towards the center and then mix with your hands in the shape of a "claw" or fork until the dough forms a loose sticky ball. Do not over-mix.
• Flatten the dough roughly with your hands or rolling pin to about 2" in height. Fold in half. This will be messy! Flatten dough once again.
• Rotate your dough 45º and fold in half again. Repeat 5-7 times. If the dough becomes stretchy, place it in the fridge for 10 minutes to relax the gluten.
• Use a 3" round biscuit cutter or sharp knife to make your biscuits. Press striaght down and lift straight up. Do not twist.
• Place the biscuits on a parchment lined sheet pan with about ¼" of space in between the biscuits and brush with milk or egg wash on top. Do not brush the sides. Sprinkle with sanding sugar for extra crunch and sweetness if desired.
• Bake at 400ºF for 5 minutes to set the tops and get a good rise then reduce the temp to 350° F and bake for 15 minutes or until they are golden brown. Rotate half way through baking for even browning.

Video

Notes

Use COLD butter and buttermilk straight from the fridge for best results. No buttermilk? Make your own homemade buttermilk

Use a cheese grater to measure out your cold butter directly into the dry ingredients

Preheat your oven 30 minutes ahead of time to give the biscuits the best lift

Use a scale to easily measure all your ingredients into the same bowl

 

Nutrition

Serving: 1biscuit | Calories: 240kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 27mg | Sodium: 483mg | Potassium: 155mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 321IU | Calcium: 69mg | Iron: 2mg