Growing up in East Tennessee I learned from some pretty great southern women the tricks to making fluffy flaky biscuits from scratch. I made up a batch last night and thought I would share my secrets with my readers 🙂
Ingredients:
2 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
6 Tablespoons (very cold) butter
1 cup buttermilk
Now I usually double this because it only makes 7-8 big biscuits and with a family of 5 someone is upset without that second biscuit! Preheat your oven to about 400 degrees. First stir your dry ingredients together and then place the butter on top in small pieces.
Next cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it looks like course meal.
Pour in your buttermilk and stir until just combined. DO NOT over stir this! Over handling of the dough is one of the main reasons biscuits become hard and chewy instead of fluffy and flaky.
Cover your countertop with flour and gently place the dough on it. Using lots of flour gently press the dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness. DO NOT use a rolling pin, again that will over work the dough and reduce the fluffiness and flakiness. Fold the dough 4-5 times (I try to do 5 for extra flakiness) while gently pressing it out. When you are done it should be pressed out to about 1 inch thickness. I always use an old can to cut out the biscuits. Just something I learned growing up 🙂 you could use a round cutter (I guess…).
Then place on the baking sheet pretty close together. The closer together the higher they rise. Bake for 12-15 minutes until browned. Here is a picture of some ready to go into the oven and some just out of the oven so you can see the comparison.
These are seriously amazing biscuits and we top them with gravy, butter them, put fresh apple butter on them, jelly them, and put our favorite meats on them like bacon, eggs or ham. Such a good comfort food friends!
Thanks for stopping by!
Johanna
My Crazy Blessed Life! 
Looks yummy!
Posted by trialsinfood | October 18, 2014, 11:33 amI love how you explain your recipes with all the steps and wonderful pictures! The visuals are good for comparisons. Great work and will look forward to more of your recipes. I have saved quite a few. I just love biscuits!! Thanks Johanna!
Posted by Gail | October 19, 2014, 12:09 ambeing a computer ejiit, not sure my comment went thru…love to make cat head biscuits and top with warmed molasses. once ‘lasses are warmed, throw a pinch of baking soda into pot and it foams nicely. spread over warm biscuits is a taste of my youth. also like to cover biscuits with honey from Daddy or Steve’s (bro) hives.
Posted by thistlecovefarm | October 30, 2014, 4:49 pmLove that cooling rack..source? I like that air is allowed to flow underneath the hot foods and helps them to cool off quicker. Have to look for one of those..are those legs on your cooling rack able to fold down for easy storage? Buttermilk is the secret ingredient in your recipe. When I was growing up, one of our neighbors made the best biscuits I’ve ever eaten and she used buttermilk in hers too. She used to say that you had to have a light touch when you were rolling the dough in your hands too. I watched her many times but I never tried to make from scratch. She did it every day of her married life I bet. She didn’t let them brown a lot and they always touched when she laid them on her baking sheet. “They were so light, they would melt in your mouth.”
Posted by Betty819 | January 18, 2015, 8:36 pmWhere are you from in East Tennessee? This recipe looks very familiar, we just used shortening instead of butter!
Posted by Donna | August 28, 2018, 9:25 amJohnson City area!
Posted by crazyblessedlife | August 28, 2018, 2:12 pm