Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe

This fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe is one of my favorite biscuit recipes. Such a simple make and it produces perfect, light and flaky biscuits each and every time.
Its a recipe I have had saved in my Big Blue Binder for many, many years now, and is considered to be one of my most reliable biscuit recipes!
Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe

It dates back to the late 1970's when I was living in Calgary. I got the recipe from a friend's mother. She was a Latter Day Saint, and you can just bet that these were excellent biscuits from the get-go!
Latter Day Saints be good cookers!
I went through a period of time where I was collecting recipes which used buttermilk. I have always hated waste and wanted to be able to use up every scrap of buttermilk from the containers I bought. This delicious recipe was a part of that collection!
Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe

The term Biscuit here is not to be confused with British biscuits. In the UK the word "biscuit" is used in the place of the word "cookies."
These are also not Scones. Scones and biscuits are two completely different things and used for two completely different purposes for the most part, but I won't get into that today.
Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe

You can call them whatever you like, but one thing is for sure and will never change and that is that these biscuits are flipping delicious!
Short and flaky, buttery, rich, and incredibly tasty, with a slight tang from the use of both sour cream and buttermilk.
Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe

A quantity of frozen butter is grated into them. This serves a dual purpose. One to give them a rich buttery flavor.
Two to create little pockets in the dough and give them even more lift, making them incredibly light and flaky, with a beautiful buttery crust.

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE THIS FLUFFY BUTTERMILK BISCUITS RECIPE
Simple baking store cupboard ingredients, combined with fresh dairy ingredients.

2 cups (280g) plain all purpose flour, sifted (if using cup measures, sift before measuring)
1 tsp salt
1 TBS baking powder
1/4 cup (30g) dairy sour cream
1/2 cup (120g) butter, frozen
3/4 cup (180ml) buttermilk (may need more)
1 TBS butter, melted

Buttermilk is a fermented milk product these days, created by adding a culture to regular milk. Traditionally however, it was the thin not-fat liquid which was leftover after churning butter.
Although it looks and tastes rich and creamy, traditional churned buttermilk was always nonfat because all the fat wound up in the homemade butter.
These days, cultured buttermilk can range from skim to full-fat with corresponding calorie count, just like yogurt and sour cream, although most of what we buy in stores is low-fat.
Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe

If you run out of buttermilk, there are several great substitutes for it. First, you can add some lemon juice or white vinegar (1 - 2 TBS) to a glass measuring jug and add whole milk to the amount you require. Leave for 5 to 10 minutes to clabber.
My favorite method is to combine equal parts of rich full fat plain yogurt with full fat milk. This is rich and creamy. It used to frustrate me that in the UK for the most part you could only get buttermilk in small one cup pots.
It came in very handy knowing how to make my own.

HOW TO MAKE THIS FLUFFY BUTTERMILK BISCUITS RECIPE
These are a lot easier to make than one would suppose so long as you follow my instructions exactly and work quickly.

Preheat the oven to 450*F/230*C/ gas mark 7. Have a baking tray ready that you have lined with baking paper.Sift the flour into a bowl. Stir in the salt and baking powder.Add the sour cream and stir with a fork to mix it into the flour mixture.

Grate in the frozen butter, mixing it in quickly with a fork or pastry blender as you go.Stir in the buttermilk, a little bit at a time, until the dough clumps together. It will be a slightly nobbly dough, don't overwork it.Pat out on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle which is 1 inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut into 12 squares. Carefully transfer to the baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 14 minutes. Brush with the melted butter and then bake for a further 1 to 2 minutes until golden brown top and bottom.Serve warm. I love these with cold butter and preserves, but they really go with just about anything!

You can split and fill them with many things, sausage, bacon, cheese and something which those of us who celebrate Easter will be enjoying a lot of this weekend, ham! They also go very well with fried chicken.
Great for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

I have lots of delicious biscuit recipes here in The English Kitchen. Some others you might enjoy are as follows:
MILE HIGH GREEK YOGURT BISCUITS - Just as described. These are a real favorite with a beautiful crumb and texture.
QUICK AND EASY BUTTERMILK BISCUITS FOR TWO - The perfect biscuit, the perfectly sized for the smaller family.
CHEDDAR BACON AND CHIVE BISCUITS - Perfect with a soup or a salad or even just on their own. These are fabulously tasty and make a great dinner or breakfast biscuit!